Cargando
Información sobre el libro
The Tilted World: A Novel
Escrito por Tom Franklin y Beth Ann Fennelly
Narrado por Brian D'Arcy James
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a escucharDescripción
Set against the backdrop of the historic flooding of the Mississippi River, The Tilted World is an extraordinary tale of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, and a man and a woman who find unexpected love, from Tom Franklin, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, and award-winning poet Beth Ann Fennelly
The year is 1927. As rains swell the Mississippi, the mighty river threatens to burst its banks and engulf everything in its path, including federal revenue agent Ted Ingersoll and his partner, Ham Johnson. Arriving in the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents who'd been on the trail of a local bootlegger, they are astonished to find a baby boy abandoned in the middle of a crime scene.
Ingersoll, an orphan raised by nuns, is determined to find the infant a home, and his search leads him to Dixie Clay Holliver. A strong woman married too young to a philandering charmer, Dixie Clay has lost a child to illness and is powerless to resist this second chance at motherhood. From the moment they meet, Ingersoll and Dixie Clay are drawn to each other. He has no idea that she's the best bootlegger in the county and may be connected to the agents' disappearance. And while he seems kind and gentle, Dixie Clay knows full well that he is an enemy who can never be trusted.
When Ingersoll learns that a saboteur might be among them, planning a catastrophe along the river that would wreak havoc in Hobnob, he knows that he and Dixie Clay will face challenges and choices that they will be fortunate to survive. Written with extraordinary insight and tenderness, The Tilted World is that rarest of creations, a story of seemingly ordinary people who find hope and deliverance where they least expect it-in each other.
Acciones del libro
Comenzar a escucharInformación sobre el libro
The Tilted World: A Novel
Escrito por Tom Franklin y Beth Ann Fennelly
Narrado por Brian D'Arcy James
Descripción
Set against the backdrop of the historic flooding of the Mississippi River, The Tilted World is an extraordinary tale of murder and moonshine, sandbagging and saboteurs, and a man and a woman who find unexpected love, from Tom Franklin, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, and award-winning poet Beth Ann Fennelly
The year is 1927. As rains swell the Mississippi, the mighty river threatens to burst its banks and engulf everything in its path, including federal revenue agent Ted Ingersoll and his partner, Ham Johnson. Arriving in the tiny hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents who'd been on the trail of a local bootlegger, they are astonished to find a baby boy abandoned in the middle of a crime scene.
Ingersoll, an orphan raised by nuns, is determined to find the infant a home, and his search leads him to Dixie Clay Holliver. A strong woman married too young to a philandering charmer, Dixie Clay has lost a child to illness and is powerless to resist this second chance at motherhood. From the moment they meet, Ingersoll and Dixie Clay are drawn to each other. He has no idea that she's the best bootlegger in the county and may be connected to the agents' disappearance. And while he seems kind and gentle, Dixie Clay knows full well that he is an enemy who can never be trusted.
When Ingersoll learns that a saboteur might be among them, planning a catastrophe along the river that would wreak havoc in Hobnob, he knows that he and Dixie Clay will face challenges and choices that they will be fortunate to survive. Written with extraordinary insight and tenderness, The Tilted World is that rarest of creations, a story of seemingly ordinary people who find hope and deliverance where they least expect it-in each other.
Acerca del autor
Reseñas
This is a wonderfully absorbing story with a great historical background, the Mississippi River floods of 1927. The plot doesn't surprise you; it all sort of goes as you expect (and hope) it will. But along the way, Franklin and Fennelly (husband and wife) paint a vivid picture of the flood and the people caught up in it, beginning with two Federal agents sent to investigate the disappearance of two predecessors who were trying to shut down stills (this is the Prohibition era). Having read most of Franklin's previous work, I assume he is responsible for the more violent parts of the book--but who knows? It is a great, rewarding, and even educational read by two excellent writers.
