Titus Crown is a newly elected Sheriff in a small town in Southern Virginia, and he’s about to have a very bad day.
When a young black boy walks into a high school and kills a popular white teacher Crown and his small team rush to the scene.
The boy is coming out, holding a gun, when they arrive and he is shot dead on the school steps.
That alone is enough to rile the white minority in the community but what Titus discovers during the early stages of the investigation is going to send the town into meltdown.
Spearman, the teacher, was not as good a man as most people seem to think. Disturbing images on his computer show him to be part of a trio that has been abusing, and killing young, black, early teenage boys and girls.
Was Latrell, the shooter, a victim, a willing participant of the trio, or something in between. He is implicated, but him and Spearman are dead, and the one part of the trio that is still alive is an absolute monster.
With the town divided along racial lines, the whites not believing that Spearman was guilty, but the blacks too scared to talk to the police, the investigation is tough.
I’m a big fan of John Grisham and Greg Iles, and now that I’ve found S.A Cosby he’s joined the list.
There is something disturbing about the fact there is still a big divide between some communities, along racial lines, in some states in America.
The fact that this book, like the ones penned by Grisham and Iles, bring it to life, and highlight the issue with such believable realism, belies the issues but makes for great stories.
There seem some graphic scenes in this book, especially around the description of disposition scenes, but nothing that should put the reader off.
The story is brilliant, though provoking, and definitely worth reading.
The characters are well written and it’s great to see an author showing the frustrations of investigating a crime, and the mental and emotional effects the scenes, and the investigation have on the Sheriff.
Pages: 353. Publisher: Headline. Audiobook length: 13.05 hours. Narrator: Alex Lazarre-White
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