Book
Adult book discussion kit #309 Crooked letter, crooked letter
Record details
- ISBN: 9780060594671 (pbk.)
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Physical Description:
1 book (15 copies)
kit - Edition: 1st Harper Perennial ed.
- Publisher: New York : Harper, 2011, c2010.
Electronic resources
- Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2010 July #1
In 1970s Mississippi, bookish white boy Larry Ott befriends poor black Silas Jones, who has moved to the area from Chicago. During high school, they drift apart, as Silas excels at baseball and Larry is a nerdy outsider. One night, Larry has a date with a girl who is much too popular and good-looking for him. The girl vanishes mysteriously, and Larry is blamed, although no evidence of foul play ever turns up. Years later, when another local girl goes missing, all eyes focus on Larry, including local law enforcement, of which Silas is now a member. Larry is then discovered almost dead of a gunshot wound, and the investigation into all these crimes begins to heat up, producing buried bodies that would seem to incriminate Larry. But Silas remains loyal to his former friend and begins to unravel a twisted tale of murder that will reveal things he never knew about himself and Larry. Verdict A ripping good mystery, this novel also has depth and a subtle literary side, as the local area comes to life through the writer's cinematic descriptive phrases and a large and colorful cast of supporting characters. Highly recommended.-Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ BookSmack
Franklin's evocative, moody novel is set in rural Mississippi, a red state as alien a place to me as the lunar surface. So while the landscape is unfamiliar (kudzu, armadillos) and the language is, uhh, homey (e.g., the N word and "ax" instead of "ask"), the familiar bits of a mystery are all present: a slowly unraveling plot, a less-than-motivated investigator, a police department that wants the whole thing to go away. It starts off-BLANG!-with the shooting of a loner/weirdo/bad guy. The hero who slowly figures out the particulars of the crime is Silas, a constable known more for his past baseball career than his competence. Franklin laces the book with descriptive appeal, as when Silas "eased up the steps, soft as moss, the porch like a cave, vegetation on all sides and bees boiling out of the white blooms... . Gently, he moved coils of ivy aside and peered through the snakehead kudzu leaves to where the front door was secured with a rusty padlock." The mix of unusual with common makes for a nice read. Sound good? (See also LJ's review in the July issue, posting 7/15/10.)-Douglas Lord, "Books for Dudes," BookSmack! 7/1/10 Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.