Rating: 4This novel is set in the early 20th century in the days surrounding the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the most destructive river flood in the US, encompassing an area the size of Conn., New Hampshire, Mass., and Vermont. The flood plays such as role in this novel that you could consider it a character.I will let the words of one of the primary characters, Dixie Clay, give a synopsis of the story:It is time to tell you a story, a story that will surpise you. The year was 1927, and Lord, the rains did rain. Your mama was a bootlegger, and your daddy was a revenuer, so they were meant to be enemies, natural enemies, like the owl and the dormouse. But instead they fell in love.I discovered a new favorite Southern author in Tom Frankin. And this novel won't be my last of his read.
Rating: 5Having loved Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin, I knew as soon as I saw this on the return cart that this would be a good read. I am really glad I went ahead and picked it up instead of just adding it to my never-ending Mt TBR.
It's 1927 and life close to the mighty Mississippi is a rather scary place to be. The rain that seems to never-end has flooded the Mississippi to record levels and threatens to top the levies stretched along the river.
In small town Hobnob, Mississippi bootlegger Jesse Holliver and his moonshining wife, Dixie Clay. have almost bigger problems than the Mississippi River. There are two missing Revenuer agents and two more have arrived in town to investigated.
There's so much more to this story. Like the fact Jesse is never going to win husband of the year award. Or the orphaned baby that ends up in Dixie Clay's arms thanks to one of the new Revenuers.
Will the river flood or will it be blown up by saboteurs?
Will Dixie Clay and the baby survive the oncoming flood?
The writing here is so beautiful. The story just flows-dipping into the characters pasts just enough to give you a full understanding. I just loved this book.
The only issue I have is that one of the characters supposedly drowns. Well, I've seen enough Hollywood movies to know a sequel is coming. Although, I don't think that will happen. The death just didn't feel final enough for me. Too much Hollywood.
I loved it. I also recommend you get a copy.
The is the 4th book I have read by Franklin. This one is different because he co-authored this with his wife Beth Ann Fennelly. This story has the backdrop of the great flood of 1927 that devastated the Mississippi Delta and Prohibition. The story surrounds revenue agents and bootleggers. It is a combination of a crime story and a love story. The language is beautiful and the story holds your interest. I did find the believability of elements of the story a little stretched and that is why I don't rate this as high as Franklin's previous books but it is a good read. It especially does a good job of showing the hypocrisy of Prohibition and the story of the 1927 flood which in today's dollar cost $800 billion. A good author to explore.
Rating: 4It's odd, until last autumn I had never come across the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927; then I read Bill Bryson's book about that year and discovered how huge the scale of the devastation was. Now along comes this book set right in the flood's path. It is a tale of prohibition and bootlegging, of revenuers and moonshiner in a tiny Mississippi town with vividly drawn characters, whose back stories include Francs in World War One set amidst the ever growing threat of Ol' Miss and the rain that never stops. Brilliantly written this has at its core a love story which is moving and credible. I recommend it to everyone.
Rating: 4Before reading 'The Tilted World', all I knew about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 I learned by listening to songs by Bessie Smith, Randy Newman and Led Zeppelin. That a flood could cover an area of the United States the size of New England in my parents' lifetimes and hardly anybody today knows about it is beyond comprehension.It is the perfect setting for a story of people whose lives are turned upside down.'The Tilted World' is written in tag-team fashion by husband and wife authors Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly. I've read Franklin before and find him an excellent voice of the American South that is likely to appeal to male readers. Fennelly's writing is more lyrical yet dovetails nicely with her husband's more matter-of-fact style. Both serve to bring out the personalities of their characters with Franklin serving as the voice of Teddy Ingersoll, a World War I veteran and strong silent type with a passion for the blues, and Fennelly speaking for Dixie Clay Holliver, an introspective woman coming to regret the impulsive match made in her younger days and mourning the loss of her baby to scarlet fever. Ingersoll is a revenue agent and Dixie is a moonshiner. It could never work.Alright, I admit it. The book is a romance, but don't let that scare you off. It is also a thriller, complete with all the sorts of thriller stuff like murders, explosions, natural disasters, torture, kidnapping and all sorts of near-death experiences.The history buffs will enjoy the descriptions of a world waiting for the inevitable break in the levee. The parts about the flood are well researched but Franklin does make a few historical blunders on more general topics such as the landlady wearing `nylon stockings' thirteen years before they were invented or the `pair of Atlanta engineers' chatting about `the Braves' 40 years before the team moved to that fair city. Even so, it's a great yarn, well worth reading.*Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review copy of this book was obtained from the publisher via the Amazon Vine Program.
