The Tilted World

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin & Beth Ann Fennelly

After months of heavy rains, the residents of Hobnob Landing, Mississippi are increasingly uneasy as the river keeps rising in the spring of 1927. Federal revenuers Ham Johnson and Ted Ingersoll are sent to the town by Herbert Hoover to investigate two missing agents, and to search for moonshiners. Friends and WWI veterans, the unbribable pair come across a botched robbery at a country store which left a baby orphaned. An orphan himself, Ingersoll wants to find the baby boy a good home, and is referred to Dixie Clay Holliver, a young woman still mourning her own baby. She takes Willy gladly, but Ingersoll doesn’t know that she’s married to Jesse Holliver, distributor of Black Lightning, bootleg whiskey.

Ingersoll and Johnson pose as engineers, patrolling the sandbagged levee as the Mississippi River levels keeps rising. Charming, lying Jesse has his own plans, and might have been the last one to see the missing federal agents. The pacing and suspense keep increasing as some levees upstream fail. History, suspense, and a little romance bring a new look at the Great Flood of 1927. A surprisingly enjoyable read full of colorful characters.

Brenda