A Strange and Bitter Crop - Hardcover

Wyrick, E. L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312110758 ISBN 13: 9780312110758

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

Synopsis

Tammi Randall has learned early in her career in a small Georgia town that the Job of Legal Aid attorney is not always straightforward. That was brought out when she earned the hatred of a gang of brutal thugs whose jailing she was responsible for. Her immediate frustration, however, is the seemingly impossible defense of a black teenager.
The town of Patsboro is shocked when Dr. Gary Reeves and his wife are found murdered in their antebellum home. Everything points to James Cleveland, who admits to being at the scene and owning the murder weapon.
Tammi Randall assumes a plea bargain is the best she can do for the youth, but she doggedly investigates with the help of her friends Dan, a school counselor, and Mitch, a super-salesman, successful businessman, and talented mimic, and discovers that her old nemesis, Buddy Crowe, may be involved. Buddy is the only at-large member of the gang Tammi and her friends broke up, and he has a personal vendetta against the attorney. Now the life not only of her teenage client but of the young lawyer herself is at stake.
Dan, Mitch, and Tammi's mother's good-ole-boy boyfriend are only a few of the diverse characters who populate this southern town and, with Tammi herself, bring to life this suspenseful, dramatic story.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

When a poor, barely literate black teenager named James Cleveland is accused of murdering a white sociology professor and his wife, Tammi Randall, a lawyer with the Teal County, Ga., Legal Aid society, is called to act as his defense. The youth implicates Buddy Crowe, a man who had been involved in a smuggling scheme Tammi had helped uncover years before, suggesting to her that the murders might be more than a robbery gone awry. Surviving an attack by Crowe, Tammi learns that the professor's death is connected to a racial crime committed two decades earlier, one that involves local police and Tammi's new love interest, a wealthy businessman. First-novelist Wyrick picks on some easy targets, particularly Klan members and a gossipy churchgoer, but other characters, like an enormous ex-wrestler named Big Jack, stand out. Although the plot is slow to develop and lacks surprises, Wyrick captures his setting and proves he can write an action scene.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312110758
• ISBN 13: 9780312110758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 260