by Tom Franklin
First published 2004
Sheriff Billy Waite faces an impossible situation in Mitcham Beat when a politician's murder sparks vigilante justice. Poor cotton farmers, convinced the town's respectable citizens killed their friend, band together as Hell-at-the-Breech. They don masks and begin a campaign of violence that will consume the community for a year. Waite understands both sides but cannot stop the bloodshed spreading through his county. The midwife who brought most of these men into the world watches her boys become killers. A detective arrives with his own brutal methods. A store clerk keeps a secret that could destroy him. As the Mitcham War escalates, neighbors turn against neighbors and violence begets more violence. The conflict builds toward a final massacre where guilt and innocence blur beyond recognition. Franklin draws from real events near his childhood home to explore how ordinary people discover what they are capable of when pushed beyond their limits.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, 19th-century
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mitcham Beat
Period: 19th-Century
Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: violence