Rating: 5This novel is set in1927 during the Mississippi Flood, about which I knew nothing. It is a wonderful story of two federal revenue agents, Ted Ingersoll and Ham Johnson, who find an orphaned infant boy at a crime scene. The agents are on a mission to track down two other agents who have gone missing while trying to locate some bootleggers in Hobnob Mississippi. Ted, an orphan raised by nuns himself, takes the baby to place it with an orphanage before continuing with their mission. Instead he gives the boy to Dixie Clay Holliver a married mother who has lost her baby and, unbeknownst to Ingersoll, a bootlegger along with her husband Jesse.Each of the three characters is strong, intelligent and interesting and could easily be the chief protagonist in a book of his or her own. Jesse is less fully written, but he is a compelling villain. The Flood is a character of its own, with near-constant rain and mud and the threat of the impending breach of the levee. It was very interesting reading how people coped during the Flood.The book is full of spare, elegant, beautifully crafted sentences that demand to be reread or read out loud.I had already read and loved "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin before I read "The Tilted World" and was hoping for another good book. I was not at all disappointed. The plot was compelling, the dialog felt natural and the romance was not over blown and seemed realistic. This was a complete pleasure to read.I received a free copy of the advance reader's edition of this book from the publisher.
Rating: 5Oh, where to start.....I absolutely loved The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly! I literally started the book on a Sunday morning and feverishly read until I turned the last page the same night. Franklin and Fennelly have set their book in 1927 Mississippi - at the time of one of the greatest natural disasters ever to occur in the US. The flood flattened 'almost a million homes, drowning twenty-seven thousand square miles and the water remained for four months. Over 330,000 people were rescued from trees, roofs, and levees." Dixie Clay Holliver lives along the Mississippi at a bend in the river called Hobnob. Dixie's life isn't quite what she imagined it would be when she married Jesse. Turns out that Jesse is a moonshiner. The loss of her infant son has only added to her grief at the direction her life has taken. But, Dixie does the cooking now - she's better at it than Jesse. Teddy Ingersoll is a revenuer. In this time of prohibition, Teddy and his partner Ham are always on the move. On their way to Hobnob to investigate the disappearance of two other agents, they come across the lone survivor of a shoot out - an infant boy. Inexplicably, Ingersoll is determined to find a home for the child. When they arrive in Hobnob, Dixie Clay is mentioned as woman who might take in an orphan. And with that, Dixie and Ingersoll's lives and fates are crossed. The Tilted World is such a strong novel is every sense of the world. The characters are brilliant. I was so captured by Dixie Clay - her strength, fortitude and abilities belie the hurt beneath her tough exterior. Ingersoll is much the same, with that same strength and fortitude, but no real purpose or direction in his heart. The setting is just as much of a character in the book as Dixie and Ingersoll. Franklin and Fennelly have done a phenomenal job in bringing time and place to the page. The detailed descriptions of the town, the woods and most of all, the water created vivid mental images for this reader. Dual narratives are used in The Tilted World to good effect, allowing the reader to be privy to the thoughts of both protagonists. The Tilted World exemplifies storytelling at it's finest. I was completely caught up in Franklin and Fennelly's tale. I knew what I wanted to happen, I was afraid of what might happen and I couldn't read fast enough to see what did happen. The Tilted World is absolutely recommended.
Rating: 5An unconventional love story set in Mississippi in 1927, this novel introduces two wonderful characters - Dixie Clay and Teddy Ingersoll, one a bootlegger and one a federal revenue agent. How their paths cross and separate and cross again amid the threat of a flooding Mississippi River is the plot of the story, but read this book for Dixie and Teddy. They are both wounded and sad but fierce and hopeful at the same time, and you will root for their story to end happily. There is also a baby, a sandbag full of dynamite, a grotesque flapper, and enough period detail to keep one immersed in the story. A fun and engrossing read!
