Paris Trout, by Pete Dexter

Pete Dexter’s National Book Award–winning tour de force tells the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that shatters lives and exposes the hypocrisies of a small Southern town. The time and place: Cotton Point, Georgia, just after World War II. The event: the murder of a fourteen-year-old black girl by a respected white citizen named Paris Trout, who feels he’s done absolutely nothing wrong. As a trial looms, the crime eats away at the social fabric of Cotton Point, through its facade of manners and civility. Trout’s indifference haunts his defense lawyer; his festering paranoia warps his timid, quiet wife; and Trout himself moves closer to madness as he becomes obsessed with his cause—and his vendettas. “A masterpiece, complex and breathtaking . . . [Pete] Dexter portrays his characters with marvelous sharpness.”—Los Angeles Times “A psychological spellbinder that will take your breath away and probably interfere with your sleep.”—The Washington Post Book World “Dexter’s brilliant un