|
|||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
The Assassins Gallery by David L. Robbins  (23)
$7.50
|
The End of War: A Novel of the Race for Berlin by David L. Robbins (41)
|
Liberation Road: A Novel of World War II and the Red Ball Express by David L. Robbins  (6)
|
Last Citadel: A Novel of the Battle of Kursk by David L. Robbins (26)
$6.99
|
The Betrayal Game by David L. Robbins (8)
$16.50
|
Less a mystery than a finely crafted, poetic meditation on justice, race, love, and hate in a small Virginia town, Robbins's intense though occasionally overwrought novel compounds one tragedy--the birth and death of an infant--with another. In the smoking ruins of a church whose deacons demanded that Clare and Elijah Waddell's baby be disinterred and reburied elsewhere because of her mixed-race parentage, the discovery of the charred body of the teenage daughter of the powerful local sheriff turns a case of arson into one of murder, and possibly rape as well. When Roanoke lawyer Nat Deeds is assigned to defend Elijah, he knows he faces a lawyer's worst nightmare: a truly innocent man.
Returning to the home town he left after learning of his wife's infidelity, Nat encounters a community that seems turned against him, except for his closest boyhood friend, now the charismatic pastor of destroyed Victory Baptist church. Pastor Tom Derby is a man with a secret, a man whose efforts to conquer his own demons fuel the flames of the town's hidden rage and hatred. These forces drive this atmospheric and involving read to its denouement. Scorched Earth is a novel that will appeal to readers who ordinarily eschew the mystery genre as well as to fans of legal thrillers--Scott Turow's admirers would do well to try it while they wait for his next one. --Jane Adams
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Intricately plotted, insightful and deeply affecting, this novel by the author of the bestselling The End of War probes the malignancy of racial prejudice among the self-righteous citizens of a tightly knit Southern blue-collar town. At first, no one seems too put out by the interracial marriage of 32-year-old Elijah Waddell and Clare, the 22-year-old white granddaughter of Rosy Epps, former schoolteacher and leading citizen of Good Hope, Va. When their daughter is born without a brain and dies only minutes after delivery, Rosy a driving force among the hierarchy of the Victory Baptist Church invites controversy when she has the child's body buried in the all-white churchyard cemetery. However, she raises no protest when the deacons have the casket disinterred and moved to the cemetery of a nearby black Baptist church. That night the white church is burned to the ground, and Elijah is caught seemingly red-handed at the site, watching it burn. The judge orders Nat Deeds, a former assistant DA, to return from Richmond to defend Elijah. Anxious to put the case and Good Hope behind him, Nat tries to convince Elijah to cop a plea but when the body of the bullying sheriff's teenage daughter is discovered in the ruins, he is charged with capital murder. Overnight, the once-serene backwater becomes a time bomb of pent-up racial enmity. With empathy and beautiful prose, Robbins succeeds at evoking the vagaries and triumphs of the human heart. Agents, Tracy Fisher and Owen Laster of William Morris. (Apr. 2)Forecast: Major print and radio promo will help propel this provocative title into the spotlight, where it belongs.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
|
