Our Latest VIB (Very Impressive Book)

A book we’re so excited about, we’ve made it a V.I.B.! That means it’s a true stand-out in a season of many great new books.





Tom Franklin's extraordinary talent has been hailed by the leading lights of contemporary literature—Philip Roth, Richard Ford, Lee Smith, and Dennis Lehane. Reviewers have called his fiction "ingenious" (USA Today) and "compulsively readable" (Memphis Commercial Appeal). His narrative power and flair for character-ization 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.

Jackie says:

I read an interview with Franklin from a couple of years ago that was very interesting. He was asked why, in his opinion, so many great writers come from the South. His answer: "...in part, there's a lot more to write about in a failed place, a place mired in its own self-made sin. And it's more rural, for course, so it breeds the type of people who choose to live there or it traps people. Either way: characters. Material." There are plenty of memorable characters and "rural noir" material in Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter , named after the way school children are taught to spell Mississippi--M I crooked letter crooked letter I crooked letter crooked letter I humpback humpback I. And this book is VERY Mississippi--it's pretty much a character in its own right. Not in a Southern belle sort of way, but in a sweaty, small town, old grudges kind of way. This is very much a man's book, though women will like it as well. It's a literary crime/thriller novel that's full of taut suspense and engaging dialog that sets the mood and place of the book far more than any pastoral description could. The basic plot--Silas and Larry were childhood friends, though secretly because Silas is black and Larry is white and the town, especially their fathers, did not tolerate any sort of mixing of the races. The secrecy and guilt got more complicated as the boys became teenagers and a young girl disappeared after a date with Larry. No body was found, but the town basically tried and condemned Larry anyway. He became a recluse, running a mechanics shop after his Army service that no local would step foot in, trapped in a town he couldn't let go and that wouldn't let go of him. Silas became a police officer--one of the two full time employees of his small home town. When another body turns up, suspicion once again falls upon Larry, and Silas is caught between old guilt, new crimes, and a scared and angry populace who have their doubts about a black police officer anyway. This book sucked me in and held me tight as the pages turned and my mind tried to follow the twists and turns of both past and present to figure out just what was going on. The characters LEAP off the page--vivid, alive and staring you straight in the eye. You won't forget any of them any time soon."

Joe says:

"Tom Franklin's latest book, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is set in rural southeastern Mississippi (hence the title...) and serves as a perfect slice of small-town life in the rural South. Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were briefly boyhood friends. Larry was a rather odd lower-middle class white boy and Silas the son of a poor black woman. While still in their teens, Larry is accused of killing and hiding a fellow student. Her body is never found and Larry never confesses, but the stigma never goes away. About the same time, Silas goes away to finish high school and returns, years later, to the town as a police officer. This is a story about things left unsaid, and how they can ruin not only friendships, but whole lives. Franklin's writing brings the South alive... at times hilarious, at other times heartbreaking, and always realistic. Not only is this book a great Southern story, it is a taught murder mystery that had plenty of surprises. Ultimately, this book is about forgiveness and what power it has to heal. I can not wait to get others to read this wonderful book!"

Watch bookpage.com's interview with Tom Franklin: