Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Heaven’s Crooked Finger
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S): Mantooth, John
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.hankearly.com/
CITY:
STATE: AL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
married with two children.
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | no2017160354 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/no2017160354 |
| HEADING: | Early, Hank |
| 000 | 00593nz a2200169n 450 |
| 001 | 10625268 |
| 005 | 20171208073155.0 |
| 008 | 171207n| azannaabn |n aaa c |
| 010 | __ |a no2017160354 |
| 035 | __ |a (OCoLC)oca11098035 |
| 040 | __ |a IlMpPL |b eng |e rda |c IlMpPL |
| 100 | 1_ |a Early, Hank |
| 370 | __ |c U.S. |e Alabama |
| 372 | __ |a Detective and mystery stories, American |
| 375 | __ |a male |
| 377 | __ |a eng |
| 670 | __ |a Early, H. Heaven’s crooked finger, 2017: |b title page (Hank Early) page 3 of jacket (Hank Early; middle school teacher and writer located in Central Alabama; his first Earl Marcus mystery) |
PERSONAL
Married; wife’s name Becky; children: two.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and teacher. Previously, worked as a basketball coach and school bus driver.
WRITINGS
Contributor of short stories to publications, including Fantasy, Thuglit, and Crime Factory. Contributor to anthologies, including Haunted Legends, Tor, 2010.
SIDELIGHTS
Hank Early is a writer and educator based in Alabama. Previously, worked as a basketball coach and school bus driver. Early has written novels and short stories under his own name and under the pseudonym, John Mantooth. His writings have appeared in publications, including Fantasy, Thuglit, and Crime Factory, and in the anthology, Haunted Legends.
Shoebox Train Wreck
Shoebox Train Wreck is a collection of sixteen short stories released in 2012 under the Mantooth pseudonym. Most of the stories are set in small American towns and focus on protagonists faced with harrowing circumstances.
David Pitt, reviewer in Booklist, commented: “The writing is immediate and instantly revelatory about character and setting.” “The prose is precise, detached and clips along at a compelling pace. The characters are strange, but familiar,” suggested Justin F. Ridgeway in Broken Pencil. Writing on the Shroud Magazine website, Kevin Lucia remarked: “The best thing about this collection is despite it’s shadowed nature…it’s not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn’t happen here. … And that lifts this collection above many others.”
The Year of the Storm
Also written under the Mantooth pseudonym, The Year of the Storm is a novel that centers on the difficult life of a young man named Danny. Danny narrates part of the book. He recalls a fateful incident that occurred when he was a teenager. As a storm raged in their small Alabama town, his mother and sister, Anna, went missing. Their disappearance may be connected to another missing persons case from the 1960s. Walter Pike, who is Danny’s age, is the book’s other narrator. Walter has explanations for Danny’s relatives’ disappearance that involve the paranormal. In an interview with a contributor to the Terrible Minds website, Early described the book, stating: “I suppose I’d say it’s southern, it’s gritty, and it has a speculative element. It also has a sort of hopefulness in the face of the hard (and inevitable) knowledge that the world can be a cruel and unforgiving place. I don’t necessarily set out to get that in my stories, and I hesitate to call it a theme, but it’s difficult to read any of my work without getting at least a whiff of it. I like to think of it as a sort of tough grace.”
A Publishers Weekly critic suggested: “This eerie novel can be as mesmerizing as a campfire tale, despite some awkward transitions.” Daniel Kraus, reviewer in Booklist, described The Year of the Storm as “a tough and violent book, but also one with prose that aches with loss.” A writer on the Dead End Follies website commented: “It’s both a reverse coming-of-age novel featuring the drama of becoming an adult and a mysterious, gracefully written Southern Gothic story about the unexplained powers of nature. No matter what books or television or the internet will tell you, it’s an absolute tragedy to become an adult. It’s the most tired of the dead tired clichés in existence, but both child and adult should coexist in the same person. A novel that reminds you of this great … platitude without coming off as completely corny is a successful novel.” The same writer called the book “clever, original, and unique.” Lucia, the same contributor to the Shroud Magazine website, remarked: “The novel’s back cover description simply doesn’t do it justice. The story is far more layered, smoothly revealing secrets about Pike and Danny’s mother and others along the way. Also, the prose is smooth and a delight to read, making The Year of the Storm a novel not to be missed.”
Heaven's Crooked Finger
Heaven’s Crooked Finger is the first book written under Early’s real name and is the first book in his “Earl Marcus Mystery” series. In it, Early introduces Earl, who is forced to face his difficult past when he returns to his small Georgia hometown to visit a dying woman who helped him when he was a troubled teen. In an interview with Lance Wright, contributor to the Omni Mystery website, Early discussed his plans for the series, stating: “I didn’t just choose to write one recurring character; I chose to write a recurring cast of characters. Ideally, I hope each book can stand alone, but also build on the last one. I also hope an overall storyline will emerge involving the protagonist and secondary characters. So, yes, I do expect all the characters to develop over time. I hope that is already happening as I am putting the finishing touches on book two, In the Valley of the Devil.”
“With his surprising new work of hillbilly noir, Hank Early has established a solid foundation for a new crime series,” asserted Gary Presley in ForeWord. A Kirkus Reviews critic remarked: “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.” Writing in Booklist, Michele Leber commented: “Early’s debut is a skillfully crafted southern gothic page-turner.” A Publishers Weekly contributor described Heaven’s Crooked Finger as “highly atmospheric” and suggested: “Readers with a taste for raw, intense mysteries will be rewarded.” Barbara Clark, reviewer on BookPage Online, called the book “riveting” and praised “Early’s gripping narrative.” Clark concluded: “Altogether, this is a humdinger of a story told with a fresh voice and more than a lick of understanding.” A writer on the Big Thrill website noted that the novel “takes readers to a world that is still relatively unexplored in crime fiction: the southern Appalachians viewed through the lens of religious extremism. It also brings in elements of horror and straddles the line between reality and the supernatural.” In a favorable assessment of the book on the New York Journal of Books website, Barry Lee Dejasu asserted: “Heaven’s Crooked Finger is an outstanding work of literary suspense, a tale as devastatingly beautiful as it is powerfully intelligent. Fans of a wide variety of fiction are in store for a remarkable read in this novel, which perfectly combines elements of Southern gothic literature and hard-boiled mystery. And with more tales to follow, this is the start of a new trail in mystery fiction—with Hank Early paving the way.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 15, 2012, David Pitt, review of Shoebox Train Wreck, p. 26; June 1, 2013, Daniel Kraus, review of The Year of the Storm, p. 42; October 1, 2017, Michele Leber, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger, p. 31.
