Pete Dexter’s National Book Award–winning tour de force tells the mesmerizing story of a shocking crime that shatters lives and exposes the hypocrisies of a small Southern town.<br><br>The time and place: Cotton Point, Georgia, just after World War II. The event: the murder of a fourteen-year-old black girl by a respected white citizen named Paris Trout, who feels he’s done absolutely nothing wrong. As a trial looms, the crime eats away at the social fabric of Cotton Point, through its facade of manners and civility. Trout’s indifference haunts his defense lawyer; his festering paranoia warps his timid, quiet wife; and Trout himself moves closer to madness as he becomes obsessed with his cause—and his vendettas.<br><b></b><br><b>Praise for <i>Paris Trout</i></b><br><i></i><br>“A masterpiece, complex and breathtaking . . . [Pete] Dexter portrays his characters with marvelous sharpness.”<b>—<i>Los Angeles Times</i></b><br><br>“A psychological spellbinder that will take your breath away and probably interfere with your sleep.”<b>—<i>The Washington Post Book World</i></b><br><br>“Dexter’s brilliant understanding of the Deep South has allowed him to capture much of its essence—its bitter class distinctions, its violence, its strangeness—with a fidelity of detail and an ear for speech that I have rarely encountered since Flannery O’Connor.”<b>—William Styron</b><br><br>“Dexter’s powerfully emotional novel doesn’t have any brakes. Hang on, because you won’t be able to stop until the finish.”<b>—<i>Chicago Tribune</i></b>