Sheriff Colt Harper's investigation of a black man's murder ignites long-buried bitterness over systemic racism in his county and forces him to confront his own demons...and white supremacists intent on sparking a race war.
Phillip Thompson explores Larry Brown’s rough south, digging deeper and seeking a truce with the interloping outside world, and Harper’s tormented inner world as well. Thompson writes about the tendency of a good man toward violence. The need to seek redemption for the sins of the past—even if that redemption is through more violence. Maybe especially. Outside the Law is my kind of book, and Phillip Thompson’s Mississippi is a rough south indeed. One I hope he’ll revisit.
Thompson creates a noir-hard, meaty but grit-filled plot, coats it with a dark humor batter, then southern fries it.