Rating: 4I found this novel to be unique. There are many stories set during prohibition, but I haven't read any about the events surrounding the flooding of the Mississippi in 1927. I loved both of the main characters: Dixie Clay, a lonely, talented bootlegger and Ted Ingersoll, a prohibition agent on special assignment. Readers know from the start that these two characters will have to come to terms with being on the opposite side of the law as their relationship progresses, but the way the story unfolds does not make it super predictable or trite. The descriptions of the never-ending rain, the desperate plights of the people losing their homes, lands and livelihoods to the flooding and the crowded levee towns are all rich with detail and lovely in verse. Read it- Thoroughly enjoyable!
Rating: 5This story is built around the worst natural disaster in the USA -the Mississippi River flood of 1927. The brief description of this flood in the upfront material is staggering. Jessie marries Dixie, it's prohibition time, and they run a highly profitable still. And so they are targets of Herbert Hoover's revenue agents. Dixie becomes so adept that she takes over the production responsibilities, and Jessie does all the Marketing. Very early in their marriage, they lost their newborn son to scarlet fever. Ted Ingersoll, one of HHs boys acquires a newly orphaned baby boy and leaves him with Dixie to care for. Soon things get even more complicated. Largely due of course to the ocean of floodwaters headed their way. And then there's the highly stressed levee system trying to protect all the little towns situated at each and every bend and twist in the raging river. And it keeps raining. This is an exciting book and a sweet romance, and its put together by a very excellent author team. Highly recommended. By the way, this is also one of the 'big' subjects of Bryson's "One Summer". I had never heard of this incredible disaster and then wind up reading two books simultaneously that deal with it at length, and very well.
Rating: 5Unless one enjoys historical books the idea of reading about the 1927 Mississippi Flood may sound rather dull, however that assumption would be quite incorrect as I quickly discovered upon reading The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly.Franklin and Fennelly bring the story to life beginning with the investigation of two missing federal revenue agents in Hobnob, Mississippi. The Tilted World takes the reader inside the lives of agents, an abandoned baby and the search for his mother, moonshiners, and saboteurs. The Titled Word has a little bit of everything and just enough description and characters to make this book a page-turner. The Tilted World is a faced paced book and one I did not want to set down. While the topic may at first blush not appear to be exciting enough to keep one interested, The Tilted World grabs the reader, draws the reader into the story, and keeps the reader engaged until the very end.
Rating: 4Set along the Mississippi River during the horrible flood of 1927, this is a tale of a (female) bootlegger, a revenue agent and orphan baby--a family to be. It captures beautifully the time and place and the prose was a pleasure to read.
Rating: 4The year is 1927, and mid-southern states are about to be flooded. This disaster pushed Hubert Hoover into the White House, and is a disaster very little remembered. I had never heard about this massive flooding, and was amazed by the huge loss of people and buildings. This is a fictional account of that flooding and a story into the life and times of moon shiners. Again, I learned the reason behind the label of moon shiner and a brief lesson in moon shining. Any book that teaches me something new, but still provides an interesting story is a book worth reading. The writing flows nicely, but the story falls apart at the end. The massive waters surge through towns and farms, and the story just ebbs away.
