Smonk by Tom Franklin

Smonk by Tom Franklin

It's 1911 and the townsfolk of Old Texas, Alabama, have had enough. Every Saturday night for a year, E. O. Smonk has been destroying property, killing livestock, seducing women, cheating and beating men, all from behind the twin barrels of his Winchester 45-70 caliber over-and-under rifle. Syphilitic, consumptive, gouty, and goitered--an expert with explosives and knives--Smonk hates horses, goats, and the Irish, and it's high time he was stopped. But capturing old Smonk won't be easy--and putting him on trial could have shocking and disastrous consequences, considering the terrible secret the citizens of Old Texas are hiding.

Tom Franklin is the author of Poachers: Tales, as well as Hell at the Breech, Smonk, and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, which received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller, the Willie Morris Prize in Southern Fiction, and the Gold Dagger Award for Best Novel in the United Kingdom. His most recent book, The Tilted World, was written in collaboration with his wife, Beth Ann Fennelly. They live in Oxford, Mississippi, and teach in the MFA program at the University of Mississippi.