Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter: A Novel (p.S.) [Paperback]

“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.”
   — David Wroblewski

“A new Tom Franklin novel is always a reason to get excited, butCrooked Letter, Crooked Letteris more—a cause for celebration. What a great novel by a great novelist.”
—Dennis Lehane

A powerful and resonant novel from Tom Franklin—critically acclaimed author ofSmonkand Hell at the Breech—Crooked Letter, Crooked Lettertells 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 Letteris a must for readers of Larry Brown, Pete Dexter, Ron Rash, and Dennis Lehane.

In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas 32 Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other friend to confront a past they've buried for decades.