Rating: 3Fiction based on extensive research of events all too real, The Tilted World tells the story of the great Mississippi Flood of 1927 from the perspective of two people who are brought together by this catastrophic event.The book, co-written by a literary husband/wife team, tells the tale from alternating perspectives of the female protagonist, a surprisingly likeable moonshine whiskey brewer, and the male protagonist, a sharp shooting war hero turned Revenue Agent.Ted Ingersoll and his senior partner Ham Johnson have been sent undercover to the small community of Hobnob to find out what has become of two missing agents, who were last known to be in Hobnob. But unexpectedly, the first thing they come across when they get to town is a crime scene, where the survivor is a bawling baby boy, the newly orphaned child of parents desperate enough to try to rob the general store so they could feed their baby.Ingersoll, raised an orphan himself, can't bear to leave the boy at a children's home, so begins to look for a family who could give the child a home. Upon the recommendation of a clerk at one of the other stores in town, he seeks out Dixie Clay Holliver who lives a little ways out of town. She is still mourning the loss of her young son who had died in his infancy a couple of years earlier.Dixie Clay doesn't really trust the stranger, Ingersoll, but is all too willing to give the child a home. She has no idea that he is a Revenuer and he certainly has no clue that she is the one making the high quality moonshine that her shady bootlegger husband sells.If you have read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, you know what a great story teller and writer that Tom Franklin is. Franklin and Fennelly have created complex and nuanced characters to tell the story of the events leading up to and then following the catastrophic flood that affects the Mississippi shore from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. Their writing styles harmonize so smoothly that one can't tell when one writer stops and the other begins. This is an opportunity for the reader to learn some aspects of American History in the South that I'll bet you didn't learn in school. Not to mention it is a great love story, a great redemption story, and a heartfelt treatise on what really makes a family.
Rating: 5I was really looking forward to reading this book. I loved Crooked Letter Crooked Letter, and Poachers also by Tom Franklin, but was unfamiliar with the co-author of this book The Tilted World, sadly my excitement was not fulfilled. Books written by two or more authors are seldom great and this one was no different. It was as if every other chapter was written by the second author. I enjoyed some of the history regarding the flooding but had trouble getting into the story and found the outcome horribly predictable between Ingersoll, and Dixie, coupled with the fact that I just didn't want or care about some unneeded love story.
Rating: 3This story is set against the backdrop the historic flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927.Revenue agents Ted Ingersoll and Ham Johnson are sent to the small hamlet of Hobnob, Mississippi, to investigate the disappearance of two fellow agents. When they get there, they are astonished to find a baby boy abandoned in the middle of a crime scene.Ingersoll, who was raised in an orphanage, is determined to find the infant a home, and his search leads him to Dixie Clay Holliver, a young woman in an unhappy marriage. He doesn't know at the time that her husband is a bootlegger, and that Dixie Clay herself is making the moonshine. From the moment they meet, they are drawn to each other, but Dixie Clay knows he is the enemy and cannot be trusted.Meanwhile, a catastrophe is waiting to happen with the river flooding, and making that threat worse is a saboteur determined to destroy the levee.This was a very good story, and every chapter left me wanting to know what happened next. Prior to reading this book, I had never heard of the Great Flood of 1927. I looked for information on it online, and learned that because most of those affected by the flood were poor, and many of them black sharecroppers, the historians at that time didn't seem to think it was that important at the time to record it in the books. According to Wikipedia, it was the most destructive river flood in U.S. history, affecting 10 states and flooding 27,000 square miles.One of the most appalling facts I learned about the flood were that many of the black sharecroppers were forced into what was virtually slave labor to enforce the levee with sand bags when the levees first threatened to overflow. Then after the flood, the relief efforts were concentrated on the white population.
Rating: 5I won this ARC edition in exchange for an honest review.I enjoyed this story of the great Mississippi flood in 1927 (I never even knew about that), prohibition, bootleggers, moonshiners and some romance. The story takes place within a 2 week span and Franklin gives the reader a wonderful portrayal of the lives of small town folks affected by prohibition, the law personnel whose job it is to enforce prohibition (or not enforce it) and the impending threat of levee breaks along the Mississippi. Franklin and Fennelly were able to capture rural America with prose that flowed through the pages like the raging waters of the great river. The language is true leading to a fast paced read with no 'slow' parts. Characters are believable and are further enhanced by their background stories. The romance portion of the story is downplayed making this a quasi romance novel. Overall a very good read.
Rating: 4In life, it is often difficult to choose between good and bad or even to decide where you stand on an issue. During prohibition, many former law abiding citizens became frequent customers of moonshiners. Often the moonshiner even became an integral member of the community. "The Tilted World" is set in the fictional small town of Hobnob Mississippi during the time of the real 1927 Mississippi River flood. It explores many facets of small town life during that era including the relationships between moonshiners, revenooers, sabotuers and other citizens. As the story unfolds, we find out about the long time friendship between two revenue agents, the love of a mother for her son both biological and adopted and romantic feelings that develop between a revenue agent and a moonshiner. The book is full of interesting small town characters. It was a very enjoyable read!
