20 May / The Trees by Percival Everett [in Booklist]
Murder is rarely something to laugh about, and yet prolific Percival Everett’s (Telephone, 2020) latest will inspire at least a smirk, if not an out-loud snort (or many) as narrator Bill Andrew Quinn deftly evokes characters living and dead. Welcome to Money, Mississippi, where corpses are multiplying, each gruesome scene sharing a few notable details: white victims’ pants have been lowered and certain body parts have been detached and moved elsewhere, while a deceased Black man lies nearby.
When local law enforcement proves incompetent, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation get called in; when the terror spreads nationally, the FBI get involved. Here’s what else the cases have in common: Emmett Till, who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed at 14 in August, 1955, after being falsely accused of whistling at a white woman.
Everett turns tragedy into a dark, shrewd, hardboiled exposé of racist legacy, legal failure, insidious history – with perhaps one of literature’s first centenarian superheroes. Quinn effortlessly channels a range from Tyler Perry to Perry Mason in delivering a remarkably versatile performance.
Review: “Media,” Booklist, May 1, 2022
Readers: Adult
Published: 2022