Broken Pencil, April, 2012, Justin F. Ridgeway, review of Shoebox Train Wreck, p. 65.
ForeWord, October 27, 2017, Gary Presley, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2017, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger.
Publishers Weekly, April 22, 2013, review of The Year of the Storm, p. 34; September 4, 2017, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger, p. 66.
ONLINE
Big Thrill, http://www.thebigthrill.org/ (November 30, 2017), author interview.
BookPage Online, https://bookpage.com/ (November 7, 2017), Barbara Clark, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger.
Dead End Follies, http://www.deadendfollies.com/ (June 27, 2013), review of The Year of the Storm.
Hank Early Website, https://www.hankearly.com/ (April 30, 2018).
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (April 24, 2018), Barry Lee Dejasu, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger.
Omni Mystery, http://www.omnimysterynews.com/ (November 14, 2017), Lance Wright, review of Heaven’s Crooked Finger.
Shroud, http://shroudmagazinebookreviews.blogspot.com/ (April 21, 2012), Kevin Lucia, review of Shoebox Train Wreck; (August 26, 2013), Kevin Lucia, review of The Year of the Storm.
Terrible Minds, http://terribleminds.com/ (May 30, 2013), author interview.
Hank Early spent much of his youth in the mountains of North Georgia, but he never held a snake or got struck by lightning. These days, he lives in central Alabama with his wife and two kids. He writes crime, watches too much basketball, and rarely sleeps. Heaven's Crooked Finger is his first novel. He's represented by Alec Shane of Writers House.
In a previous life, he published some books as John Mantooth. Check them out here.
John Mantooth is an award-winning author whose short stories have been recognized in numerous year's best anthologies. His short fiction has been published in Fantasy Magazine, Crime Factory, Thuglit, and the Stoker winning anthology, Haunted Legends (Tor, 2010), among others. He's represented by Alec Shane of Writers House. His first book, Shoebox Train Wreck, was released in March of 2012 from Chizine Publications. His debut novel, The Year of the Storm, came out in June 2013 from Berkley. He lives in Alabama with his wife, Becky, and two children.
QUOTED: "With his surprising new work of hillbilly noir, Hank Early has established a solid foundation for a new crime series."
Heaven's Crooked Finger
Gary Presley
ForeWord.
(Oct. 27, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 ForeWord http://www.forewordmagazine.com
Full Text:
Hank Early; HEAVEN'S CROOKED FINGER; Crooked Lane Books (Fiction: Mystery) 26.99 ISBN: 9781683313915
Byline: Gary Presley
With his surprising new work of hillbilly noir, Hank Early has established a solid foundation for a new crime series.
With Heaven's Crooked Finger, Hank Early uses a mystery as a vehicle to dissect fundamentalist religiosity and explore themes of familial love, patriarchal oppression, racial tension, and systematic violence.
Earl Marcus is a private detective in Charlotte, North Carolina, who has refused to go home to the Georgia mountains for three decades. He even missed his father's funeral. Then he receives a photograph of his father, time-stamped after the date of his supposed death.
The photograph arrives courtesy of local sheriff's deputy Mary, whose dying grandmother once gave Earl refuge after his father kicked him out. Back in Georgia, Earl is confronted by deaths, disappearances, and beliefs that his father, the snake-handling pastor of the Church of the Holy Flame, "ascended" after his death.
This seamless yet complex narrative employs incidents from Earl's youth, including the seminal event of Earl being bitten by a poisonous cottonmouth snake. To his father, the bite marked Earl as an unrepentant sinner.
Earl's father, RJ, proves to be the strongest, most nuanced character in the strong cast. Elsewhere, the malevolence of fundamentalism is represented by a Holy Flame member who is "taller than a
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tree" and whose "eyes look like glass." Earl is a cynical observer, damaged emotionally by his upbringing. Mary is half white and stands on uncertain ground in the racist backcountry. She and Earl uncover mysteries surrounding local young women -- some who have gone missing, some who returned home brutalized, all who are silent.
Laced with cringe-inspiring descriptions of deadly reptiles -- "a living wall of the creatures, so entwined they pulsed as one great heart, an organ whose arteries had wrapped it in a blood-black knot" -- the novel's rapid pace hurries toward a conclusion that is surprisingly unexpected, one perhaps at the edge of believability.
While Heaven's Crooked Finger is more hillbilly noir than classic Southern literature, Hank Early has established a solid foundation for a new crime series.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Presley, Gary. "Heaven's Crooked Finger." ForeWord, 27 Oct. 2017. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512224193/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=a49b8034. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512224193
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QUOTED: "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."
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Early, Hank: HEAVEN'S CROOKED FINGER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Sept. 1, 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Early, Hank HEAVEN'S CROOKED FINGER Crooked Lane (Adult Fiction) $26.99 11, 7 ISBN: 978-1-68331-391-5
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.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Early, Hank: HEAVEN'S CROOKED FINGER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Sept. 2017. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A502192338/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=58e0d743. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A502192338
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QUOTED: "Early's debut is a skillfully crafted southern gothic page-turner."
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Heaven's Crooked Finger
Michele Leber
Booklist.
114.3 (Oct. 1, 2017): p31. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Heaven's Crooked Finger. By Hank Early. Nov. 2017.336p. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (9781683313915); e-book, $12.99 (9781683313922).
