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Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (2010)

by Tom Franklin

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
2,4202556,206 (3.93)285
Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Suspense. HTML:

"The classic trifecta of talent, heart, and a bone-deep sense of storytelling....A masterful performance, deftly rendered and deeply satisfying. For days on end, I woke with this story on my mind." â??David Wroblewski

A powerful and resonant novel from the critically acclaimed author of Smonk and Hell at the Breech, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter tells the riveting story of two boyhood friends, torn apart by circumstance, who are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town. An extraordinary novel that seamlessly blends elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a must for readers of Larry Brown, Pete Dexter, Ron Rash, and Dennis Lehane.

In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the countyâ??and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades… (more)

  1. 20
    The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy (fuzzy_patters)
  2. 20
    A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (pdebolt)
    pdebolt: There is a similar poignancy to Larry Ott and Owen Meany as they struggle to find their place in their worlds.
  3. 10
    Citrus County by John Brandon (GCPLreader)
  4. 10
    A Crime in the Neighborhood by Suzanne Berne (aliklein)
  5. 10
    Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (whymaggiemay)
    whymaggiemay: Both books take place in the south, though in different states. The underlying racial tone is very similar.
  6. 10
    A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (sturlington)
  7. 00
    In the Heat of the Night by John Ball (VictoriaPL)
  8. 00
    Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early (RidgewayGirl)
    RidgewayGirl: Both are crime novels that have as their main character a man returning to his childhood home and also snakes.
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» See also 285 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 257 (next | show all)
loved the book, thought provoking and interesting, but felt the ending wwas a bit anti-climactic ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
Larry Ott is not popular in town of Chabot, Mississippi...most folks won't even look at him...but he's used to it as it's been a common thing for 25 years. In 1982, Larry, a white high-school student took his neighbor Cindy Walker out on a date, and she was never seen again. The whole town assumed Larry had killed her, but a body was never found, so no charges were brought, but the town still "punished" Larry, in despite there being no evidence of any wrongdoing. Larry was a mechanic that had inherited his father’s shop, but...no customers came. To survive he sold off parcels of the woods on his family's property to a timber company. Now, we move ahead to 2007, and we have another disappearance. This time it's the daughter of the timber company owner. While we’re taking all this in, a masked intruder shoots Larry on the porch of his house. He survives, thanks to quick thinking by one friend in town, Silas Jones. Silas is a black man and the town’s only cop, so we would have expected him to have had to save Larry. It's been a busy day for Silas. The decomposing body of a local drug dealer was found... a rattlesnake needed removing from a mailbox and the shooting which caused frequent flashbacks to Larry and Silas' childhood. We could have done with less of the flashbacks as they caused the story to slow way down which came as a surprise, since until the flashbacks the story had moved along smoothly. Silas and his mother had once lived in a hunting cabin in the Ott woods. Larry taught Silas how to hunt and fish until a racial slur ended their friendship. Silas was also involved in Cindy’s disappearance...which took a while to figure out how. The biggest mystery here, is what is happening and why. There are also several other happenings that just go unexamined. I couldn't quite understand why Larry hadn't just left town instead of living like a zombie and taking all the abuse for all these years...and why has Silas, after bigger assignments elsewhere, returned home to a low paying job and a town that never wanted him. The genera for this novel is listed as "Mystery & Suspense", but there is very little suspense in it...but there is a great deal of heavy-handed racial treatment. ( )
  Carol420 | Feb 6, 2024 |
Goodreads Crooked Letter, Crooked Letterby Tom Franklin (Goodreads Author), ( ) 3.83   Rating details   35,512 Ratings   4,552 ReviewsTom Franklin's narrative power and flair for characterization have been compared to the likes of Harper Lee, Flannery O'Connor, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy.Now the Edgar Award-winning author returns with his most accomplished and resonant novel so far; an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades.
  bentstoker | Jan 26, 2024 |
A predictable mystery. I did enjoy the way the character Larry was developed and it made me think a bit about jumping to conclusions and the repercussions of how we treat people. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
This has been on the shelf since 2012. A story set in Mississippi (crooked letter, crooked letter) in a small town. Two men, one a constable and the other an ostracized man find their lives entangled. It is called a crime novel but it is also about small town prejudices.

It really hasn’t been that successful a novel but it’s okay ( )
  Kristelh | Oct 7, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 257 (next | show all)
If you're looking for a smart, thoughtful novel that sinks deep into a Southern hamlet of the American psyche, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" is your next book.
added by eereed | editWashington Post, Ron Charles (Sep 29, 2010)
 
added by lucy.depalma | editSCIS (pay site)
 

» Add other authors

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Tom Franklinprimary authorall editionscalculated
Barsøe, Søren K.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, humpback, humpback, I.

—How southern children are taught to spell Mississippi
Dedication
For Jeff Franklin
and
in loving memory
of
Julie Fennelly Trudo
For Jeff Franklin and in loving memory of Julie Fennelly Trudo
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The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house.
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Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Fiction. Literature. Mystery. Suspense. HTML:

"The classic trifecta of talent, heart, and a bone-deep sense of storytelling....A masterful performance, deftly rendered and deeply satisfying. For days on end, I woke with this story on my mind." â??David Wroblewski

A powerful and resonant novel from the critically acclaimed author of Smonk and Hell at the Breech, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter tells the riveting story of two boyhood friends, torn apart by circumstance, who are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small Mississippi town. An extraordinary novel that seamlessly blends elements of crime and Southern literary fiction, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a must for readers of Larry Brown, Pete Dexter, Ron Rash, and Dennis Lehane.

In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the countyâ??and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades

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Black and white
secret kept, secret told
brothers to behold

(Sogamonk)

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