Deer Creek Drive

A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Aug 02 2022 | Archive Date Apr 29 2023

Talking about this book? Use #DeerCreekDrive #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

The stunning true story of a murder that rocked the Mississippi Delta and forever shaped one author’s life and perception of home.

“Mix together a bloody murder in a privileged white family, a false accusation against a Black man, a suspicious town, a sensational trial with colorful lawyers, and a punishment that didn’t fit the crime, and you have the best of southern gothic fiction. But the very best part is that the story is true.” —John Grisham

In 1948, in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south, society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home: stabbed at least 150 times and left facedown in one of the bathrooms. Her daughter, Ruth Dickins, was the only other person in the house. She told authorities a Black man she didn’t recognize had fled the scene, but no evidence of the man's presence was uncovered. When Dickins herself was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, the community exploded. Petitions pleading for her release were drafted, signed, and circulated, and after only six years, the governor of Mississippi granted Ruth Dickins an indefinite suspension of her sentence and she was set free.
 
In Deer Creek Drive, Beverly Lowry—who was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons’ home—tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today, and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath, and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.
The stunning true story of a murder that rocked the Mississippi Delta and forever shaped one author’s life and perception of home.

“Mix together a bloody murder in a privileged white family, a false...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780525657231
PRICE $29.00 (USD)
PAGES 368

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)
Download (EPUB)

Average rating from 14 members


Featured Reviews

I’ve been reading to read this book all year and I absolutely absorbed it. It’s a true crime case that has an element of everything involved. There are so many twist turns in this case. It’s incredibly engrossing and heartbreaking at the same time. Absolutely recommend!

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: