by Tom Franklin
First published 2006
E. O. Smonk owns Saturday nights in Old Texas, Alabama. Armed with his Winchester 45-70, he burns buildings, kills animals, and leaves chaos in his wake. The diseased outlaw suffers from syphilis, consumption, gout, and goiter, yet he remains deadly with explosives and blades. Week after week in 1911, Smonk cheats at cards, beats men senseless, and seduces their wives. The townspeople finally reach their breaking point. They want Smonk captured and put on trial. But cornering this violent criminal will cost blood, and a courtroom confrontation might expose the dark secret that Old Texas has been hiding. The town's reckoning with Smonk threatens to destroy more than just property. Some truths cut deeper than any knife, and some trials end in ways no one expects.
Genres: fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, crime, action, dark
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: anti-hero, morally-ambiguous
Setting: Alabama, Old Texas
Period: 1911
254 pages · Hardcover · William Morrow
Content warnings: graphic-violence, violence