Book summary

It's 1933 in a small town in East Texas, but 11-year-old Harry Collins has not yet been indoctrinated into the racism that pervades his community. His eyes are opened to ugly realities after he and his little sister find a murdered African-American prostitute in the bottom lands near the Sabine River. In Harry's childlike mind, the horrific injustices that follow in the wake of the discovery of the body become entwined with the dark, mysterious folk tales he has been hearing all his life. The result is an American murder mystery as it might have been imagined by the Brothers Grimm.

Media reviews

"[A] pungent period mystery...that draws on the idiom of regional folk legend to filter the horror of race violence and serial murder....[A] tale of dark enchantment."