Tom Franklin

This was an engrossing book set in small town America. Larry, who's white, and Silas, who's black become friends against the odds in a community where such relationships are not to much frowned upon as simply not even thought of. The relationship sours, the boys become teenagers, and misfit Larry, again against the odds, gets a date. He takes the girl out, and she is never seen again. Nothing is ever proved against Larry, but from this moment, this loner becomes quite simply ostracised, and lives a life of complete solitude, taking comfort from his compulsive reading habit. Silas becomes a police officer, and the years pass.

What happens next? You'll have to read it to find out. You may be surprised. This book introduces me to a community unlike any I have known, but convincingly, and with an unerring ear for dialogue. Read it. Highly recommended.… (more)

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.… (more)

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.… (more)