Tell Us More, Tom; Tell Us More!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               As I may have stated earlier girls, I discovered this title, as well as others, from Tom Franklin, when I first read Wiley Cash's "A Land More Kind Than Home," the novel that steered me to recently reading Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel."

                                                With this book, I am back in the South--Mississippi-- and straddling two time periods--the present day and the 1970's.  What follows is your basic tale of Southern greed, lust, mendacity, told with such compelling suspense I almost overlooked the one thing about this book that bothered me.

                                                  That happened to be what was behind the character of Wallace Stringfellow, the catalyst whose deed sets things in motion, for former childhood friends, now adults, Larry Ott and Silas Jones.   Is he connected to them in any way?  Why does he (Wallace) have it in for Larry?  Is he just your basic serial killer; fine, but what was his upbringing like, what made him that way??????
Franklin is a writer skilled enough to convey all this--there is no question about that--yet he never does.  He seems interested in telling the basic thread work of the story, but not digging any deeper.

                                                    Too bad, Tom, because, while I enjoyed 'Crooked Letter' enough to read your other works, these details kept it from being a great novel.  Many times a book is held back by bad writing; here the writing is good, it is the holding back of plot elements that prevents it from rising above the generic Southern Gothic mystery novel.

                                                      Not that it is not fun, in its own way!  I was glued to this book, until I came up for air, upon finishing it.  But having done so, and thinking back, there were other things I wanted from the novel, that I feel should have been there.

                                                        You have to wonder about the South.  If you believe what you read in today's fiction, all that happens there are bunches of crazy yokels having sex with their families, and shooting at each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Give me Anne Rice, and the Mayfair Witches, any day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                          No wonder Little Sister is the most popular figure in "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia."  She would have fit just fine into the fabric of this novel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                           Bang! Bang!, girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!