Five Stars for Paris Trout

Just finished Pete Dexter's PARIS TROUT, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I'd seen the movie years ago and had forgotten about it until reading on John Lescroart's website that he loved the book, which got me thinking about it.

The story is set in Cotton Point, Georgia, just after World War II, and features as its protagonist a middle-aged tyrant, Paris Trout, and his tormented wife, Hanna. Paris and Buster Devonne, a former policeman, soon become embroiled in the murder of the young Rosie Sayers, and that's when the novel takes off, weaving throughout the next three hundred pages the challenges presented to Paris's defense attorney, Harry Seagraves, and Hanna's divorce lawyer, Carl Bonner -- not to mention Hanna herself.

Dexter's writing is supple and appealing, as he captures so eloquently the voice of the South. Here is a sample:

The lady knelt to pick up the things on the floor. Rosie would have helped, but there was a counter between them, and she knew without being told to stay on her own side. Even if they were in the same mess, white people would think she was stealing.

The lady came back up slowly, flushed and serious. Rosie heard her bones pop. "Now, she said, "where were we?"

"I ain't moved," Rosie said, and showed the lady her hands.

The lady did not look at her hands. She smiled, so small it might have been something that hurt. "That's an expression," she said. "It means, What were we doing."

To my surprise, Dexter also wrote DEADWOOD, which I picked up at Border's a few days ago. If it's half as good as PARIS TROUT, that's saying quite a lot.