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. --Michele Leber
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Leber, Michele. "Heaven's Crooked Finger." Booklist, 1 Oct. 2017, p. 31. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A510653766/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=05716ec3. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A510653766
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QUOTED: "highly atmospheric."
"Readers with a taste for raw, intense mysteries will be rewarded."
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Heaven's Crooked Finger: An Earl Marcus Mystery
Publishers Weekly.
264.36 (Sept. 4, 2017): p66+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Heaven's Crooked Finger: An Earl Marcus Mystery Hank Early. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-68331-391-5
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. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Heaven's Crooked Finger: An Earl Marcus Mystery." Publishers Weekly, 4 Sept. 2017, p. 66+.
Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505468061 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=2e93322d. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505468061
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QUOTED: "The writing is immediate and instantly revelatory about character and setting."
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Shoebox Train Wreck
David Pitt
Booklist.
108.14 (Mar. 15, 2012): p26. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2012 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Shoebox Train Wreck.
By John Mantooth.
Mar. 2012. 263p. illus. ChiZine, $15.95 (9781926851549).
These 16 short stories are unconnected in terms of their characters and plots, but they are very much thematically related. The people are mostly small-town folk, many of them children or young adults (and even some of the adults seem quite like children). A few of the stories have traditional horror-fantasy elements, but most of them are character pieces, small situational dramas in which the protagonist, faced with a difficult set of circumstances, is forced to make a tragic decision. The writing is immediate and instantly revelatory about character and setting ("Doug settles back down on the couch with a fresh beer, as Martin starts another porn flick"); each word feels like it was chosen because of the way it nestles together with the words on either side. When you leave a short story feeling like you need to go stand out in the sunshine, or wash the grime off your hands, you know the author has done what he set out to do.--David Pitt
YMM: Teen characters, snatches of horror, and sparkling language make this one appealing for YA readers. DP.
Pitt, David
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pitt, David. "Shoebox Train Wreck." Booklist, 15 Mar. 2012, p. 26. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A284551747/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=aa55ca68. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A284551747
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QUOTED: "This eerie novel can be as mesmerizing as a campfire tale, despite some awkward transitions."
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The Year of the Storm
Publishers Weekly.
260.16 (Apr. 22, 2013): p34+. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 PWxyz, LLC http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Year of the Storm
John Mantooth. Berkley, $15 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-425-26574-1
Danny, the 29-year-old main narrator of Mantooth's gripping first novel with supernatural overtones, has a painful story to tell his therapist. When he was 14, his mother and little sister, Anna, disappeared from their rural Alabama home during a violent storm. After nine months of exhaustive searching, there was still no trace of the two. All signs pointed to his mother, who is disturbed and unhappy, voluntarily leaving home with Anna. But was there a connection with the chilling case of two local girls missing since the early 1960s? Enter second narrator Walter Pike, a reclusive and erratic Vietnam vet, who was also 14 at the time Danny's mother and sister vanished. Walter told Danny some unsettling stories, which Danny ultimately put to the test. Did Danny find a parallel universe? Were Danny and Walter both delusional? This eerie novel can be as mesmerizing as a campfire tale, despite some awkward transitions between past and present. Agent: Beth Fleisher, Clear Sailing Creatives. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Year of the Storm." Publishers Weekly, 22 Apr. 2013, p. 34+. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A327725460/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=46291615. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A327725460
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QUOTED: "a tough and violent book, but also one with prose that aches with loss."
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
The Year of the Storm
Daniel Kraus
Booklist.
109.19-20 (June 1, 2013): p42. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2013 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
The Year of the Storm. By John Mantooth. June 2013.320p. Berkley, paper, $15 (9780425265741).
It's been months since Danny's mother and sister mysteriously disappeared into the woods. The anxious stasis of Danny's life is interrupted by filthy, chain-smoking, oxygen tank-toting Walter Pike, who appears on the doorstep saying he might know what happened to them. In an alternate story line narrated by Pike, we learn a tale from his youth, when the teenage Walter befriended an outcast, Seth, who escaped bullies by taking refuge in an underground storm shelter in the forest. It was via this shelter that Seth learned to "slip"--to somehow travel to a strange swamp landscape where two girls missing from town seemed to continue to exist. Walter thinks Danny's mother and sister may be in that same nether-swamp, but the time to find them is "growing short. Yes, it takes a bit of effort to keep the similar story lines straight, but Mantooth's masterful foreshadowing creates a need to know even when the stakes are lessened by the fantasy element. A tough and violent book, but also one with prose that aches with loss.--Daniel Kraus
YA: Both story lines star sensitive, brave adolescents, and the mash-up of the gritty and the fantastical should be right up many teens' alleys. DK.
Kraus, Daniel
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Kraus, Daniel. "The Year of the Storm." Booklist, 1 June 2013, p. 42. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A335921603/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=523e3692. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A335921603
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QUOTED: "The prose is precise, detached and clips along at a compelling pace. The characters are strange, but familiar."
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Shoebox Trainwreck
Justin F. Ridgeway
Broken Pencil.
.55 (Apr. 2012): p65. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2012 Broken Pencil http://www.brokenpencil.com
Full Text:
John Mantooth, 247 pgs, Chizine Publications, chizinepub.com $17.95
Something about the garish cover and splashy title font of this Chizine book feels very spinning- wire-rack at a nickel-and-dime store. As thoughtfully curated as the Toronto small press' catalogue usually is, something about the packaging here suggests more Stephen King-lite than Giller prize short-list. I say this all because the genre-bending SXSW gothic noir pulp fiction stories inside the package are good. Like really good. Following the styles and themes of Barry Gifford and Cormac McCarthy, these stories would find a home on the big screen under the directorial hand of Tarantino, Wenders or (early) Van Sant. The prose is precise, detached and clips along at a compelling pace. The characters are strange, but familiar, all bound by tragic narratives and often fatal mistakes. In "This is Where The Road Ends," a man sits at a diner booth debating whether to walk out on the woman carrying his child--his past might not permit either of them to have a future together anyway. Such Dantean figures reside in a purgatory where redemption remains eternally elusive. The strength of these tales makes me want to know about Mr. Mantooth, but all I could find on the worldwide web is that he is (or was) a school-bus- driving Grade seven English teacher. This fits the protagonist in "Litany," a story about four students that end their last days ... . Hmmm. Maybe there's a reason this talented Mantooth (if that is his real name) needs to keep under the radar.
