Candlemoth

Starred review from February 4, 2013
Originally published in the U.K. in 2003, Ellory’s searing first novel recounts how Daniel Ford came to be on death row in 1982 for beheading his best friend, Nathan Verney, a decade earlier. In 1952, when Ford and Verney were both six years old, they met by the side of a South Carolina lake, where Ford, a white boy, shared his ham sandwich with Verney, a black boy. Ten years later, a gang of racist bullies tested their friendship, which only emerged stronger than ever. Ford recalls his sexual awakening, the effects of the turmoil of the 1960s on his community, and the harsh choices the Vietnam War forced on him. A prose master, Ellory (A Quiet Vendetta) says of the prison staff’s home life, “They kiss their wives, and their wives look back at them, and in their eyes is that numb and indifferent awareness that the bread and cereal and eggs they ate were paid for by killing men.” The question of Ford’s guilt lends plenty of interest, but is almost incidental to the harrowing descriptions of life behind bars and the complex unfolding of a lifelong connection between friends. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

March 15, 2013
It's 1982, and Daniel Ford is just weeks away from execution for the murder of his best friend. Although innocent, he barely refuted the charge and hasn't fully told his story until now, to his priest counselor. Daniel begins his story in Greenleaf, South Carolina, where he and Nathan Verney crossed the racial divide of the 1960s to become unlikely best friends. Alternating rapid-fire historical context (both confirmed and alleged) with the pair's story, Ellory constructs a virtual cliff from which they plummet after Nathan is drafted into the Vietnam War, and Daniel joins him on the dodge. Heading south instead of the expected route, toward the Canadian border, they confront steady doses of racial hatred but remain relatively unscathed until they return to Greenleaf, where mutual intoxication with a powerful politician's daughter results in murder. The foreshadowing is frustratingly heavy at times, but the storytelling's beckoning quality and the conclusion's welcome twist easily bury such grievances. Englishman Ellory convincingly disproves the belief of many that southern writing can't be convincingly mimicked. For fans of Tom Franklin, John Hart, and, remarkably, even Pat Conroy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)