Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is more than a mystery. Franklin is a master storyteller who captures the good and ugly about a little southern town in Mississippi, where a constable is faced with a case of a missing Ole Miss college student. A similar missing person case happened in the town 25 years ago, and there wasn't enough evidence then to arrest the primary suspect who still lives nearby. The young girl from 25 years ago was never found.

The local constable is an African-American who was friends with the primary suspect, "Scary Larry" in junior high school. Franklin weaves a story of race relations, prejudices, and small town southern life in the 1960s and  70s. Everything in the novel is a dichotomy: black/white, good/evil; and sports hero/ostracized weirdo. Franklin has a way of flipping what the reader thinks he/she knows. There are a lot of secrets in this story that everyone has tried for years to keep hidden. Franklin juxtaposes the lives of the African-American constable and his childhood friend Larry. Everyone in town believes Larry got away with murder.

The language is of the segregated and desegregated south. It's raw in parts. Franklin describe heinous crimes and social injustices suffered through the years.

The lives of Franklin's characters intertwine to create a story steeped in history from 25 years ago.