Ridgeway, Justin F.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ridgeway, Justin F. "Shoebox Trainwreck." Broken Pencil, Apr. 2012, p. 65. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A290420128/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=39df9c02. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A290420128
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QUOTED: "The best thing about this collection is despite it's shadowed nature...it's not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn't happen here. ... And that lifts this collection above many others."
Shoebox Train Wreck, (Chizine Publications), by John Mantooth
John Mantooth's Shoebox Train Wreck is a unique, startling, moving collection of genre-twisting stories that play out in those shadowed places that linger as the sun goes down. These stories happen in the marginalized, dark nooks and crannies of life that most folks only dare look at out of the corner of their eyes, if at all. Some of the best stories are:
"A Long Fall Into Nothing", in which an unhealthy, symbiotic relationship spirals down to its only, inevitable conclusion. "The Water Tower", in which two friends embark on a journey and find something more horrible and sadder than the dead "alien" they'd been looking for.
"Walk the Wheat", a touching - and eerie - story in which brotherhood bonds stretch past the grave. "This Is Where the Road Ends", a story about a man who can't let go of his guilt...and also can't bring himself to admit it to the one he loves. "Saving Doll", an especially wrenching story about a high school track star trying to free herself from her family's squalid destiny, but to do so, she must face a shocking betrayal, rather than run from it. "The Cecilia Paradox", in which the future may be televised, or apocalyptic, or staged...or all three. "Chicken", a story about a boy pretending to be fearless, and the boy he meets who really does fear nothing. Or, perhaps everything.
The three best stories are "Sucky", "James" and the collection's title story, "Shoebox Train Wreck." In "Sucky", a boy with special needs discovers that his greatest fear will deliver a kind of mournful, partial salvation. "James" is a wonderfully non-linear story about those individuals - or, maybe, that same individual - we encounter throughout life who never fits in anywhere, and eventually fades away. And "Shoebox Train Wreck", a story in which a man's grief and sadness holds back more than just his own life.
The best thing about this collection is despite it's shadowed nature...it's not needlessly grim. Often, collections like these boast stories ending in despair and pointlessness, offering no resolution of any kind. That doesn't happen here. These stories feature broken, confused, wandering souls. But many of them find a kind of resolution or peace, or, at the very least, discover the hope of such peace. And that lifts this collection above many others.
Visit jpmantooth.blogspot.com. Buy the ebook or print version today.
Kevin Lucia is a Contributing Editor for Shroud Magazine and a blogger for The Midnight Diner. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. He's currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles, and he's currently working on his first novel. Visit him on the web at www.kevinlucia.com.
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QUOTED: "I suppose I’d say it’s southern, it’s gritty, and it has a speculative element. It also has a sort of hopefulness in the face of the hard (and inevitable) knowledge that the world can be a cruel and unforgiving place. I don’t necessarily set out to get that in my stories, and I hesitate to call it a theme, but it’s difficult to read any of my work without getting at least a whiff of it. I like to think of it as a sort of tough grace."
Ten Questions About The Year Of The Storm, By John Mantooth
Sometimes you get a book that has some buzz with it, a book you really want to tear into soon as you get a chance — for me, this is one of them, because it sounds right in my narrative sweet spot. Here’s author John Mantooth talking about his newest, The Year Of The Storm:
TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF: WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?
I’m a southern boy, born in Georgia, raised in Alabama. I’m a dad, a husband, a teacher, and a writer. In past lives I coached basketball, drove a school bus, played bass in a rock and roll band, and loafed with such effortless grace some observers called it sublime (others called it something else).
GIVE US THE 140-CHARACTER STORY PITCH:
Nine months after Danny’s mother and sister disappear in the woods behind his house, a tortured Vietnam vet shows up at his door claiming to know their whereabouts.
WHERE DOES THIS STORY COME FROM?
I think it comes from wanting to write a story that actually explains where missing people go. I mean, I think I know where they go. Logic tells us that a missing person has moved on with their life somewhere else, been abducted, or they’ve been murdered. Illogically, I’ve always wanted there to be another option. I wanted there to be a “slip” that people sometimes could stumble upon, and when they did, it would take them somewhere else, some “other” world. So, I suppose that’s why I wrote the story. That, and I had an old painting that one of my grandmother’s sisters had done years ago that captured my imagination. It was of a little cabin at dusk, sitting on the outskirts of what appeared to be a swamp. That painting influenced the book probably more than anything else.
HOW IS THIS A STORY ONLY YOU COULD’VE WRITTEN?
Oh that’s a tough one. I suppose I’d say it’s southern, it’s gritty, and it has a speculative element. It also has a sort of hopefulness in the face of the hard (and inevitable) knowledge that the world can be a cruel and unforgiving place. I don’t necessarily set out to get that in my stories, and I hesitate to call it a theme, but it’s difficult to read any of my work without getting at least a whiff of it. I like to think of it as a sort of tough grace.
WHAT WAS THE HARDEST THING ABOUT WRITING THE YEAR OF THE STORM?
The ending. I must have rewritten it a dozen times, and when I say the ending, I mean the last fourth of the book. Endings are extremely difficult for me. It was important that the ending didn’t just resolve the action of the story, but also resolved or at least attempted to resolve the over arching emotional concerns of the novel. This was especially challenging because this novel called for a touch of ambiguity to tie it all together. But yeah, the ending kicked my ass.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN WRITING THE YEAR OF THE STORM?
