Winslow’s debut novel, In West Mills, garnered immediate attention, winning the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize in 2019 and the American Book Award in 2020. In 2023, he brought readers back to the fictional North Carolina town of West Mills with the murder mystery Decent People. Now, three years later, he’s spinning a bit further away from his southern roots with a suspenseful new tale set in upstate New York.

The Fervent Whites capitalizes on a popular trope in the subgenre of domestic thrillers—you never really know what your neighbors might be hiding. It’s June 1982 when James and Ella White are freed from a wrongful murder conviction. After a long year and a half spent locked up, they return to their home in Fervent—a seemingly peaceful Hudson Valley hamlet comprised of just a dozen homes—but nothing can ever be quite the same.

Sylvia “Syl” Upshaw and her best friend Lafayette “Fate” Jolly cared for the Whites’ adopted son, Morgan, in their absence. Syl adored Morgan from the moment she met him, so it was only natural that she stepped in to provide for him as if he were one of her own children. Fate did so in kind, despite his rocky history with the Whites. Perhaps they cared too much, though. Thinking the Whites were destined to spend the rest of their lives in prison, Syl and Fate decided to share a family secret with Morgan—a secret that would change the course of all their lives.

As the Whites settle back into the neighborhood, they express gratitude to Syl, genuinely thankful she cared for their son when they couldn’t. Syl, however, can’t shake the deep guilt she feels for revealing their secret to Morgan. As the days pass, the Whites grow colder toward Syl and Fate, flaming Syl’s fear that her own secretive actions have been discovered.

Then, the community is rocked by another life-altering event: a resident of Fervent turns up dead, murdered, sending the tight-knit community into a tailspin.

Winslow knows exactly what he is doing here and he executes it sharply in just 200 pages. Each chapter is taut and suspenseful. The big secret that Syl told Morgan is revealed fairly early in the book, but this doesn’t take away from the story—it drives the plot forward, leaving the reader questioning what is really happening. Is Syl’s guilt overtaking her and making her paranoid or are the Whites really onto her? Is she reading too much into the comments they make or do they know that she shared their secret with Morgan? Part of what makes this work is the way Winslow allows the narrative to drift back in time, showing the reader key moments in the characters’ pasts, then piecing together how these moments gave the way to the present.

The Fervent Whites isn’t just a thriller, though. While keeping readers on the edge of their seat, Winslow also digs into deeper themes of racism and homophobia within the Fervent community. He deftly explores the tension between the Whites—one of two white families living in a predominantly Black community, while also raising a young Black man—and Syl’s concerns for how they’ve gone about taking on this role. He also casts Fate as Syl’s lovable best friend, who has endured horrific treatment from his neighbors simply for loving who he wants to love.

Even the play on the novel’s title is smart. It’s more than just a nod to the hamlet of Fervent and the White family who live there. As defined by Merriam-Webster, the adjective fervent means “exhibiting or marked by great intensity or feeling.” The Whites as characters certainly display this in a number of ways throughout the novel, but the title implies even more than that. The connection to not just their surname, but also race, cannot go unnoticed the deeper one gets into the story.

Like winding the crank on a jack-in-the-box, the tension in this novel builds and builds, page by page, until the reader is fully enveloped.  This slow, steady build ends in an explosive climax that will leave readers gasping aloud. If you are looking for a novel that takes neighborhood drama to the next level, an entertaining summer read with true depth, you definitely won’t want to miss out on The Fervent Whites.

The Fervent Whites is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of June 9th 2026.

Will you be picking up The Fervent Whites? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis

“The truth is closer than you think—just beyond the fence.

The year is 1982, and the people of the Hudson Valley community of Fervent have begun to move on from a homicide that upended the once quiet town. When the former neighbors who were convicted of the crime, James and Ella White, are proven innocent, released from prison, and return to Fervent, some people have cause for concern.

Sylvia Upshaw and her best friend, Lafayette “Fate” Jolly, are uneasy about the Whites’ return. While the Whites were incarcerated, Sylvia revealed an explosive secret to their adopted son, Morgan, with devastating consequences. During the murder trial, Fate’s testimony helped seal their fate. James and Ella won’t let the betrayals go unpunished. Sylvia and Fate quickly become victims of harassment from the Whites, and when another murder is committed in Fervent, the town is left to fend for itself.

Intimate and chilling, The Fervent Whites examines how small communities with long-simmering tensions behave when pushed to the limits of civility.”

