Where the Crawdads Sing - Not Much to Crow About

Delia Owens' "Where the Crawdads Sing" won the Edgar Award for Best Debut Novel by an American author but I found this coming-of-age love story that spawns a murder mystery predictable, melodramatic dribble.  Owens is the author of 3 international best selling non-fiction works that describe her life as a wildlife scientist in Africa.  "Where the Crawdads Sing" is set in the marshlands of NC.  The natural inhabitants of the marshlands become central & to the story of a young girl, Kya, abandoned by her family and left to fend for herself outside the fringes of civilization in the late 60s.   The narrative beauty of living among the marshes is compelling as Owens herself is an established naturalist writer.  However, the credibility of a 7 yr. fending for herself like Mowgli in the "Jungle Book" is rickety.  It romanticizes Kya's neglect, isolation and self-reliance like a B-movie script.  Kya  fends off the land which nutures, mentors and protects her when almost no one else would. Kya does receives the loving care of a black couple Jumpin & Mabel also forced to live apart from the town's white community and Tate who shares her fascination of the indigenous splendors of the marsh lands.  Kya is disregarded by the towns people and known as "the marsh girl." Kya's loneliness was a feeling so vast it echoed.  She watched from the shadows her peers imagining a joy that was almost tangible.  Tate became her first friend, first love & first heartbreak.  Even when love fails it connects you to others and connections are all that matter in life.  Kya's urge towards more in life make her vulnerable to the cunning charms of Chase.  When Chase's corpse is discovered a mystery unravels and the novel becomes a mawkish mocking of "To Kill a Mockingbird."  Kya remembers her mother telling her to venture where the crawdads sing meaning where critters are wild and still behaving like critters.  Owens' overly ambitious attempt at amalgamating biological tendencies, poetry and a murder mystery fritters away and instinctive storytelling doesn't survive.