Football? FBI? Woman Taking Risks? and Southern! Dip Into MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42, by Eli Cranor

Eli Cranor moves toward the middle of the field, away from some of the gore and violence of Don't Know Tough, Ozark Dogs, and Broiler, to spin an entertaining crime novel in MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42, available August 5. 

Set, of course, in Mississippi, the plot tests how a college football team can excel and make it to the top tier -- when the money pushing it forward is unquestionably dirty. FBI rookie Rae Johnson, whose life as a top coach's daughter makes her a pro at analyzing the sport, doesn't yet have field experience in her new career. Six days of crawling through documents about team performance and the thriving success of its hometown hasn't thrilled her, but it's made her certain that no bunch of college players could possibly be as clean as the records show. No DWI? No speeding? No partner issues? Someone's cleaning things up.

Her partner Frank agrees. But unless they can find the threads to the man manipulating the situation, and fast, they'll have to wrap it all up and go back to the office.

Rae's determined to do better than that. 

A month ago, the FBI Director had been handing Quantico's Leadership Award to Rae, top of her class again, but where had that gotten her? Stuck with a past-his-prime field agent investigating a possible NCAA fraud case in Compson, Mississippi. The White-Collar Crime division of the FBI wasn't exactly the trajectory Rae had imagined for her career. A Joint Terrorism Take Force would've been more her speed. More contact. More action. A badass in a black jacket with JTTF stamped across the back, chasing down leads, collecting counterintelligence, and nullifying national security threats. Then again, how many agents' daddies were college football coaches? Rae knew why she was in Compson; she was there because of her father.

The death of rising star quarterback Matt Talley pushes Rae into overdrive, determined to solve a murder as well as track down the stink of dirty money. Her father's maxims are her go-to wisdom: at this point, "In case of doubt, attack." Is it wise for her to pursue the bad guys (hint: a noose is involved) or to fake a background in order to get close to the replacement quarterback? Will her pursuit of an "inside man" break the case, or break out in naked moments? (Come to think of it, how did her field-agent partner stay calm when Rae accidentally answered her door without pants on?)

Under the great action and the quick shots of humor, there's a beguiling protagonist here whose choices may not be wise, but are still smart, strong, and very understandable. The ultimate disaster for Rae comes with a stunning twist, and her ability to save herself -- and the case -- will depend directly on what kind of FBI agent she really is.

You don't have to know a field goal from a touchdown to love this one. And diving into it could be the best break of your summer vacation. Thanks, Eli Cranor and Soho Crime.

PS - Cranor is an Edgar winner. And Soho Crime/Soho Press calls this a series debut! I'm in. 

Brief Mention: Dark Revenge Crime Fiction from Eli Cranor, OZARK DOGS

My home-grown measure of a good crime novel is the number of people I'd like to give a copy to. On that scale, alas, OZARK DOGS by Eli Cranor scored really low. 

And it's not because of the violence. Anyone reading dark stuff, "noir," knows how to handle that. Plus I really appreciated Cranor's earlier crime novel, Don't Know Tough.

Partly it's because nothing turns out right for anyone in this Southern thriller with a missing teen and her secretive granddaughter.

But the bigger part is because it paints a compelling image of "country folk" as violent, menacing, and ready to hold deadly grudges across generations (the pre-publication publicity even mentioned Hatfield–McCoy blood feud). Cranor is such a convincing writer that readers run a risk of thinking this Southern Gothic shows the real world.

Sure, you can put menace and despair into fiction, and maybe some readers won't take it personally. But give me a choice and I'll take the way Randall Silvis handles the theme instead, where courage and loyalty have as much of a presence as the junkyard dogs and the weapons.

Get a copy if you want to go really, really bleak. Just don't blame me if you drop into a week of depression or waste the grocery money on chocolate, to recover.

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Compelling, Revealing, Fierce, and Agonizing: Eli Cranor's Debut Crime Novel, DON'T KNOW TOUGH

Dennis Lehane did it for Boston: gave us the gritty lives of people growing up impoverished not just in terms of money and power, but self-esteem and affection. And then Lehane turned each narrative on its ear to show us the love and courage that burn underneath—not like an unquenched flame, but like vinegar or whiskey poured into an open wound.

In his first published novel, Eli Cranor does the same for Arkansas—not in a city but in the dangerous fields of high school football. And the even more perilous crowds of spectators, whose rough cheers and rougher sneers suggest they're ardent bystanders ... but who have built and incited the violence playing out in front of them.

Desperate but still somehow idealistic, incoming coach Trent Powers intends to bring his unruly football players into enough collaboration to win games. He must, to regain his wife's respect and some measure of the control that his Caifornia father-in-law has stripped from him. Still convinced he can be a savior, he's willing to do anything to rescue a possible team star and capture the region's prized title.

But he hasn't ever met someone like Billy Lowe before—or principal Don Bradshaw, already immersed in the team's harsh masculinity and its local roots of abuse. Bluntly, Bradshaw tells Trent Powers, "What's up is a sh**-storm, and you're sitting in the eye of it."

Extraordinary football player that he is, Billy's at the core of the team's dark nightmarish actions. The principal claims it's because of the Blackness in Billy and his older (and also game-fierce) brothers—an unproven but widely asserted claim, and a pillar of the book's Southern Gothic framework. "You got to know how to handle a Lowe."

But Cranor strips his characters under blazing spotlights, letting them narrate in turn, and readers soon know more about Billy's desperation than anyone at the school guesses. Here's a sample of Billy's home life:

I heard Him flick his lighter.

Whole body go tight at the smell, feeling that burn all over again. ... The other night when he stuck me. I's sitting on the ground against the sofa, holding Little Brother, watching Wheel of Fortune, and then he stuck that red [cigarette] tip in my neck, like it was some kind of joke. I just squeezed Little Brother tight. Just took it. Been taking his sh** for years. Back when I's a kid and He's still bigger than me—I had to take it. Didn't have no choice. Don't know if that's what I's thinking when He stuck me, but I knew I couldn't let Him see me hurt. Little Brother started screaming, loud and crazy, like he could feel the fire in my blood.

That time, Billy's Little Brother got a vicious and humiliating punishment for witnessing Billy's pain. This time, Billy's past his own limit and lets loose one massive punch that knocks over his mother's "boyfriend." The man's still alive (though he doesn't deserve to be) when Billy takes off to wash himself clean at the river—and get drunk.

When "He" dies, Billy's the immediate and only suspect. Coach Powers struggles naively to rescue Billy from this mess, the only way this outsider coach can press the team to the title. Meanwhile, two women with very different motives get involved, and despite the pulse-pounding action and violence of the story, the truth of the death emerges slowly and indirectly. And maybe not in time for anyone, least of all the coach, to be saved.

Though DON'T KNOW TOUGH is packed with brutality and its consequences, Cranor metes it out in precise doses that punch to the gut yet keep the pages turning. Grim, bleak, even the hope that does arrive—and yes, it does—comes tainted with high costs and dark potential. So take a good soul-clearing walk after reading this. But it is, in its own powerful way, well worth the pain.

From Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.