Mississippi Mud

Biloxi, Mississippi, is a city of contradictions. A lush green jewel on the Gulf of Mexico, a Southern Riviera steeped in Confederate history, where antebellum mansions command staggering ocean views. Yet it has also been home to The Strip, a beachside center of neon decadence, prostitution, drugs, and corrupt public servants - all in thrall to a shadowy band of criminals called the Dixie Mafia. Here in Biloxi, Old South virtue clashes with a long-standing tolerance for evil. When one of the city's most prominent couples - a judge and his mayoral-candidate wife - were shot in their home, their daughter embarked on a dangerous crusade for justice that would forever change the complexion of Biloxi. She wanted to accomplish what the police could not or would not do: find the assassins and shake the city of Biloxi from its jaded complacency. In Mississippi Mud, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes tells the inspiring and harrowing story of Lynne Sposito, whose obsession with solving her parents' murder "irresistibly draws us into a ripe, teeming, darkness," into a sin-belt world of conscienceless killers, illegal casinos, and venal politicians. At the same time, Mississippi Mud provides a fascinating and vivid portrait of a little-known corner of the Deep South where corruption and betrayal arise not only from the criminal element but also from the good people of Biloxi's long-standing tradition of turning a blind eye to the malignancy in their midst. Though a work of nonfiction, scrupulously reported and documented, Mississippi Mud reads like an exquisitely taut and suspenseful novel, building toward a surprising - and chilling - conclusion, as the forces unleashed by Lynne's investigation forever alter her life, and Biloxi's future.

First sentence: Without warning or symptom, the twentieth century's version of Plague came calling on Lynne Sposito at exactly ten minutes past two on the afternoon of September 16,1987.

Year

1994

Language

English

Publisher

Pocket

Editions

4

Pages

448

ISBN

9781416587545

Data source: Wikidata