Directed by george tillman jr set in rural mississippi the story of two childhood friends who meet again twenty years later when one is accused of a brutal crime and the other is the police officer investigating him. Crooked letter crooked letter by tom franklin is a gripping and extremely well written mystery novel the story is set in a small town in mississippi where boyhood pals larry ott and silas 32 attend school larry was the child of lower white class white parents and silas the son of a poor black single mother. Tom franklin is the new york times bestselling author of crooked letter crooked letter which won the los angeles times book prize and the crime writers associations gold dagger award his previous works include poachers hell at the breech and smonk he teaches in the university of mississippis mfa program. A powerful and resonant novel from the critically acclaimed author of smonk and hell at the breech crooked letter crooked letter tells the riveting story of two boyhood friends torn apart by circumstance who are brought together again by a terrible crime in a small mississippi town