Dead Weight
Aug 3, 2010
Dead Weight
Author: Batt Humphreys
Hardcover: 237 pages
Publisher: Joggling Board Press; 1 edition (August 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0981873561
ISBN-13: 978-0981873565
Out in Paperback May 2010
I want to say from the start - I loved this book! The writing just grabs you and sucks you in immediately. The wording is smooth, catchy, witty, yet still with purpose in it's tone.
The story starts with elegant phrasing that could turn dull if continued for a long period of time but by the second page the dialogue starts and you realize what you are reading is a very witty reporter who thinks out loud, making the pretty phrasing of the first page.
Hal Hinson arrives in Charleston by sea just a few days before a black man goes on trial for the murder of a Jewish man. The story has caused a sensation in his native New York and as punishment for telling off his boss he's sent down South to sweat and write a story.
He soon starts meeting the residents of Charleston and is dragged into the mystery of the crime almost immediately. A man has been convicted before trial simply because of his color.
Max, the Jewish man who was killed, actually got along quite well with Nealy, the accused murderer. Nealy paid Max weekly on his wedding suit that he planned so wear shortly to wed the girl of his dreams, Ida. Nealy had worked since he was 8 for a Jewish baker and was well liked and thought of by all. He had been taken in and educated - taught to speak proper English.
His crime the day of Max's murder? Being the only black man on the street when Max's wife was attacked several weeks after his death. Being the only black man on a street of Jewish merchants - who everyone assumed were non-violent to each other - he was immediately grabbed and thrown in jail.
There he languished for 3 months until the trial finally started. His lawyer that was assigned by the courts would not even visit him until the day of the trial.
This is a wonderfully presented story of Hal, the people who meet him, treat him well - or not - and the opportunities for love and friendship he is presented with..... all while attempting to find out what actually happened the day Nealy was arrested.
His little friend Mojo is a joy to meet.
I give it a double thumbs up!
