The Wiregrass - by Matt Kessler (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The search for the truth behind the murders of two young women in a little-known corner of the Bible Belt exposes a chilling underworld of police corruption in this propulsive true crime narrative saturated with the complex dynamics of the Deep South.

In 1999, in the rural Alabama town of Ozark, two white teenage girls, J.B. Beasley and Tracie Hawlett, were found shot in the trunk of Beasley's car on her 17th birthday.

Months passed and the murders remained unsolved, with no clear motive for the crime. Whispers circulated in the town: in this historically poor, religiously conservative region, cut off from the interstate highway system, the police had a reputation for dating high schoolers, and their investigation was shoddy from the start, arousing suspicions. But after a baffling series of missteps, the case went cold.

Fifteen years later, a whistleblower claimed an officer had confessed to the crime at a party, spiking tensions in the community as old wounds reopened. Then, out of the blue, the police made a sudden arrest: a devout Black man in his forties, never before associated with the crime, named Coley McCraney. Many locals, including one of the girls' fathers, harbored doubts that he was the killer. But in a region ripe with corruption, and dense with the cobwebs of a violent racist history, was there any chance of finding the truth?

Populated by an eccentric, Southern gothic cast of crooked cops, showboating lawyers, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, 90s jocks and Bible kids, The Wiregrass is an atmospheric and utterly compelling account of what happens when a place--and a nation--cannot outrun the traumas of its past.

Review Quotes

"Matt Kessler presents an impeccably written portrait of a place and its enduring social, historical, cultural, political beliefs and mythologies, which make it a battleground for the convergence of race, class, power and corruption. With the eye and ear for the odd, deeply characterizing detail, Kessler's prose exhibits the solicitude of an insider, and the clarity of an outsider. The Wiregrass is propulsive and gripping; the omnipresent knowledge that it all really happened renders this tale an enduring and true American tragedy."
--Gothataone Moeng, author of Call And Response

"In The Wiregrass, Matt Kessler brings to vivid life a place--a tiny corner of southeast Alabama--its people and its deeply troubled history of violence and corruption. Calling to mind the works of Robert Kolker and Patrick Radden Keefe, Kessler tells a captivating, richly reported and deeply humane story of found families, crooked cops, ferocious loyalties and the terrifying velocity of justice slipping away."
--Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of El Dorado Drive

"In gripping prose, Kessler's rigorous reporting pulls a reader into this devastating story that could be a microcosm of so much happening in this country. His thorough investigative skills, paired with a profound reserve of empathy, plunge us into the depths of a narrative I won't forget."
--Aimee Bender, New York Times bestselling author of The Particular Sadness Of Lemon Cake

About the Author

Matt Kessler is a writer from Alabama. He has reported justice, race, and equity stories in Mississippi for The Guardian, and environmental stories for The Atlantic. His radio work has been broadcast on Mississippi Public Broadcasting and Illinois Public Media. A fellow in the University of Southern California's PhD in Creative Writing and Literature Program, he lives with his family in Birmingham. This is his first book.