Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

Published in 2010, Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is a literary crime novel centered around two unsolved murders that connect past and present. The novel follows Silas Jones, a black constable in a small town in Mississippi, and Larry Ott, the white suspect in a decades-old, unsolved murder. Silas and Larry grew up alongside each other and developed a tentative friendship that the two grown men explore through flashbacks. When another teenaged girl goes missing and Larry becomes the prime suspect, Silas and Larry must confront the unresolved issues of their past. The winner of the Crime Writer’s Association Gold Dagger Award, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter explores repressed memories, racial tensions, and the true nature of friendship.

Plot Summary

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter begins in modern-day, rural Mississippi in a town called Chabot. A local girl named Tina Rutherford has gone missing, and 41-year-old Larry knows he’s the prime suspect. Larry was also connected to the disappearance of a young girl, Cindy Walker, when he was a teenager; though he never served prison time, Larry has been socially ostracized ever since. Larry returns home one day to find a man in his kitchen, wearing an old zombie mask Larry kept hidden in his closet. The man shoots Larry, leaving him to die.

Silas Jones is a constable in Chabot who grew up locally but left for several years as a teenager, only returning after the death of his mother. Silas makes an impromptu stop on the Rutherfords’ property to search for Tina’s body. Instead, he discovers the body of a known drug dealer who was Silas’s childhood friend. At Town Hall, Silas learns that Larry didn’t show up for work. Larry and Silas were childhood friends, but Silas has been avoiding him since his return to town. On another hunch, Silas asks his girlfriend, an EMT named Angie, to check on Larry. After she finds him shot and bleeding, he is rushed to the hospital, where he lies in a coma.

As children, Larry and Silas are strangely connected: Silas and his mother live in an old hunting cabin on Larry’s family’s property. Larry’s parents seem at odds over this, though as a child, Larry doesn’t understand why and believes it’s because Silas and Alice are black. Larry often sneaks over to Silas’s place, but their friendship ends when Larry’s father makes the two boys fight each other, and Larry calls Silas a racial slur.

A promising baseball player, Silas draws the attention of a neighbor girl named Cindy, and the two date in secret because her stepfather doesn’t want her dating black boys. On the night that Cindy disappears, she asked Larry to take her on a date as a cover to meet her boyfriend—Silas, though Larry doesn’t know this. Later, Silas drops off Cindy on the street as planned, but by the time Larry arrives, she is gone. Silas’s corroborating story could have proved Larry’s innocence, but he has kept his silence all these years and allowed Larry to live a life of suspicion and loneliness.

In modern day, as Larry remains in a coma, Silas tries to make amends by taking care of Larry’s property and visiting Larry’s mother in her nursing home. On Larry’s property, Silas comes across Wallace Stringfellow, a disturbed man and another local outcast. Unbeknownst to Silas, Wallace and Larry recently started up a strange friendship. Silas also makes another discovery while in Larry’s home: Alice used to work for the Otts but was fired when she became pregnant with Silas—because Carl Ott was the father. Silas and Larry are half-brothers. On another trip to Larry’s property, Silas visits the old hunting cabin and discovers the freshly buried body of Tina Rutherford.

Larry awakens from his coma. Knowing that Larry will be the prime suspect in Tina’s murder, Silas interrupts Larry’s interview with the police and confesses his part in Cindy’s disappearance. Larry is hurt that Silas has kept this secret and shuts him out, even after Silas reveals that they’re brothers. Silas investigates Larry’s case and visits Wallace’s trailer, where he sees an item of Larry’s that incriminates Wallace. In a confrontation, Wallace runs off into the woods, and he later kills himself to avoid the police. With Wallace now connected to the murders of Tina and M&M, Larry is no longer under suspicion. However, he struggles to readjust. Silas is determined to make things up to Larry however he can, and the novel ends with Larry begrudgingly agreeing to help Silas fix up his old jeep, a hopeful promise that their relationship will one day mend.