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Hi, De’Shawn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hey! I was born and raised in Elizabeth City, NC, and at the age of 23, I moved to New York City to find myself. New York is where I did most of my real growing up. I didn’t finish my bachelors degree until I was 32, and things just got better from there.

When did you first discover your love for writing?

In November of 2008, my father passed away and I started trying to write about him in the form of nonfiction. Once my grieving had subsided, I lost interest in that particular project, but was very much still writing about where I was from and the types of people I grew up watching and learning from. Even after getting a B.A. in creative writing, I put writing aside for a while, but it wasn’t done with me. In 2014 I decided to apply to MFA programs, and I’ve been in love with writing fiction ever since––even when it doesn’t always feel fun.

Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!

I think the first book that made me want to try writing was Morrison’s Sula. And I think that was because I knew so many people like Sula and Eva Peace. Sula is a novel I find myself thinking about a whole lot.

Your latest novel, Decent People, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Everyone’s a victim of patriarchy.

What can readers expect?

The novel is full of people trying to keep secrets from others. And these attempts at keeping these secrets lead to a lot of bad behaviour. There’s racism, homophobia, classism, and some forgiveness.

Where did the inspiration for Decent People come from?

In the real town of South Mills, NC, there was an accidental drowning of three elderly people in the mid 70’s. Originally, I was going to write a fictionalized story about those victims and make up some ways in which people in the town were affected by their deaths. But that plan wasn’t working out for me, so I decided to change the three drowning victims from white to Black, from friends to siblings, and their deaths from accidental to murder. Originally, I hadn’t planned for the novel to be so much about racism, because most of the characters were going to be Black. But I was writing in 2020 and 2021, and with all that was going on in the country (especially the murders of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor), there was no way I could write a novel and not make racism a large part of it.

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed exploring?

Eunice’s parts are particularly interesting to me because I always wonder what parents really feel about their children being queer.

Do you have any advice for those who may have set some writing resolutions for the new year?

I recommend writers to pursue the practice in a way that work for their individual lifestyle, schedule, attention span, etc. You don’t have to write thousands of words per day to be a writer. You don’t even have to write every single day. Find your own groove, but do write!

What’s next for you?

I’m going to start writing a third book. It will not be a murder mystery, but there will be death, joy, love and hope. And it’ll be set in a real North Carolina city.

Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?

So far, I’ve read and loved What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro, When Trying to Return Home by Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Black Candle Women by Diane Marie Brown, The House Is On Fire by Rachel Bean, and The Human Origins of Beatrice Porter and Other Essential Ghosts by Soraya Palmer.

Will you be picking up Decent People? Tell us in the comments below!

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In West Mills spans the decades from 1941 to 1987, telling the story of Knot along with that of her greater community during this time. Nicknamed by her father due to her strong-willed nature, Knot bends for no one. She knows herself well, trusts this even when others question her judgement, and lives life on her own terms. Knot drinks when she wants to drink. Dates who she wants to date. (Then asks them to leave when she no longer has the tolerance for their interference in her life.) She reads what she wants to read (a lot of Charles Dickens). And she lives her life day to day, minute to minute, with little care for what others may think about her. However, Knot is forced to consider the repercussions of her choices when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant.

Winslow has perfectly built a cast of characters to take watch and support, challenge and uplift, Knot. Essentially disowned by her parents and without any other local family to guide her, Knot’s neighbour Otis Lee takes on this role. He also attempts to nudge Knot in the right direction, often to her dismay; however, he quickly learns you cannot make someone else change no matter how hard you may try. Otis Lee nonetheless remains Knot’s best friend through the years, reserving his judgement without fail and continuously extending a helping hand.

As the storyline jumps forward from the 1940s to the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the reader is carried along on Knot’s ups and downs. Winslow has a masterful way of making these characters come alive with his words. The complex emotions of Knot in particular are delicately, but convincingly, portrayed. The reader’s heart is forced open, unfolding more and more to let in this unusual protagonist as they read. In fact, Knot is so likeable because, not in spite of, her very real flaws. In many ways a traditional story of how children and adults alike are raised by a village, Knot stands at the center of it all, the unlikely anchor connecting everyone together.

De’Shawn Charles Winslow brings the intimacy and warmth of an African American community in small-town North Carolina to life in his debut novel In West Mills. A generational tale of the bonds of friends and family, this book captures the essence of life in eastern North Carolina throughout the twentieth century. Although West Mills is a fictional community modelled after the rural area near the author’s own hometown, both the setting and the tone of the novel are authentic. With simple, crisp language, Winslow wholly captures the bittersweet nostalgia of looking back on fond memories, seeing the lessons that others warned were coming, and perhaps even simultaneously realising but accepting your own decisions. He explores the delicate nature of keeping secrets and the pain that all too often accompanies setting them free. And he further embraces the surprise that life inevitably presents, both the good and the bad.

