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Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta by Beverly Lowry
trin's review
2.0
I really enjoyed Lowry's -- cheesily named, but respectfully written -- [b:Who Killed These Girls?|28587946|Who Killed These Girls? The Twenty-Five-Year History of Austin's Yogurt Shop Murders|Beverly Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1459112177l/28587946._SX50_.jpg|48754875]. But good god, was this slow. The theory of the crime laid out at the beginning of the book -- -- is hardly altered over the next 300 pages, which mostly follow, in minute detail, the endless legal battles. Lowry, who grew up in a neighboring town to where this occurred, ties her own family story into this one, and -- in theory -- her own growing awareness of racial inequity. Noble in theory, but boy does it meander and drag. I wish it had been 100 pages shorter.
Spoiler
a white woman (most likely) murders her mother in the 1940s South, blames a Black man, is by some miracle convicted and an innocent life not ruined, but then through badgering and social pressure is released and pardoned less than a decade laterkimscozyreads's review
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
I am from an hour or so away from here; close family lived in Greenville a couple decades removed from the murder. I think this relayed a lot of important facts about a case I only recently heard of, and explained a lot about the society it unfolded in, but dear Lord it could have been a much shorter book and still done all that. I also question the author's choice to read slurs (yes, including that one) directly in the audiobook. Maybe there is an argument to portray the full force of the racist vitriol, but I couldn't have done it. Certainly given the author's past she tries to reckon with from growing up in the segregated Delta during the memoir lapses of the book, I wouldn't have done that. (Spoken as a white Mississippian with plenty else to look back on in shame)
That being said, more should be aware of this case and I do think the author tries to spell out condemnation of the racial hatred, individual as well as systemic, in the book.
That being said, more should be aware of this case and I do think the author tries to spell out condemnation of the racial hatred, individual as well as systemic, in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Suicide, Racism, Racial slurs, and Murder
snuffafluff's review
3.0
I grew up in Greenville and I recognize a lot of the family names, even though my mother was only 9 months old in November 1948. I think I would have enjoyed this much more if the author had left out her opinions and unrelated things that were going on in her family at the same time. The racism/segregation back drop is fairly accurate though.
hatrireads's review
2.0
Interesting story of a long ago true crime in a town I know well. No answers given - just a deep, deep dive into every detail of this case of possible matricide in a wealthy planter family. The writer intersperses the crime story with her own family’s story in this small town - that doesn’t work as well.
tidwellcammy's review
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Honestly - the podcast was enough
Didn’t need a book
Didn’t need a book
kendrareads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
A quite interesting look at a vicious murder that some residents of Leland still refuse to talk about today. Lowry intertwines the story of the murder with her own story growing up in Greenville. The facts of the case are indisputable, but the motive and what actually happened remains a mystery. I heard Lowry speak at the MS Book Festival, and she said that she came to quite like Ruth Dickins. Not that she believed her innocent, but that she grew to like her as a person. I found this so interesting, and I think it spoke to the amount of research that Lowry did to write this book.