I learned that I can get it right. I think in the past when a novel got hard, I just quit and moved on to something else. I learned that this is a terrible mistake because whatever you move on to is going to be just as hard in time. You have to work through the difficulties. Take a small break if necessary, but don’t abandon it. Others probably have different opinions on this, but for me, I’ve got to push through and make it the story I envisioned. Starting another story isn’t a solution. It’s a delaying tactic. Every story is hard in its own way.
WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE STORM?
I love the narrative voice. It’s told by an adult looking back on his childhood. I think it’s a voice I do particularly well. It seems natural to me, easy to write. I also love the setting. It’s no particular place except rural Alabama, but when I reread sections, I feel like I got it right, if not in specifics, at least in tone.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME?
Write it faster. The book took me three years. Part of that was a result of teaching full time, having small kids, and getting my master’s in library science. My kids are older now. The master’s is done. The next one is going to be faster.
GIVE US YOUR FAVORITE PARAGRAPH FROM THE STORY:
This takes place near the opening of the novel. Danny, the narrator, wonders if the strange man in his front yard might somehow be related to the legends he’d grown up hearing.
“I’d been hearing the stories about these woods since I was a kid. Most of them were the generic campfire variety, the same urban legends reshuffled and personalized for different times, different settings, but one story was more than that. One story had the ring of authenticity. It was unique to these woods, and unlike the tales of hook hands and insane asylum escapees, it never seemed to fade away. Two girls, Tina and Rachel, lost in the woods behind our house. I grew up knowing their names just like I knew anything else. They were a part of the landscape, a part of the place where I lived. It didn’t matter if I’d never seen them or heard them speak or even gotten the whole story straight about their disappearances. I felt their presences intimately, and their loss settled on the woods like a heavy fog. When I walked through the darkest parts behind my house near dusk, sometimes I thought I saw them in the gloom, floating, transparent, made from spiders’ webs and dying streaks of light mingled with shadow. Their sad visages slithering round tree trunks and drifting past blooming moonvines. I shuddered, thinking that the man responsible for these disappearances might be standing in my front yard.”
WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU AS A STORYTELLER?
Working on the next novel. I’m not going to say what it’s about because I’m superstitious like that and don’t want to jinx it.
Thanks for the interview, Chuck!
John Mantooth: Website / @busfulloflosers
The Year Of The Storm: Amazon / B&N
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QUOTED: "It's both a reverse coming-of-age novel featuring the drama of becoming an adult and a mysterious, gracefully written Southern Gothic story about the unexplained powers of nature. No matter what books or television or the internet will tell you, it's an absolute tragedy to become an adult. It's the most tired of the dead tired clichés in existence, but both child and adult should coexist in the same person. A novel that reminds you of this great ... platitude without coming off as completely corny is a successful novel."
"clever, original, and unique."
Book Review : John Mantooth - The Year of The Storm (2013)
Order THE YEAR OF THE STORM here
Fourteen was the year my mother and sister disappeared, the year I lost my mind. The year I learned secrets that will stay with me until I am no longer able to think of them.
And fourteen, most of all, was the year of the storm.
I feel like Southern Gothic is one of the last great literaty tradition, a remnant from an era where publishing was about something else than marketing strategies and number crunching. Today, the game is all about genre, target audience and trying to keep the man pleased, so that drains a lot of the magic out of literature. Pardon my old man rant, but I get enthusiastic about Southern Gothic literature. I love it. Plus, I'm in the right headspace to enjoy it nowadays, but that's another, longer story. THE YEAR OF THE STORM, by John Mantooth is a Southern Gothic coming-of-age novel about coping with loss. My favourite thing about it is that it doesn't give a flying fuck about what coming-of-age novels are supposed to say. It's kind of an anti coming-of-age, like CATCHER IN THE RYE, with supernatural elements and a more sympathetic protagonist. Who wouldn't want some?
Danny was fourteen when he witnesses his mother and his autistic little sister walk out and disappear into a powerful storm. Left alone with his father, he struggles to adjust to a life without them and refuses to give up hope that they are coming back. When a beat-up Vietnam veteran named Walter Pike shows up on his doorstep, claiming to know where his mother and sister have vanished, Danny clings to this news like a life raft. He would pursue the truth no matter what his father and his best friend Cliff have to say about it. But what is the truth exactly? What does Walter Pike have to offer? In certain cases, the truth is so damned bizarre and extraordinary that it requires a little bit of faith. When reality is keeping you in the dark, surviving requires you to believe in things you cannot understand.
Coming-of-age is not exactly an original theme in Southern Gothic fiction. Hell, it's one of the most popular tropes in literature. Kissing your childhood goodbye, shedding your innocence like a protective cocoon and becoming an adult is a story that resonates within us all, because we've been through it and we always love to see somebody gracefully go through the same ordeal. THE YEAR OF THE STORM throws an interesting monkey wrench in the convention: why would it have to be this way? What if the children within is the best part of us? The protagonists Danny and Walter are constantly confronted to mediocrity, to the abuse of other people and keep themselves centered with the memories of people they loved and the thin sliver of hope that they'll see them again someday. They're not exactly rational about it, but they live in a world where rationality means resignation. Even if I'm a pretty rational person myself, I can get behind that philosophy: it's not because something isn't explained and understood that it doesn't exist.
''I say that we climb this tree and get in position because Sarah and Rebecca are going to be here in bikinis. And Rebecca's like twenty. Let that sink in for a second.''
I shook my head, I'd been a part of Cliff's schemes before.
''I'm going to pretend you didn't just shake your head and roll your eyes,'' Cliff said. ''Two words: Golden. Opportunity.''
I shrugged. I felt tired and completely uninvolved even if there might be an opportunity to see female flesh.
''You ever stop to think that me and you are just lusers, Cliff?''
''Of course we're losers, but we're losers with binoculars. Is there a problem?''
