Sharecropper Hell, Paperback/Jim Thompson

Nineteen-year-old Tommy Carver desperately wants to make something of himself, but he's got some mighty tall odds stacked against him - a brutal sharecropper father, a secret love affair with his wealthy landowner's daughter, a step-mother devoid of maternal instincts, and even his own short-tempered, prideful ways. The odds only get worse when Tommy is fingered for murder in this shocking, twisting tale that explores sex, American Indian rituals, simmering race politics in mid-20th century Oklahoma and, of course, crime. "Sharecropper Hell" was written and originally released as "Cropper's Cabin" by gritty crime novelist Jim Thompson, who often spun his tales from the first-person perspective of the criminal. Stephen King has called Jim Thompson "my favorite crime novelist-often imitated but never duplicated." Chalk Line Books presents "Sharecropper Hell" unedited, uncensored, and unexpurgated as it was meant to be read. The Chalk Line Books version of "Sharecropper Hell" also features the evocative illustrations of artist Martha Kelly.