I received the book free in a giveaway.
Rating: 5I received the book free in a giveaway.
Using one of the worst floods in American History in 1927 as a backdrop the authors tell a gritty tale of a bootlegger and his wife and two government agents that are trying to put them out of business. The characters are well developed and memorable as the plot hurtles at breakneck pace to the bursting of the levees that leave a torrent of water rushing into the homes of the surrounding communities. This book is a screenwriters dream as it could be translated into a wonderful movie. My only question about the book is that with so much flooding going on why is there so little mention of rain.
Rating: 4Authors Franklin and Fennelly have delivered an atmospheric emotive tale that is equally lyrical and gritty captivating readers from beginning to end. It is 1927, and levee protecting the small town of Hobnob, MS from the ravages of the Mississippi River is about to be breached. But, while the river and the constant rain is aptly describes and controls the pacing of the story, it is multifaceted characters that will tug at your emotions – rooting for the good guys, and hoping for the downfall of others. My reading pleasure was enhanced by the authors keen observation of the people and the landscape of the times providing a culturally intriguing read for me. I found this tale of longing, ambition, murder and betrayal made up for the little too tidy, but satisfying ending. Fans of southern historical fiction and the TV shows Justice and Boardwalk with appreciate this period tale
Rating: 4The Tilted World is one of the few books I’ve read, maybe the only one, that has a baby as a central character – and makes it fascinating. Of course it’s not just the baby itself – the story surrounding the baby, Willy, an orphan, and the adults trying to steal him or save him provide the drama.If that’s not enough, this is during the flooding of the Mississippi River in 1927. The threat of the massive flood that we all know is coming provides a constant backdrop of tension. Back to the baby. He’s orphaned when his parents are killed in a robbery attempt. Ham Johnson and Teddy Ingersoll are revenue agents assigned by then Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover to discover what happened to two other revenue agents that disappeared while investigating moonshiners in Hobnob, Mississippi. When they stumble on the baby, Ingersoll, instead of taking him to an orphanage, delivers him to Dixie Clay Holliver, who he’s learned recently lost a baby. Ingersoll has no idea that Dixie Clay is a moonshiner, and she has no clue he’s a revenue agent.This book is packed with tension, historical detail, amazingly good writing, and fully realized characters. It results in a wonderful story.
Rating: 5I received this Advance Reader’s Edition from the first reads giveaway from Goodreads. I must admit that this is not the kind of book I would normally read - I knew it would be historical fiction, but I was kind of hoping not of the romance angle. Unfortunately, it was! I don't do romance books; however, the romance wasn't annoying at all (it wasn't overdone).The Tilted World is set in the fictional town of Hobnob, Mississipi which is about to be flooded. Apparently, this flood really did happen and was one of the worst on record. The book is set during the 1920s and has about four main characters; There's Dixie Clay, a moonshiner and a woman whose baby had recently died, then there's her husband, Jesse Holliver who seems to be just an all around cad - he sells the moonshine and is involved in other nefarious doings. Finally, this brings us to the last two main actors of the piece, Ted Ingersoll and Ham Johnson - they are two prohibition agents sent to the area to investigate the mysterious disappearance of fellow agents.The other two agents were investigating the bootlegging industry in the Hobnob area and their disappearance starts off the story. They were talking to Jesse Holliver.I would definitely recommend this book to people who would like to learn about a forgotten period of history. It was interesting to read about bootlegging and Dixie's brewing methods even though her husband just wants to mass produce a lesser quality and just make money rather than a nice product. I hope I haven't made this sound simplistic because there is a lot going on; the imminent flood, the disappearance of the agents, an orphan baby that Ingersoll picks up, a plot to blow up one of the levies, and so on.I loved how the writers went back and told about the main character's back-stories. How Ham and Ingersoll met during the World War One and then became very successful partners battling the illegal alcohol trade. Again, this is a good book - hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Rating: 4This historical novel takes place during the “great Mississippi floods of 1927”. Set in Hobnob, Mississippi, the novel characterizes their people, lives and suffering during the massive natural disaster.Moonshine and bootlegging is a way of life in and around Hobnob. Young Dixie married top moonshiner, Jesse. It is not an easy marriage, laden with problems, including the loss of an infant.The Government sends in agents to shut down the bootlegging of moonshine in Mississippi, particularly in and around Hobnob. While seeking out stills and illegal operations, two agents go missing. Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover then must send in two special agents under the guise of being engineers.One of the agents, Ingersoll, finds an infant and places it with Dixie, who is more than willing. This only creates another set of problems, while complicating existing issues. The relationship between these characters is interesting and intriguing.A complex, multi-layered story, it is vivid in its imagery and colourful in its characters. Offering romance, suspense, history, crime, and intense character portrayals it will hold your interest and keep you involved.
