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A review by kiwi_fruit
Hell at the Breach by Tom Franklin
5.0
This historical novel portrays a dark and dangerous world. It is based on a true story occurred in the late 1800s, when a gang of local men calling themselves “Hell at the breach” started a campaign of terror against the town people of Grove Hill in Alabama.
A single juvenile reckless murder starts a chain of violence, its consequences are felt throughout the small community, lives will be lost, the guilty as well as the innocent.
The book exposes the basest human traits, the meanness, the pettiness, the misery, the envy, the mindless violence towards men and beast and for this reason may not be to everyone’s taste. The perpetual struggle between good and evil and the strong instinct for survival are important themes here. Where the law permits injustice, the line between right and wrong gets blurred; who do you turn to when you seek revenge, if not to your own? How easily can the actions for a just cause get out of hand?
There’s a vibrant and complex cast of characters and many, many stories to tell; the old midwife, the shop owner, the sheriff, the swindler, the peddler, the cotton sharecroppers, the young and the old, they form a cohesive picture of rural south, pulling the reader in the middle of it.
Tom Franklin writing talent is in evidence here; this is my second novel by this great storyteller and certainly won’t be my last. If you like hillbilly noir and can stand a gritty story I would highly recommend. 4.5 stars
Fav. Quote:
Waite felt a mixture of relief and worry as he picked his way through the bramble and huckleberry bushes toward the road where he could already see the movement and color of men on horseback and hear low voices and the squeak of leather and horses nickering and blowing. He was out of one fix but here was another to negotiate, this one stickier because it involved friends. At least with enemies you knew where to aim.
A single juvenile reckless murder starts a chain of violence, its consequences are felt throughout the small community, lives will be lost, the guilty as well as the innocent.
The book exposes the basest human traits, the meanness, the pettiness, the misery, the envy, the mindless violence towards men and beast and for this reason may not be to everyone’s taste. The perpetual struggle between good and evil and the strong instinct for survival are important themes here. Where the law permits injustice, the line between right and wrong gets blurred; who do you turn to when you seek revenge, if not to your own? How easily can the actions for a just cause get out of hand?
There’s a vibrant and complex cast of characters and many, many stories to tell; the old midwife, the shop owner, the sheriff, the swindler, the peddler, the cotton sharecroppers, the young and the old, they form a cohesive picture of rural south, pulling the reader in the middle of it.
Tom Franklin writing talent is in evidence here; this is my second novel by this great storyteller and certainly won’t be my last. If you like hillbilly noir and can stand a gritty story I would highly recommend. 4.5 stars
Fav. Quote:
Waite felt a mixture of relief and worry as he picked his way through the bramble and huckleberry bushes toward the road where he could already see the movement and color of men on horseback and hear low voices and the squeak of leather and horses nickering and blowing. He was out of one fix but here was another to negotiate, this one stickier because it involved friends. At least with enemies you knew where to aim.