About the Author:
Michael Malone is the literate and compassionate voice of the new American South. Critically acclaimed as one of the country's finest writers, his great gift for crafting remarkable and enduring comedies, as he did in Handling Sin, Dingley Falls and Foolscap, is matched only by his ability to deliver riveting suspense and mystery. Now, after a long absence, Michael Malone has returned to the scene of the crime. He has also come home to the South. He now lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife, Maureen Quilligan, chair of the English department at Duke University.
From Publishers Weekly:
Malone, who in Handling Sin emerged as one of the most entertaining portraitists of the new South, has penned another leisurely, winning chronicle, this time placing two murder investigations against a backdrop populated with dozens of sharply drawn characters. Narrated by "Cuddy" Mangum, the enlightened redneck police chief of Hillston, the novel unfolds as a tale of multilayered injustice. As protesters seek to win a retrial for a black prisoner slated to die for shooting a white cop, the inmate's brother, a local activist, is slain by a drive-by sniper. Mangum's investigation turns up slime under every rock, quickly growing to encompass his own department, white supremacist hate groups and even the race for state governor. It's an intriguing plot, and Malone doesn't rush it; everyone from a drunken hillbilly to an aristocratic daughter of the Confederacy gets a turn in the spotlight. What keeps the tale from seeming aimless, aside from Malone's deft observations and anecdotes, is his hero, as engaging a tour guide through this peripatetic narrative as anyone could ask.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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