Rating: 5The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Fennelly is a historical fiction mystery that is set in 1927 and the worst flood that ever existed in the United States, The Great Flood of the Mississippi. This book has everything, mystery, suspense, bootleggers, spouse abuse, revenue agents, flappers, and murder.Ted Ingersoll was abandoned at birth and grew up in an orphan’s home. As a boy, he sneaked away from school to listen to jazz in Chicago. Ingersoll, now a Revenue Agent, along with his boss and best friend, Ham Johnson are checking into the disappearance of two revenue officers. They are also keeping an eye out for “shiners”, people who make moonshine. Dixie Clay is a young, bright, strong woman who is miserable in her marriage to Jessie Holliver. She had built him up in her imagination before they married. Now she was deeply regretting marrying the handsome, sweet talking man. She was completely different from him and her heart ached for the baby she had lost. At the same time the tragic Great Flood was building up its great power.You can almost feel the waters rising as the personal stories intertwine and the danger increases. You feel bad for Dixie Clay as her husband treats like rubbish and works her like a slave. Ingersoll finds a baby at a scene of crime and cannot bear to drop him off at orphanage. He wants to find a family for Junior. Then Dixie Clay and Ted Ingersoll meet. For me the story got off to a slow start but the pace and depth picked up as soon as we discover more about the two. From then on, I did not want to stop reading this book. It is well researched and written with attention to the sights and sounds of that era and place.I highly recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction.I received this book from First Reads but that in no way influenced my thoughts and feelings in this review.
Rating: 4The Mississippi River was home to Dixie Clay after she married her husband, Jesse. at the ripe old age of sixteen. She really didn't know anything about what he did for a living, and she certainly didn't know he was a bootlegger.THE TILTED WORLD is set in Mississippi during the flooding in the 1920's and has a very eccentric set of characters. There are bootleggers, revenuers trying to catch the bootleggers, women who are supporting their bootlegging husbands, and a baby who along with Dixie Clay are two of the main characters, and the characters that carry the storyline.Dixie Clay and the baby will warm your heart, and Jesse will make you want to set him straight for how he treats Dixie Clay. Ingersoll and Ham are the revenuers who have out-of-the ordinary backgrounds...especially Ingersoll. Ingersoll’s background tells his story in flashbacks. His background made him the “sweet” man Dixie Clay became ‘sweet” on. Franklin and Fennelly are master storytellers, and their detail is incredible. You will easily feel the river rising, the steels bubbling, the energy in the speakeasies, and the life that was lead in Mississippi at this time. The writing is smooth and easy and will pull you in just as the river does as the story unfolds.The book is definitely character driven and quite easy to become involved with the characters whether they are upstanding or not. There actually aren't too many upstanding characters, but I really enjoyed THE TILTED WORLD once it got on its way.I didn't know what to expect at first, but THE TILTED WORLD is quite appealing because of the characters and the amazing writing. You will also find out the meaning of the title.The ending will have you on the edge of your seat, but it will also have you smiling. 4/5This book was given to me free of charge by the publisher and without compensation in return for an honest review.
Rating: 4