Unraveled
$31.10
- Paperback
336 pages
- Release Date
4 October 2016
Summary
Blending the racial topicality of the Sixties crime classic In the Heat of the Night with the coming-of-age poignancy of To Kill a Mockingbird, Unraveled presents a gripping investigation into the extremes of human nature-both at its most repulsive and at its redemptive best.It’s 1968; a time of race riots across America, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, and polarizing demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the rural Northeast Texas community of Center Springs, a car lunges through the guard rails on Highway 271’s tightest curve and flings its two occupants down the new Lake Lamar Dam. What stuns the town’s residents isn’t the tragic accident but the identities of the two victims: Mayor Frank Clay, a white man, and Maggie Mayfield, a black woman who worked in his office. Each of them married to other people. What were they doing in Frank’s car together?Living with his grandparents, Ned and Miss Becky, in a little farmhouse near the Red River, fourteen-year-old Top Parker finds himself caught up in another adult situation. The war escalating between the Clays and the Mayfields is frightening in its intensity. More horrifying is a man calling himself the Wraith, who moves through the region at will, invading homes and watching the Parkers. The Wraith has his own deadly agenda. And it soon becomes clear to Top that, for some reason, he is part of it.
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781464207112 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1464207119 |
| Author: | Reavis Z. Wortham |
| Publisher: | Sourcebooks, Inc |
| Imprint: | Poisoned Pen Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 336 |
| Release Date: | 4 October 2016 |
| Weight: | 408g |
| Dimensions: | 140mm x 216mm |
| Series: | Texas Red River Mysteries |
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Critics Review
Unraveled: A Red River Mystery by Reavis Z. Wortham is a mesmerizing book about a small Northeast Texas community of Center Springs. The dialogue was crisp & true to regional speech patterns. The characters were well drawn & the story line intriguing. I gave it five stars.~It kept me guessing & I like that. I highly recommend this book & will read more of this author’s work. – Carolyn Injoy-Hertz * InJoyful Book Reviews *
Unraveled is the sixth Red River Mystery by Reavis Z. Wortham. I love this series. I have read all six books in the series and found them all to be fabulous reads.~ I cannot recommend this series enough. It is perfect for fans of recent history as well as mystery lovers. I highly recommend Unraveled. – Kathryn Poulin * NetGalley *
Wortham’s Red River mysteries work on so many different levels. As a coming of age story. As a pitch-perfect historical saga. As a police procedural. As visceral action tales. (And humor, too!) I have come to rely upon this author to present me with fine tales well told, and I have no intentions of missing a single one. You shouldn’t either. – Cathy Cole * NetGalley *
Reavis Z. Wortham’s Unraveled is the kind of book you simply can’t put down once you have read the first page. Give it a try. You’ll agree with me. – Mary Ann Smyth * Bookloons *
The plot comes together perfectly as a battlefield reminiscent of the infamous Hatfields and McCoys appears. The killer is unexpectedly exposed, and the characters in Red River remain strong, intriguing and a bit frightening all at the same time. – Mary Lignor * Suspense Magazine *
The book’s strength lies in Wortham’s ability to construct a world; it doesn’t take long for readers to feel like kinfolk. – Cevin Bryerman * Publishers Weekly *
Readers who hang on for 200-plus pages of these days in the lives will be treated to a stunning finale, first in an evil fun house, then on a long stretch of oil-slick highway. – Don Crinklaw * Booklist *
Reavis Wortham seems to be channeling both John Hart and Greg Isles in “Unraveled” (Poisoned Pen, $26.95, 336 pages), the sixth in the Red River period piece mystery series. I haven’t read the five others, but if they’re anything like this, I’m definitely missing something.~Not only does Wortham write exceptionally well, but he somehow manages to infuse “Unraveled” with a Southern gothic feel what would make even William Faulkner proud.~To a mix that already includes a Hatfield-McCoy-like feud, a mysterious stranger known only as Wraith, and a small town lurching away from its own racially toned past, Wortham gives us the Parker family as the book’s moral center. That family includes 14-year-old Top, who reads like a hybrid of Huckleberry Finn and Scout from “To Kill a Mockingbird.”~~~Like Greg Isles’ superb Natchez, Mississippi, trilogy, Wortham’s portrayal of the modern South (well, 1968 in this case) is both scathing and hopeful, laced with racial overtones that lend “Unraveled” a weighty societal relevance. A hidden gem of a book that reads like Craig Johnson’s Longmire mysteries on steroids. – Jon Land * Providence Journal *
In Center Springs, TX, Constable Ned Parker investigates a fatal car accident involving mayor Fred Clay and his African American assistant, Maggie Mayfield. It is 1968, and the incident will rekindle a long-running feud between two families. This superbly drawn sixth entry in the series (after Dark Places) features captivating characters and an authentic Texas twang. * Library Journal *
Reavis Z. Wortham
REAVIS Z. WORTHAM is the critically acclaimed author of the Texas Red River Mysteries set in rural Northeast Texas in the 1960s. He is also the author of a thriller series featuring Texas Ranger Sonny Hawke. He teaches writing at a wide variety of venues, including local libraries and writers’ conferences. Wortham has been a newspaper columnist and magazine writer since 1988, and has been the Humor Editor for Texas Fish and Game Magazine for the past twenty-two years. He and his wife, Shana, live in Northeast Texas. Check out his website at reaviszwortham.com
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