I highly recommend In West Mills for readers who enjoy literary fiction with fierce female characters and a rich, regional, community-oriented feel.

De’Shawn Charles Winslow is a North Carolina native, hailing from Elizabeth City. He graduated from the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 2017 and also holds a BFA in creative writing as well as an MA in English literature from Brooklyn College. Winlow has been the recipient of scholarships from both the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. In West Mills is his first novel.

In West Mills is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers. Many thanks to the author for the gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.

Will you be picking up In West Mills? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

For readers of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie and The Turner House, an intimately told story about a woman living by her own rules and the rural community that struggles to understand her.

Azalea “Knot” Centre is determined to live life as she pleases. Let the people of West Mills say what they will; the neighbors’ gossip won’t keep Knot from what she loves best: cheap moonshine, nineteenth-century literature, and the company of men. And yet, Knot is starting to learn that her freedom comes at a high price. Alone in her one-room shack, ostracized from her relatives and cut off from her hometown, Knot turns to her neighbor, Otis Lee Loving, in search of some semblance of family and home.

Otis Lee is eager to help. A lifelong fixer, Otis Lee is determined to steer his friends and family away from decisions that will cause them heartache and ridicule. After his failed attempt as a teenager to help his older sister, Otis Lee discovers a possible path to redemption in the chaos Knot brings to his doorstep. But while he’s busy trying to fix Knot’s life, Otis Lee finds himself powerless to repair the many troubles within his own family, as the long-buried secrets of his troubled past begin to come to light.

Set in an African American community in rural North Carolina from 1941 to 1987, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.

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We can’t believe we’re almost halfway through 2019 already! This month we are treated with a lot of summer reads new releases, so we will be sharing this month’s debut releases that you need to check out immediately!

I Wanna Be Where You Are by Kristina Forest
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A dazzling debut from Kristina Forest about a ballerina’s dream, roadside hijinks, heart-stirring romance, and a few broken rules.

Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune by Roselle Lim
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set in the vibrant neighborhood of San Francisco’s Chinatown, the story follows Natalie Tan and her journey when she finally returns home after her mother’s death and a surprising inherited restaurant from her grandmother. A story about family grief, community’s power and a side of romance.

Technically, You Started It by Lana Wood Johnson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

When there are two guys named Martin, and one of them texted Haley, she thinks she’s talking to the one she doesn’t hate. The chemistry quickly sparks over the text messages, but here’s the problem… Haley doesn’t know who Martin is. And Martin doesn’t know that Haley doesn’t know.

The Paper & Hearts Society by Lucy Powrie
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A brand new series from Booktuber Lucy Powrie – about what happens when you give up on trying to fit in and let your weird out! It’s time to join The Paper & Hearts Society…

Rules We’re Meant to Break by Natalie Williamson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Honest and full of heart, this clever contemporary romance debut deftly combines utterly relatable family drama with all the sweetness and uncertainty that comes with falling in love.

The Art of Breaking Things by Laura Sibson
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

In this contemporary debut by Laura Sibson, one girl embraces the power of her voice: rules are meant to be broken and she won’t stay silent.

The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Grief Keeper is a tender tale that explores the heartbreak and consequences of when both love and human beings are branded illegal.

The Virtue of Sin by Shannon Schuren
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

The Virtue of Sin is a compelling debut novel by Shannon Schuren about speaking out, standing up, and breaking free.

All of Us with Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Michelle Ruiz Keil’s YA fantasy debut about love, found family, and healing is an ode to post-punk San Francisco through the eyes of a Mexican-American girl.

In West Mills by De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Set in an African American community in rural North Carolina from 1941 to 1987, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.

The Beholder by Anna Bright
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A story following Selah, the only daughter of the leader of Potomac, and her journey to find the perfect partner that will help secure the future of her people, but the stakes of her voyage may be higher than any happy ending.

Wicked Fox by Kat Cho
Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

A debut YA contemporary fantasy from Kat Cho set in modern-day Seoul, following eighteen-year-old Miyoung, a nine-tailed fox, commonly known as a gumiho, who must devour the energy of men in order to survive.

Are there any other debut novels you’re looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

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