Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop

Set during the hours leading up to the scheduled execution of a black teen for the alleged rape of a white woman in 1943 Louisiana, a meticulous portrait of race, racism and injustice in the Jim Crow era South traces the experiences of the convicted boy; his father, the District Attorney; the convict truck driver delivering the executioner's chair and a couple grappling with grief and secrets.

Arriving in their summer home less than a year after the suicide of a teenage daughter, Joan and her family stumble on the death of a local young man and bond with his grieving mother before learning that the victim's death was not accidental.