I'm always wary of liking novels with teenage protagonists, because they feast on the concept of bullying to create tension and antagonism with the same gracefulness than a competitive eater stuffing wet hot dogs down his throat. It's never pretty. THE YEAR OF THE STORM features several scenes of bullying, yet manages to keep its dignity in that regards. I'm not sure I fully wrapped my head around why it's working in this novel and not elsewhere. I don't think the word ''bully'' or ''bullying'' was ever actually printed on the pages of THE YEAR OF THE STORM and it's a novel about two men rejected by the world, caught in-between realities so I suppose there is a sense of purpose to John Mantooth's use of bullies, here. If anything, it's evidence that Mantooth refuses to be didactic with his fiction and writes scenes to create moments first and foremost. THE YEAR OF THE STORM has the purity of intent of good art. It used themes that I openly dislike and manage not to antagonize me.
I really liked the boldness of THE YEAR OF THE STORM. It's both a reverse coming-of-age novel featuring the drama of becoming an adult and a mysterious, gracefully written Southern Gothic story about the unexplained powers of nature. No matter what books or television or the internet will tell you, it's an absolute tragedy to become an adult. It's the most tired of the dead tired clichés in existence, but both child and adult should coexist in the same person. A novel that reminds you of this great fucking platitude without coming off as completely corny is a successful novel to me and that's what THE YEAR OF THE STORM did. It's a clever, original and unique novel that eschews precise labeling because it doesn't fit any precise mold. It has the timelessness of novels that understand literary tradition.
Ben
John Mantooth, southern gothic, Book Reviews
QUOTED: "The novel's back cover description simply doesn't do it justice. The story is far more layered, smoothly revealing secrets about Pike and Danny's mother and others along the way. Also, the prose is smooth and a delight to read, making The Year of the Storm a novel not to be missed."
Monday, August 26, 2013
The Year of the Storm (Berkley), by John Mantooth
Too often "dark fiction" is a cipher for stories about the meaningless of life - that it's empty and devoid of purpose, and it's a rare author who can take readers through a dark and sometimes disturbing journey, nudge them close enough to the edge so they can look into the abyss below...but pull them back and offer them hope at the end.
John Mantooth is one of those authors, and as he did in his short story collection Shoebox Train Wreck, he walks this line in The Year of the Storm, showing us BOTH the worst and best in people, and showing us the magic and power of belief.
When Danny's mother and autistic sister disappear in the middle of a storm, life tilts into a dark, off-kilter world in which he's always waiting for them to return while his father grows ever more distant, bottling up his grief. After the police searches are long called off and everyone - including his father - has given up hope, Danny persists in his belief alone, convinced, somehow, that his mother and sister are still out there, somewhere, stabbed also by guilt that it's his fault they disappeared to begin with.
When a mysterious man named Walter Pike - a man with secrets and a tainted past - returns to his hometown, Danny's belief that his mother and sister can be found grows, because Walter hints at mysterious, nebulous things: that we understand so little about the world around us, that there are other worlds only just a step - or a slip - away. And despite the fact that his father and the Sheriff maintain Pike is a crazy, dangerous old man, despite his best friend's doubts, Danny follows Pike on a journey into the past, into a world that exists just next to our own...one he'll need every ounce of courage and belief he has to survive.
The Year of the Storm is a meta-physical "coming of age" tale that hits all the right notes, both light and dark. With ease, Mantooth flips back and forth between two first person narratives - Danny's in the present and Walter Pike's in the past, when he's Danny's age - and the novel's back cover description simply doesn't do it justice. The story is far more layered, smoothly revealing secrets about Pike and Danny's mother and others along the way. Also, the prose is smooth and a delight to read, making The Year of the Storm a novel not to be missed.
Visit John Mantooth's website. Buy the paperback or the ebook.
Kevin Lucia is an Associate Fiction Editor for The Horror Channel and his podcast "Horror 101" is featured monthly on Tales to Terrify. His short fiction has appeared in several venues. He’s currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children. He is the author of Hiram Grange & The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles and his first short story collection, Things Slip Through is forthcoming November 2013 from Crystal Lake Publishing. He’s currently working on his first novel.
QUOTED: "I didn’t just choose to write one recurring character; I chose to write a recurring cast of characters. Ideally, I hope each book can stand alone, but also build on the last one. I also hope an overall storyline will emerge involving the protagonist and secondary characters. So, yes, I do expect all the characters to develop over time. I hope that is already happening as I am putting the finishing touches on book two, In the Valley of the Devil."
A Conversation with Mystery Author Hank Early
Lance Wright 11/14/2017 08:00:00 AM No Comments
Omnimystery News: Author Interview with Hank Early
We are delighted to welcome author Hank Early to Omnimystery News today.
Hank's series debut is Heaven's Crooked Finger (Crooked Lane Books; November 2017 hardcover, trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently caught up with him to talk more about the book.
— ♦ —
Omnimystery News: Why did you choose to start a new series with a recurring character? And do you expect him to evolve over the course of subsequent books?
Hank Early
Photo provided courtesy of
Hank Early
Hank Early: I didn’t just choose to write one recurring character; I chose to write a recurring cast of characters. Ideally, I hope each book can stand alone, but also build on the last one. I also hope an overall storyline will emerge involving the protagonist and secondary characters. So, yes, I do expect all the characters to develop over time. I hope that is already happening as I am putting the finishing touches on book two, In the Valley of the Devil.
OMN: Into which genre would you place this series?
HE: If I had to say, I suppose my books are a hybrid mix of crime/Southern Gothic. But honestly, I write what interests me, which changes from book to book, but I tend to come back to rural settings and Gothic underpinnings. And since my main character, Earl Marcus is a private investigator, there will likely be a crime or crimes to investigate.
OMN: Tell us something about Heaven's Crooked Finger that isn't mentioned in the publisher's synopsis.
HE: I don’t think the synopsis mentions the character study elements in the novel. Sure it’s a thriller and a mystery, but the novel delves deeply into Earl’s past and the way it affects his present situation. The book also has a little romance.
