This Edgar Award winner is "equal parts morality tale and page-turning thriller" (Denver Post)—classic American storytelling in its truest, darkest, and most affecting form, with echoes of William Faulkner and Harper Lee. Its 1933 in East Texas and the Depression lingers in the air like a slow moving storm. When a young Harry Collins and his little sister stumble across the body of a black woman who has been savagely mutilated and left to die in the bottoms of the Sabine River, their small town is instantly charged with tension. When a second body turns up, this time of a white woman, there is little Harry can do from stopping his Klan neighbors from lynching an innocent black man. Together with his younger sister, Harry sets out to discover who the real killer is, and to do so they will search for a truth that resides far deeper than any river or skin color.
Persuaded by his mother to help a weird old man with his flea market stand, young Cal faces a challenge when a girl stops by hoping to sell a Rolex watch while the man is away.
Although he loved his grandfather's cowboy songs and clothes when he was younger, a boy who now finds them embarrassing asks "Buffalo Bert" to stay away when he invites friends from his new school over for tea.
After winning a competition to design a new cereal and consuming multiple bowls of it while shooting a television commercial, cereal-loving Stephen's tastes change.
Billy plays detective to find out who keeps knocking his best friend Dan's lunchbox off the shelf at school and getting Dan into trouble, but it is Dan who finally solves the mystery.