1988NBA 1988
Paris Trout
Pete Dexter · b. 1943 · United States
Why it matters
A respected Georgia store owner's murder of a young Black woman exposes the moral rot beneath a small town's genteel 1950s surface as the ensuing trial slowly unravels. Dexter's National Book Award winner indicts complicity as much as the crime itself.
At a glance
crime & noirpolitical novel
Difficulty 4/10fast pace320 pagesPlain, journalistic prose keeps a disturbing plot moving at a brisk clip.
Deep dive
A killing the town's legal system treats as barely worth punishing sets off a second, private reckoning that the law had nothing to do with.
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