One of our Great Reads you may have missed in 2011.

One of those American Deep South crime novels that wreaks of menace with strong issues and lots of atmosphere, bigotry and sense of place.  It alternates between past and present, black and white, very cleverly done.

Shortlisted for CWA Gold Dagger 2011.

CWA Judges’ comments: 'Larry and Silas, white and black, boyhood friends in rural Mississippi thirty years ago, are separated by an apparent crime that changes their lives. A poignant suspense novel drenched in the languid atmosphere of small-town Mississippi where police investigate the murder of a local teenage girl. The novel explores fractured friendships and families as the legacy of racism, poverty, loneliness and misplaced suspicion from decades back.'

Comparison: Kathryn Stockett, Susan Fletcher, Albert French
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Synopsis

Amos, Mississippi, is a quiet town. Silas Jones is its sole law enforcement officer. The last excitement here was nearly twenty years ago, when a teenage girl disappeared on a date with Larry Ott, Silas' one-time boyhood friend. The law couldn't prove Larry guilty, but the whole town has shunned him ever since. Then the town's peace is shattered when someone tries to kill the reclusive Ott, another young woman goes missing, and the town's drug dealer is murdered. Woven through the tautly written murder story is the unspoken secret that hangs over the lives of two men - one black, one white. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a masterful crime novel, sizzling with deep Southern menace, and distinguished by brilliant plotting and unforgettable characters.

Reviews

'Beautiful writing, a spot-on sense of place, wickedly funny dialogue, and an emotionally potent story charge this highly original, literary crime offering' George Pelecanos

About the Author

Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Tom Franklin teaches in the University of Mississippi’s MFA programme and lives in Oxford, Mississippi, with his wife, the poet Beth Ann Fennelly, and their children. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation