Chapter 1 - 2
Chapter 1 (Present)
- novel starts with "The Rutherford girl had been missing for eight days when Larry Ott returned home and found a monster waiting in his house." (p. 7)
- storm the night before
- Larry’s routine around the farm where he lives (f.ex. taking care of his mother’s chickens, all named after American First Ladies)
- his family: Larry is a bachelor in his forties, his father dead, his mother ill with Alzheimer’s disease in a nursing home
- Larry portrayed as having a troubled personal history, including a reference to not being allowed a gun “because of his past”, his being a “person of interest” in the disappearance of both “the Rutherford girl”, and a girl named Cindy Walker
- Larry coming back from work, wanting to take his mother out for lunch, he finds a man with a zombie mask and a gun in the house
eyes seem familiar
- tries to calm the man, but gets shot and falls unconscious
- he wakes and he’s covered in blood and the man is nervously watching him
- man tells Larry to die which is okay with Larry
- chapter is told from the point of view of Silas Jones (Chabot‘s constable)
- investigates a group of buzzards and discovers the body of an old classmate known as M&M (on permanent disability and selling marijuana)
- Silas waits by the body for Chief French (medical examiner) and Emergency Medical Technician Angie
- Silas has a sexual relationship with Angie
- Silas goes back to the office, Chabot is described as run-down, economically poor and mostly abandoned despite the presence of the Rutherford Mill
- back at the office (a window is held open by a book), he banters with Miss Voncille (the friendly, overweight town clerk) and reflects on his past relationship with Larry Ott
- references to the disappearance of Tina Rutherford (who never arrived at college after a visit home) and the years-earlier disappearance of Cindy Walker (who was never found after going on a date with Larry Ott)
- Silas is told that Larry has been interviewed about Tina Rutherford’s disappearance
- Silas becomes uneasy, and heads out to Larry’s farm, narration refers to a past relationship between the two that ended due to "what Silas had done, how he’d beaten Larry when Larry said what he said"
- Larry had tried to renew the relationship by calling Silas who in turn had not returned the call
- Silas’ trip to Larry’s farm is interrupted by a call from Miss Voncille
- Silas drives to that place first and calls Angie to tell her to head to Larry‘s house
- Silas arrives at White Trash Road (a street where poor people live) and finds the snake in the mailbox of Irina, an attractive woman
- he gets the snake out of the mailbox and kills it
- asks whether Irina and her room-mates know who might have left the snake there
- might have been some crazy ex-boyfriends of them
- Silas leaves Irina his card and she promises to call him if anything else would happen
- Silas heads to Rutherford Mill to direct traffic
- gets call from Angie who is at Larry‘s place, ending the chapter with the words "Oh my God." (p. 44)
- introduction of novel‘s two main characters Larry Ott and Silas Jones and the novel‘s two main plots - the mystery of what happened to the young women and the mystery of the relationship between Larry and Silas
- contains elements of foreshadowing
- almost every incident, encounter and character in those chapters plays a role in uncovering the mysteries
- key elements: zombie mask, reference to the familiar eyes beneath that mask, snake in the mailbox, character of Irina (will provide key information later on), conflict between Larry and Silas in the past, Silas‘ feelings towards that conflict (which will determine how he investigates Larry‘s role in the disappearance of the firls)
- introduces reader to setting and place (economically depressed, racism-defined Southern Mississippi community)
- introduction of repeated images and motifs
Aus: Tom Franklin: Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, Cornelsen, Berlin 2017.
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