Ruby Spencer has two missions: She works to free men who are wrongfully incarcerated and facing the death penalty, and she searches for missing women. Mitchell Brown is the latest in a long line of death row clients, some of whom she has saved, many of whom she has not. In the small town of Pickleweed, Georgia, Mitchell’s story is not surprising: A Black man accused of murdering a white woman, even though her body was never found, he was arrested, detained, and beaten until he gave up a confession. Now he’s been sitting on death row for 10 years, waiting for the inevitable end. His attorney brings Ruby onto the case with only two weeks to go until the execution date, hoping her reputation as “the exonerator” will be proven true. Ruby relentlessly goes back through the crime, the investigation, Mitchell’s history—and discovers that he grew up in the same small Oregon town as her mother. His grandfather still lives there, and when Ruby visits him, he introduces her to a talisman, the talking bone, that seems to serve as a bridge between the spirit world and the world of the living. The bone represents the disappeared, voiceless women Ruby is also called upon to seek, including Mitchell’s mother and her own. It plays a major role in the denouement of the story, adding a distinct flavor of the supernatural to what is otherwise a novel very much rooted in the grim realities of racism, poverty, and abuse. Denfeld skillfully navigates the tonal tension, and despite the convenience of the final reveal, the overlap between past and present voices is both poignant and satisfying. By giving the dead this power not only to speak, but to influence outcomes, Denfeld reclaims the lost and forgotten.