the water. Tom saves Cory, but can do nothing for Dr. Lezander. Cory returns to Zephyr many years later with his own family. The town was abandoned after the paper mill closed down in the 1970s. Cory drives to all his familiar haunts, finally stopping at his family's home. Before leaving, Cory decides to drive to the Thaxter mansion. There, Cory discovers that the mansion was given to an orphanage for boys and several people he knew in childhood still live there, working with the little boys. Setting The novel is set in Zephyr, Alabama, a fictional town near the Tecumseh River. The book is set in the 1960s. Zephyr is a small town that is populated with people who work both at the paper mill up river and for the local dairy. The people all know one another and often are friendly with one another, sharing holidays and birthdays together as well as tragedies. Down river is Bruton, a small town that is populated by many of the black people who work in Zephyr as domestic and blue collar workers. Through the course of the novel, the main character befriends many of the residents of Bruton, overshadowing the border between the two towns that often separates his neighbours from the Bruton residents. Characters Cory Mackenson Cory Mackenson is an eleven-year-old boy in 1964. This novel follows Cory's adventures that year, including his attempts to solve a murder, which his father has been haunted by since inadvertently witnessing the disposal of the body. Cory is precocious, a young man who wants to be a writer, so he spends a great deal of his time investigating the people and events taking place in the little town where he lives. Cory fights off Old Moses, a large aquatic creature that swims into a house in Bruton during the flood. Cory later goes camping alone with a group of friends and overhears a bomb transaction that allows him later to save the people of Bruton from a hate crime. Cory loses a good friend that year and gains another. It's an amazing summer that will remain with Cory the rest of his life, bringing him back to Zephyr twenty years later with his family, only to find several friends still living there. Tom Mackenson Tom Mackenson is Cory's father, employed as a milkman. While delivering milk early one morning, he and son Cory