Southern Good and Evil

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This is a stunning tour de force by the author of The Caveman's Valentine. Like that book, which won the E.A. Poe Award for best first novel, The Kingdoms of Savannah uses a mysterious death and subsequent investigation by “ordinary” citizens to entice the reader into ugly lessons about class, race and injustice. Here in the search for the Kingdom and its soldiers, George Dawes Green uses many true events and real people to, I believe, emphasize the repellent nature of bigotry and our often unknowing complicity in its consequences.

But that is not to deny the pleasure of the beautiful prose and of delving into the dysfunctional, sometimes comical, wealthy Musgrove family dynamic, along with their friends. So many characters are unforgettable: Jaq, Morgana, Ransom, Billy Sugar and his dog Gracie. I was immediately drawn to the personalities of two friends, Stony and Luke; Luke's death is the central mystery whose solution unfolds within atmospheric Savannah, a character in itself, a home for numerous homeless encampments and antebellum mansions. Guess which of those are not on the tourist tours? Guess which – real ones, with the significant addition of a very special island – are on Green's tour?

What a painful and yet always sweet reading this is. Please don't miss this one.