When Brad Pope returns to his boyhood hometown to settle a debt with his long-lost father, the 35-year-old psychologist becomes a prime murder suspect in the death of football legend turned cave diver, Big Jake Nunn. While proving his innocence, the psychologist is forced to examine and overcome his own psychological traumas as well as to uncover the truth about what happened to his father, mother, and baby sister Lydia.

Perched high on the east bank of the Suwannee River, the sleepy town of Whitecross, Florida is known for its natural crystal-clear springs and underwater caverns. Southern charm and religious values are practically currency, and townsfolk die of natural causes, not murder.

Until now.

The psychologist’s hopes of proving his innocence and reconnecting with his cantankerous Grandma Gigi are hindered by the surprised horror surrounding his father’s whereabouts and sinister secrets of the Women’s Preservation Club (WPC)—charged with preserving Whitecross’s simple way of life and its natural beauty no matter what it takes. The six quirky “sisterfriends” in the club founded by Grandma Gigi—whom Brad expects to jabber about preparing Sunday’s church bulletin or the next bake sale—start to look more like cold-blooded killers than church ladies. After Big Jake is found dead in the caverns at Suwannee Springs, more suspicion begins to reign down on the club as more allegations of their wrongdoings fill the ears of townsfolk, courtesy of gossipmonger Myrtle Badger.

As Pope learns of more dead bodies, his suspicions sour into the clabbered taste of fear. What had the WPC planted in their welcome garden on the outskirts of Whitecross—camellias or corpses? And what about Pope’s nemesis, Voodoo Sally, an old black woman living in a dilapidated shack on the banks of the Suwannee River? She doles out her version of wisdom, “limestone gumption” to the denizens of Whitecross, causing the suspicious ones, the ignorant ones—even the educated ones, including Pope, the psychologist—to profile her as a devil-worshipping witch because she practices knowledge they don’t understand.

When faced with one of the greatest paradoxes of her life, Voodoo Sally must end a bad life to save a good one. This is also a psychological journey for Pope as he makes amends with his former life and deals with proving his innocence. In his conflict with Voodoo Sally, he discovers that her “limestone gumption” really means “resilience” and that they share a common meaning, expressed in two different languages. His affection deepens for her when he discovers that she protected his mother before she was killed by his father and that she was Grandma Gigi’s confidant and protector.

Along with his enduring affection for the old woman, the psychologist discovers that she cut Big Jake’s dive line, causing him to get lost in the caves and drown. And when Voodoo Sally is found slain near her shack, Pope tracks down her murderer, Myrtle Badger’s husband, Swayze, who was working with developers to bring a theme park that would rival Disney World to the quiet Florida town.

Limestone Gumption is a dark descent into the underbelly of a small town where mob mentality, cocaine murders, and monsters lurk in the swampy woods surrounding the great Suwannee River. And the infiltration of The Real U.S.A. (the United Survivalist Army) on the banks of the Suwannee escalates violence to a level that has the potential to change Whitecross forever.

But over the W.P.C.’s dead bodies.