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Book Jacket

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter:
A Novel
by Tom Franklin

Publisher: William Morrow
Publication date: 10/05/2010.
Novels, 288 pp.

Number of reader reviews: 24
Readers' Consensus: 4.5
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First Impressions: Page 4 of 4
Rated 4 of 5 of 5 by Trudy N. (Houston, Texas)

Engrossing, Vividly Descriptive, Captivating
Tom Franklin’s 4th book, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, was engrossing. It was tedious at first, because the beginning chapters were vividly descriptive providing background information to set up the plot. It made the reader anxious to reach the meat and potatoes part of the novel, and move on from the background descriptions. It did not move fast enough for this reader.

Fortunately, then, the mystery of who killed whom began to unravel. Because of the ethnic juxtaposition of the book’s protagonist, I was captivated. However, the sordid supporting characters in the novel were most fascinating , as it is difficult to believe that those people actually exist. Interestingly, though, the denouement was uplifting. I recommend reading the book, especially to Southerners.

One could compare it to Shirley Grau’s Pulitzer winner from 1965, The Keepers of the House.

Rated 3 of 5 of 5 by Sharon A. (Gainesville, FL)

Crooked Letter, Crooked Tale
The story starts with a hidden friendship between 2 boys of different races in the Old South and twists its way into adulthood. The adult characters and their interactions did not seem believable in present day rural Mississippi. The "mystery" was a little transparent. The abrupt time shifts between past & present interfered with the flow of the story. Loved the title.

Rated 1 of 5 of 5 by Penny N. (Saginaw, MI)

What?
It's not often that I am a loss for words. From the book title, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, to the last page, I forced myself to read this tome. Half the way through I almost said, this book is so horrible I can't read any further. I don't need to love the characters in any book. But in this case I found none of them had any redeeming qualities. The the male who perpetrated most of the animal cruelty probably was the worst. The other characters, especially the males were were unkind, ignorant and stupid. These people would all perform well in the clogged arena of Halloween movies, I kid you not. Bits and pieces of the writing were actually quite well done. But nowhere near enough to matter. I have reviewed mysteries and murder stories, as well as other books for years. This book really hit bottom in my rankings.

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