OMN: How much of your own personal or professional experience have you included in the book?
HE: I drew upon memories from some of the churches I went to as a child. None of them were as extreme as the church Earl grew up in, but they served as the impetus for the story. I suppose Granny’s character is based on my real grandmother to some extent.
OMN: What is the best advice you've received as an author? And what might you say to aspiring authors?
HE: My buddy, Kurt Dinan (you’ve got to read his book Don’t Get Caught if you haven’t) is always getting on to me about speeding up the pace of my books. I think it’s finally sinking in. People say Heaven’s Crooked Finger is fast-paced, so there you go. As to advice I’d give to aspiring authors, I have one thing: stick with it. The only way to fail in this business is by giving up.
OMN: Complete this sentence for us: "I am a mystery author and thus I am also …"
HE: … a little bit insane because let’s be honest, being a writer is one third awesome and two thirds self-flagellation.
OMN: Where do you most often find yourself writing?
HE: There’s a little coffee shop not too far from my house where I do my best writing. The coffee is excellent, as are the muffins. The seats are comfortable, and the music isn’t too loud or too terrible. Plus, there’s a little place down the road that serves breakfast until two. Good bacon and eggs are my favorite writer fuel.
OMN: If you could travel anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, to research a setting for a book, where would it be?
HE: I’d like to set an Earl Marcus book in Charleston, South Carolina. I’d love to go there for a month or so and research some of the ghost stories there. It’s a beautiful city with tons of Southern Gothic overtones, and I can definitely see Earl visiting it at some point.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us.
HE: Top 5 books you should read:
1. Poachers by Tom Franklin
2. Anything by James Lee Burke
3. The End of Everything by Megan Abbott
4. Girl Trouble by Holly Goddard Jones
5. Joe by Larry Brown
— ♦ —
Hank Early spent much of his youth in the mountains of North Georgia, but he never held a snake or got struck by lightning. These days, he lives in central Alabama with his wife and two kids. He writes crime, watches too much basketball, and rarely sleeps.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at HankEarly.com and his author page on Goodreads, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.
— ♦ —
Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early
Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early
An Earl Marcus Mystery
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Amazon.com Print/Kindle Format(s)BN.com Print/Nook Format(s)iTunes iBook FormatKobo eBook Format
Earl Marcus thought he had left the mountains of Georgia behind forever, and with them, the painful memories of a childhood spent under the fundamentalist rule of his father RJ’s church—a church built on fear, penance, and the twisting, writhing mass of snakes. But then an ominous photo of RJ is delivered to Earl’s home. The photograph is dated long after his father’s burial, and there’s no doubt that the man in the picture is very much alive.
As Earl returns to Church of the Holy Flame searching for the truth, faithful followers insist that his father has risen to a holy place high in the mountains. Nobody will talk about the teenage girls who go missing, only to return with strange tattoo-like marks on their skin. Rumors swirl about an old well that sits atop one of the mountains, a place of unimaginable power and secrets. Earl doesn’t know what to believe, but he has long been haunted by his father, forever lurking in the shadows of his life. Desperate to leave his sinful Holy Flame childhood in the past, Earl digs up deeply buried secrets to discover the truth before time runs out and he’s the one put underground.
— Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early
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QUOTED: "riveting" "Early's gripping narrative."
"Altogether, this is a humdinger of a story told with a fresh voice and more than a lick of understanding."
Web Exclusive – November 07, 2017
Heaven's Crooked Finger
A zealot risen from the dead
BookPage review by Barbara Clark
Hank Early’s riveting debut novel, Heaven's Crooked Finger, is set in Georgia's countryside, deep in mountain country. Most of its residents haven’t traveled beyond the Fingers, the five imposing peaks that surround their county. Those mountains, and what may be found there, are the focus of Early’s gripping narrative.
Readers will take a trip into the dark, evil heart of religious zealotry, and into the heart of fanatical preacher RJ Marcus. He keeps his congregation thoroughly cowed with his fiery sermons on hell and damnation along with his snakes, slithering in a pit at the front of the church, waiting to test a sinner’s faith—or fear.
After committing sins that are unpardonable in the eyes of the Church of the Holy Flame, RJ’s 17-year-old son Earl rebels against his father and leaves town. Earl's obedient brother, Lester, remains behind. But neither son has been able to free himself from their controlling father, even after his death months ago.
Thirty years after his escape, Earl is returning to his hometown in order to investigate the bizarre rumors that RJ has risen from the dead and ascended into the mountains, ruling the lives of his flock with all the terror of a true demon.
Earl is not as likable a fellow as we might wish for in a protagonist, but Heaven's Crooked Finger is chock full of meaty characters, any one of whom could figure as the subject of a separate book: the wily Rufus, whose lack of sight is never a hindrance to his wit and kindness; a villainous sheriff; runaways Millie and Todd; and a collection of lovely young women, victims of the church’s despotism.
Altogether this is a humdinger of a story told with a fresh voice and more than a lick of understanding.
QUOTED: "takes readers to a world that is still relatively unexplored in crime fiction: the southern Appalachians viewed through the lens of religious extremism. It also brings in elements of horror and straddles the line between reality and the supernatural."
Heaven’s Crooked Finger by Hank Early
November 30, 2017 by ITW
0
Eerie, intense, and masterfully-crafted, Hank Early’s gripping series debut HEAVEN’S CROOKED FINGER transports readers to a secretive community in the Georgia mountains.
Earl Marcus thought he had left the mountains of Georgia behind forever, and with them, the painful memories of a childhood spent under the fundamentalist rule of his father RJ’s church–a church built on fear, penance, and the twisting, writhing mass of snakes. But then an ominous photo of RJ is delivered to Earl’s home. The photograph is dated long after his father’s burial, and there’s no doubt that the man in the picture is very much alive.
HEAVEN’S CROOKED FINGER author, Hank Early, spent some time with The Big Thrill discussing his latest novel:
What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
Enjoyment and satisfaction for starters. Beyond that, I’d say a little insight into the way people are driven to embrace faith even when it harms them.
