The Tilted World
The Tilted World: A Novel
Set against the backdrop of the historic 1927 Mississippi Flood, a story of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, dynamite and deluge-and a man and a woman who find unexpected love-from Tom Franklin, author of the bestselling Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, and his wife, Pushcart Prize-winning poet Beth Ann Fennelly
The year is 1927. As rains swell the Mississippi, the mighty river threatens to burst its banks and engulf all in its path, including federal revenue agent Ted Ingersoll and his partner, Ham Johnson. Arriving in the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents on the trail of a local bootlegger, they unexpectedly find an abandoned baby boy at a crime scene.
An orphan raised by nuns, Ingersoll is determined to find the infant a home, a search that leads him to Dixie Clay Holliver. A lonely woman married too young to a charming and sometimes violent philanderer, Dixie Clay has lost her only child to illness and is powerless to resist this second chance at motherhood. From the moment they meet, Ingersoll and Dixie Clay are drawn to each other. He has no idea that she's the best bootlegger in the county and may be connected to the missing agents. And while he seems kind and gentle, Dixie Clay knows he is the enemy and must not be trusted.
Then a deadly new peril arises, endangering them all. A saboteur, hired by rich New Orleans bankers eager to protect their city, is planning to dynamite the levee and flood Hobnob, where the river bends precariously. Now, with time running out, Ingersoll, Ham, and Dixie Clay must make desperate choices, choices that will radically transform their lives-if they survive.
The year is 1927. As rains swell the Mississippi, the mighty river threatens to burst its banks and engulf all in its path, including federal revenue agent Ted Ingersoll and his partner, Ham Johnson. Arriving in the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents on the trail of a local bootlegger, they unexpectedly find an abandoned baby boy at a crime scene.
An orphan raised by nuns, Ingersoll is determined to find the infant a home, a search that leads him to Dixie Clay Holliver. A lonely woman married too young to a charming and sometimes violent philanderer, Dixie Clay has lost her only child to illness and is powerless to resist this second chance at motherhood. From the moment they meet, Ingersoll and Dixie Clay are drawn to each other. He has no idea that she's the best bootlegger in the county and may be connected to the missing agents. And while he seems kind and gentle, Dixie Clay knows he is the enemy and must not be trusted.
Then a deadly new peril arises, endangering them all. A saboteur, hired by rich New Orleans bankers eager to protect their city, is planning to dynamite the levee and flood Hobnob, where the river bends precariously. Now, with time running out, Ingersoll, Ham, and Dixie Clay must make desperate choices, choices that will radically transform their lives-if they survive.
My review
I like reading historical time piece stories. This book really intrigued me. While I did enjoy the story, I did not enjoy it as much as I had hoped. The only two characters that drew me into their world was Dixie Clay and Ingersoll. Otherwise I was not that interested in the rest of the cast. If this story had just been about Dixie and Ingersoll than I would have liked it better.
The world that the two authors built as the background for the book was great. This book is almost a non-fiction only this book has elements of fiction in it. However Dixie Clay and Ingersoll could be anyone...your neighbor, friend, relative. This book moved at a nice steady pace. Would have liked the story to move faster. I have never read anything by either of these authors but I could tell that they shared some good chemistry. They just meshed well together. I did get Beth Ann's influence as a poet in this book. There were times when it did read kind of like poetry.
The world that the two authors built as the background for the book was great. This book is almost a non-fiction only this book has elements of fiction in it. However Dixie Clay and Ingersoll could be anyone...your neighbor, friend, relative. This book moved at a nice steady pace. Would have liked the story to move faster. I have never read anything by either of these authors but I could tell that they shared some good chemistry. They just meshed well together. I did get Beth Ann's influence as a poet in this book. There were times when it did read kind of like poetry.
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