Wednesday, October 13, 2021

THE TREES, by Percival Everett

   


Mystery/Thriller -- 5 stars

The time is now.  In the small town of Money, Mississippi, a white man is found murdered in his home.  In the room with him is a dead black man who resembles Emmett Till, the 14 year old black youth who was killed by a mob in 1955 for the crime of daring to talk to a white woman.  Things start to go off the rails when the black body disappears from the morgue, but shows up the next day at the murder of another white man.  He is still dead.  Then a third murder happens.  As bodies begin to pile up, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation becomes involved; then similar murders are reported in other states and the FBI joins the investigation.  But it may be a 105 year old black woman, who has dedicated her life to chronicling the history and victims of lynchings, who holds the answers. ----- Wow.  We meet the Milams on the first page, a white family best described as uncouth, uneducated, and unabashedly honest about their hatred for everyone and everything.  And yet, Mr. Everett's snappy and clever dialogue--which persists throughout the book, seemingly at odds with the subject matter--immediately pulled me in.  Just as you are ready to settle in for an entertaining, well written murder mystery, the book seems to (and there is no other way to describe this) inflate.  It breathes and expands, and suddenly, you are part of something bigger than Money, Mississippi;  you are inside an ugly history that you will be forced to really see and remember.  A powerful and provocative book that avoids answers. 

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