Paris Trout, by Pete Dexter

Pete Dexters National Book Awardwinning 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 hes 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. Trouts 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 causeand 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

Dexters brilliant understanding of the Deep South has allowed him to capture much of its essenceits bitter class distinctions, its violence, its strangenesswith a fidelity of detail and an ear for speech that I have rarely encountered since Flannery OConnor.William Styron

Dexters powerfully emotional novel doesnt have any brakes. Hang on, because you wont be able to stop until the finish.Chicago Tribune

Pete Dexteris the author of the National Book Awardwinning novelParis Troutas well asSpooner, Paper Trails, Gods Pocket, Deadwood, Brotherly Love,andTrain. He has been a columnist for thePhiladelphia Daily Newsand theSacramento Bee,and has contributed to many magazines, includingEsquire, Sports Illustrated,andPlayboy. His screenplays includeRushandMulholland Falls. Dexter was born in Michigan and raised in Georgia, Illinois, and eastern South Dakota. He lives on an island off the coast of Washington.