Heaven's Crooked Finger

October 1, 2017

Earl Marcus, long troubled by painful memories of his childhood in the Georgia mountains and terrors invoked by his father's fundamentalist church, thought he had escaped his fearsome past until a photo of his dead father, RJ, looking quite alive, is sent to him. Faithful followers of the Church of the Holy Flame insist that RJ has risen to live in a powerful and secret holy place in the mountains. Rumors of missing girls reappearing with strange marks on their skin and tales of an eerie place of power draw the reluctant Earl into danger as he tries to uncover the past and free himself from his hellish childhood. VERDICT This gritty and riveting debut combines elements of a classic Southern gothic tale, enhanced by distinct pacing, a redolent sense of place, and striking characters. The mystery is suspenseful and action packed. Fans of James Lee Burke and John Hart will want to take note.--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 4, 2017
Earl Marcus, the narrator of Early’s highly atmospheric debut and series launch, grew up in the North Georgia mountains, where his father, Ronald Jackson Marcus, the preacher at the Church of the Holy Flame, encouraged snake handling. As a teen, Earl nearly died after he was bitten by a cottonmouth and his father “refused to take me to a hospital and had instead left it to God to decide my fate.” Earl left home and now, years later, works as a PI in Charlotte, N.C. A month after a body identified as Roland’s is found in the woods, Earl gets a letter from Bryant McCauley, one of his father’s most fervent supporters, with a photo suggesting that Ronald is still alive. Earl reluctantly returns to his birthplace, where, over much opposition, he seeks McCauley, who’s disappeared, and his elusive father. Earl also gets on the trail of some missing teenage girls. Readers with a taste for raw, intense mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House.

Starred review from September 1, 2017
A man whose whole life has been colored by the excesses of his father's execrable ministry tries to come to terms with his past.Earl Marcus' daddy, RJ, was a white Georgia mountain preacher, a snake handler who let no sin go unpunished, especially those of his rebellious 17-year-old son. RJ let Earl's sister die by refusing her a doctor, since only God could cure her, and stood by for five days after Earl was bitten by one of his cottonmouths, insisting that divine will would determine his life or death. After impregnating his brother's girlfriend, Earl is blamed for her suicide. When he refuses to repent, his daddy disowns him, and he's taken in by a loving black woman widely known as Granny. Years later, when Coulee County sheriff's deputy Mary Hawkins writes to tell him that Granny, who is actually her grandmother, is dying, he takes time away from his job as a private investigator in North Carolina to spend time with her--a visit that brings him nightmares, releases repressed memories, and lands Mary and him in a truly dangerous situation. A letter from church member Bryant McCauley with a recently time-stamped photo of Earl's supposedly dead and buried father forces him to confront his past and his love/hate relationship with the man he calls Daddy. With McCauley missing, Earl sees that Coulee County hasn't changed. The corrupt sheriff still hates him, blaming him for his daughter's death, and Holy Flame, the cultlike church where his older brother, Lester, is now the preacher, seems to be controlled by their father from beyond the grave. In fact, many members, still believing RJ is alive, turn on Lester, who's trying to make the church more mainstream. Earl uncovers unspeakable acts of violence against young female congregants. Joined by a few rebels and pariahs like himself, he fights his inner demons to discover the truth about his father and the evil machinations of misogynist church members.You won't put down this powerful and painful tale, the first in a planned series, until you've seen its unlikely hero explore all the avenues of love, hate, deception, and faith and unravel a gripping mystery.

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October 1, 2017
Very little would make Earl Marcus return home to rural Georgia after three decades. Not his father's recent funeral or making peace with his brother, Lester. But when Granny Lacey, the black midwife who took him in as a teenager, is terminally ill, Earl leaves his detective business in Charlotte for what he envisions as a short trip. He's also received a letter suggesting that his father, the snake-handling founder of the Church of the Holy Flame, isn't really dead but has ascended. When he was 17, Earl's father handed him a copperhead; the snake bit him, leaving him unconscious and unaided for five days, with a scar and the sight. A subsequent tragedy involving Maggie Shaw, the girl Lester loved but who chose Earl instead, left him disgraced and hating his father. That tragedy, it turns out, still simmers, and some have lethal plans for Earl upon his return. His only allies are a dog, a blind man, and Deputy Sheriff Mary Hawkins, Granny Lacey's granddaughter, who stands up to the corruption around her. Early's debut is a skillfully crafted southern gothic page-turner. Ophidiophobes, beware.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)