How does this book make a contribution to the genre?
HEAVEN’S CROOKED FINGER takes readers to a world that is still relatively unexplored in crime fiction: the southern Appalachians viewed through the lens of religious extremism. It also brings in elements of horror and straddles the line between reality and the supernatural. Or at least I hope it does.
Was there anything new you discovered, or that surprised you, as you wrote this book?
I think I was most surprised by the secondary characters, and how they have lingered with me. One secondary character in particular plays a much larger role in book two which will come out in 2018.
No spoilers, but what can you tell us about your book that we won’t find in the jacket copy or the PR material?
The lightning on the cover of the book is more than just for atmosphere. It plays a pretty major role in the story.
What authors or books have influenced your career as a writer, and why?
My two all-time favorite authors are Stephen King and James Lee Burke. I’d like to think my novels fall somewhere in the sweet spot between those two guys.
*****
Hank Early is the pen name for horror author John Mantooth, whose previous novel The Year of the Storm was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. These days, he lives in central Alabama with his wife and two kids, where he writes crime, watches too much basketball and rarely sleeps.
To learn more about Hank/John, please visit his website.
QUOTED: "Heaven’s Crooked Finger is an outstanding work of literary suspense, a tale as devastatingly beautiful as it is powerfully intelligent. Fans of a wide variety of fiction are in store for a remarkable read in this novel, which perfectly combines elements of Southern gothic literature and hard-boiled mystery. And with more tales to follow, this is the start of a new trail in mystery fiction—with Hank Early paving the way."
Heaven's Crooked Finger: An Earl Marcus Mystery
Image of Heaven's Crooked Finger (An Earl Marcus Mystery)
Author(s):
Hank Early
Release Date:
November 7, 2017
Publisher/Imprint:
Crooked Lane Books
Pages:
336
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Barry Lee Dejasu
“Heaven’s Crooked Finger is an outstanding work of literary suspense, a tale as devastatingly beautiful as it is powerfully intelligent.”
There’s a new name in the mystery fiction scene, and that name is Hank Early. And with his debut novel Heaven’s Crooked Finger, he is quickly turning heads and garnering much-deserved attention and acclaim.
Heaven’s Crooked Finger is the narrative of Earl Marcus, a private detective. A childhood survivor of the abusive evangelical ways of his father, Reverend RJ Marcus, Earl has had his share of challenges and conflicts on the job. But nothing can prepare him for the letter that he receives which brings him back to his hometown of Coulee County, Georgia.
A sheriff’s deputy, Mary Hawkins, has contacted Earl to let him know that her grandmother, Arnette “Granny” Lacey (who also looked after Earl when he was younger) is on her deathbed, and that she would like to see him one last time. What’s more, Granny has recently received a letter for Earl—a letter containing a very recent photo of his long-dead father.
It’s not long after Earl arrives that the mystery quickly deepens. The man who sent the letter has gone missing. Several teenage girls have disappeared and returned with strange tattoos on their bodies. And there’s a rumor going around among the followers of the Church of the Holy Flame that RJ Marcus has come back from the dead.
Heaven’s Crooked Finger is a tight and involved mystery, full of twists and turns aplenty. There are many secrets and skeletons piled high in closets. There are false leads and red herrings. And there are a number of enemies that Earl runs into—and makes—during the course of his investigation.
However, what sets this aside from other, similar works goes far beyond strong characterization or plotting. There is a powerful and profound mood to the novel, combining by turns loneliness, despair, and an ongoing striving for redemption that makes this tale as emotionally exhausting as it is intelligently plotted.
As a character, Earl Marcus is far from perfect, and yet so much more than a stereotypical tough guy with shortcomings. He’s headstrong and impulsive; in an early scene, Mary is horrified to learn that he burned the letter containing his father’s picture, simply because he “didn’t want to see it again,” even though it would have been a powerful piece of evidence in their investigation. Earl is prone to very human errors and oversights, and in addition to humanizing his actions, this helps bring very vulnerable and relatable qualities to his persona.
Family and religion play very important themes in this novel. Over a number of alternating flashbacks, we get glimpses into Earl’s life as he grew up under the reign of his father. There are many unpleasant scenes of child abuse in these flashbacks, which may prove to be difficult content for some readers. However, none of these are done exploitatively or too extensively—they convey many hurtful emotions that serve primarily to bolster and define the characters’ motivations.
With as much of an emphasis on pathos as there is on plot, Heaven’s Crooked Finger could have turned into an edgy but heavy-handed drama. And conversely, it could have been boiled down to a solid mystery, yet lacking in the rich development that elevates the characters above traditional types and tropes. But Early keeps the pace swift and taut and the emotions high, perfectly balancing the novel’s numerous tensions.
There’s also a hefty dose of humor throughout the book. It’s never heavy-handed or distracting, nor is it sparingly sprinkled here and there. Once again, balance is the name of the game, for the jokes are perfectly placed and never too cheap or blunt, throwing some much-needed light upon the frequent darkness.
And finally, Early is a master of description. The dense, humid Georgia setting is powerfully atmospheric, full of smells and sounds, swaying trees, crunching leaves and gravel, and crashing thunder. Never does the reader forget where they are, and it makes this tale all the more vivid and engrossing.
Without spoiling anything of the plot, this novel is also the first book in a planned series. A sequel has already been announced, titled In the Valley of the Devil, due out in July of 2018. If that or any subsequent Earl Marcus mysteries are even half as good as this one, readers will be in for an ongoing number of treats.
Heaven’s Crooked Finger is an outstanding work of literary suspense, a tale as devastatingly beautiful as it is powerfully intelligent. Fans of a wide variety of fiction are in store for a remarkable read in this novel, which perfectly combines elements of Southern gothic literature and hard-boiled mystery. And with more tales to follow, this is the start of a new trail in mystery fiction—with Hank Early paving the way.
Barry Lee Dejasu has written book reviews for publications such as Shock Totem.