From the Bookshelf of On the Southern Literary Trail…

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Tom Franklin

Start date: July 1, 2025

Finish date: July 31, 2025

Discussion: Now Reading: Post-1990

Why we're reading this: From Goodreads:

Tom Franklin's narrative power and flair for characterization have been compared to the li…more
[close] From Goodreads:

Tom Franklin's narrative power and flair for characterization have been compared to the likes of Harper Lee, Flannery O'Connor, Elmore Leonard, and Cormac McCarthy.
Now the Edgar Award-winning author returns with his most accomplished and resonant novel so far—an atmospheric drama set in rural Mississippi. In the late 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry, the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, single black mother. Yet for a few months the boys stepped outside of their circumstances and shared a special bond. But then tragedy struck: Larry took a girl on a date to a drive-in movie, and she was never heard from again. She was never found and Larry never confessed, but all eyes rested on him as the culprit. The incident shook the county—and perhaps Silas most of all. His friendship with Larry was broken, and then Silas left town.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry, a mechanic, lives a solitary existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has returned as a constable. He and Larry have no reason to cross paths until another girl disappears and Larry is blamed again. And now the two men who once called each other friend are forced to confront the past they've buried and ignored for decades.
Chosen by the group to read as the post 1990 read, July 2025

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Now Reading: Post-1990

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What Members Thought

Jun 26, 2011 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery, signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook, 2006-2010, 6-star-books, crime, all-time-favorites, literature

Gorgeous...

Gorgeous and dripping with emotion and ache...

This story OWNED ME from the opening page and LARRY OTT is among the most endearing, heart-wrenching characters I've come across in a long, long time. That I connected so well with both the story and its main character surprised me because, being born and raised in Vegas, my own life experience is so vastly different from both Larry and the town of Chabot, Mississippi, where the story takes place. I give heaping mounds of credit to author ...more

200 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2012 Jeffrey rated it it was amazing

Shelves: southern-literature

Listened to about three quarters of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter on a car trip this past weekend. When I got home, I couldn't wait for another listening opportunity so I grabbed the ebook and finished it off.

A well-written page-turner; a real treat. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Oct 21, 2011 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: sfe, southern-lit, library, crime, concierge

In a small Mississippi town, two young boys, one white and the other black, hide their friendship. When they are in high school a young girl goes missing after a date with one of the boys. Her disappearance is never solved, but the town assumes he killed her and they persecute him. Meanwhile the other boy moves away and goes to college. Now, years later, Silas has returned to Chabot as a police constable. Larry is still ostracized and tormented by the local teens. When another young girl goes mi ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 22, 2013 Bonnie rated it liked it

The setting for this novel is Mississippi where children spell the name of their state by learning: M, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I, humpback, humpback, I.
Silas, known as "32" for his baseball number, is the protagonist of a small, rural town where working as constable he gets such calls as a woman finding a rattlesnake in her mailbox. He remembers a friendship fostered by a common interest with Larry Ott, son of lower-middle-class white patents. The f ...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Franky rated it really liked it

I was sort of in the “what’s the big deal about this book” camp when I started reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. The prose seemed tedious to decipher, clauses thrown everywhere in sentences, and it was difficult to follow exactly what was taking place in the first chapter or two. The story and characters develop slowly during the first half of the book. The reader is hit numerous times with depictions of bullying and racism in the South. We feel for Larry Ott (aka “Scary Larry”), who is mi I was sort of in the “what’s the big deal about this book” camp when I started reading Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. The prose seemed tedious to decipher, clauses thrown everywhere in sentences, and it was difficult to follow exactly what was taking place in the first chapter or two. The story and characters develop slowly during the first half of the book. The reader is hit numerous times with depictions of bullying and racism in the South. We feel for Larry Ott (aka “Scary Larry”), who is mistreated, picked on, and finally ostracized from the community because of a girl’s disappearance. He’s the bookish, aloof, socially-awkward type who is completely misunderstood. We meet Silas, a black man who is constable of the area, who knew Larry and befriended him during their childhood days. There are also plenty of ornery, degenerate, rough types as well, those kinds of folks your parents told you not to associate or make eye contact with.

However, once we get to the major event in the novel, the flashback of Larry taking Cindy out on a “date” and the subsequent disappearance, the story really moves along and we really become invested in Larry and Silas’ fates. Franklin creates meaningful main characters in Larry and Silas, building these characters slowly, but effectively. Larry and Silas aren’t perfect by any stretch, and their weaknesses have a lot to do with why things are so confused in the present. The two have had vastly different paths in life, yet their lives converge when another girl goes missing in the present and Larry, once again, is suspected.

There is certainly a mystery in the novel, but it is probably overstated and secondary to Larry and Silas’ fates. This is more a coming of age story. Larry and Silas make this novel tick, and Franklin has a way of slowly drawing you in to their lives and making you feel for them. This novel questions the stigmas we put on those who are different or are labeled scapegoats as well as examining the effects and consequences of racism.

After initially feeling lukewarm about this novel, I ended up really enjoying it. To those who have given up on the novel in the first part, I recommend staying with it. This is a novel that stays with you for awhile.

...more

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Jun 25, 2011 Gail Strickland rated it it was amazing

I was simply blown away by this one. Franklin could have been describing the area where I grew up with his descriptions of the rural South.

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 16, 2012 Julia rated it really liked it

This was the 2012 Roswell Reads selection. The author was funny and engaging - quite unlike the book, but the book was beautifully written.

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Apr 03, 2013 Janice rated it really liked it

A good book with a mystery at its core but more importantly about friendship and loneliness. Its style put me in mind of other southern writers I love.

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