The Trees

An uncanny literary thriller addressing the painful legacy of lynching in the US,by the author of Telephone Percival EverettΓÇÖs The Trees is a page-turner that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of MoneyMississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrivethey meet expected resistance from the local sheriffhis deputythe coronerand a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzlefor at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till. The detectives suspect that these are killings of retributionbut soon discover that eerily similar murders are taking place all over the country. Something truly strange is afoot. As the bodies pile upthe MBI detectives seek answers from a local root doctor who has been documenting every lynching in the country for yearsuncovering a history that refuses to be buried. In this boldprovocative bookEverett takes direct aim at racism and police violenceand does so in a fast-paced style that ensures the reader canΓÇÖt look away. The Trees is an enormously powerful novel of lasting importance from an author with his finger on AmericaΓÇÖs pulse.