I had heard a random interview with Sterling Watson (maybe on NPR?) and he was taking about a novel that takes place in north florida (my neck of the woods) that served a a sequel to a book he wrote 20 years ago.
I happened to see the older book, Sweet Dream Baby (2002) in a used bookstore and bought it. It sat behind a bunch of other books on my shelf until i did some library rearranging.
i finally read it last week and man, that was a ride of a book. It was a sweet, nostalgic novel with a quiet noir. it was a hard book to stop thinking about, even when i wanted to at times.
I was able to get Night Letter (the more recent book, 2023) from the library pretty quickly.
even though i really enjoyed SDB, i think the sequel was the better book. it’s interesting to see the author’s growth over the course of two decades.
it still has that waylaid, backroad, seedy feeling of the first, but you feel it easier to root for the protagonist as it unfolds.
i‘d be interested to know if anyone has read only Night Letter. it’s so well done, i feel like someone could enjoy it without reading the first book, but of course, that’s hard to properly judge.
i also don’t see much conversation about either book in reddit, so hoping to find anyone that’s read it, or maybe other books by the same guy.
by joshuastar