crooked letter crooked letter by tom franklin

Second: Silas confesses to his girlfriend that he was with Cindy Walker on the night she died, their interracial relationship having to be kept secret from the community and that he didn’t speak up about it, thereby making it clear that Larry was innocent, because as Silas’ mother once said, something was “missing” in him. First is the fact that Larry developed an odd sort of friendship with Stringfellow, who was strangely obsessed with the idea that Larry might be a killer. He also investigates the placement of a poisonous snake in the mailbox of a young woman from the poorer part of town, and has an encounter on the road with a law-breaking young man who introduces himself as Wallace Stringfellow.Įventually, narration reveals several layers of truth in the various mysteries.

Silas takes care of Larry’s home and livestock and continues to investigate what happened, discovering evidence that other investigators miss. In the present, Larry survives the shooting but remains in a coma. Finally, narration reveals that shortly after Cindy disappeared, Silas went away to complete his schooling, while Larry stayed in Chabot. Narration in both past and present also reveals that Larry and Silas were close when they were children, but the mean-spirited intervention of Larry’s sadistic father Carl drove them into a confrontation that resulted in Larry shouting a racial epithet, something for which Silas could never forgive him. When he learns that Larry has been shot and seriously injured, Silas begins an informal investigation into that crime as well, both investigations leading him and the reader into a series of encounters with the past.Īlternating chapters, recounting present and past events from the points of view of Larry and Silas, reveal that Larry was the last person to see teenaged Cindy Walker alive that no evidence was ever found to conclusively link her to what was generally believed to be her death and that in the years since Cindy disappeared, Larry has been ostracized by virtually everyone in the town of Chabot Mississippi, where he grew up and continues to make his home, and where he is the prime suspect in the recent disappearance of Tina Rutherford, a member of the wealthiest family in the area. Meanwhile, black police constable Silas Jones discovers another murder victim and participates in the investigation into the man’s death, the whole while experiencing an intuition that Larry, whom narration reveals is an old friend, is in trouble.

The novel, set in the Southern United States, begins with an attack: specifically, the attack of a masked intruder on white mechanic Larry Ott, long suspected of the murder of one teenaged young woman and more recently suspected of the disappearance and possible murder of another.

Crooked letter crooked letter by tom franklin