Rascal on the Run

Drawn into a web of small-town secrets family drama and the rusted tentacles of the Dixie Mafia a young lawyer is forced to confront his own notions of justice freedom love and sobriety.Athens Georgia 1988: Attorney August Critter Stillwell dreams of a life on the open sea but hes stuck juggling a crushing caseload after the sudden departure of his defense attorney father Guy Stillwell. When an episode of Unsolved Mysteries leads to the capture of a murder suspect whos been on the run for twenty-five years the ominous pattern of facts drags Critter into a hidden corner of Guys past. In 1963 To Kill a Mockingbird was playing in local theaters and Guy Stillwell was a lot like Atticus Finch-if Atticus had been a charming two-timer and burgeoning alcoholic. For fifteen-year-old Critter working at his fathers law firm was a masterclass in the art of good ol boy litigating and congenial backroom deals. Guy took on the trial of the decade that summer: defending a black woman charged with the murder of a KKK thug. By the time it was over Critters world and the sleepy town of Athens were in flames. As an older wiser Critter looks back on that fateful season he discovers stunning connections between Guys case and his own defense of the runaway murderer. Now he must choose between his duty to the law and an unwavering loyalty to his flawed but charismatic father. This vivid sure-voiced page-turner is a compelling murder mystery and so much more. Deftly weaving together two murder cases and their subsequent trials with colorful dialogue and a generous measure of sly humor it unpacks the personal demons of its father-and-son lawyer protagonists and the painful history of the American South. A retired lawyer himself Howard Scott clearly knows well the terrain he writes about-the courtroom antics the family dramas the blatant racism that still flourishes in mid-twentieth-century Athens Georgia-delivering it all as smoothly as his characters deliver their closing arguments. Heres hoping that well see more of Critter Stillwell his quirky siblings and his buck-the-status-quo Southern belle mother in the future.-Ann Vanderhoof author of An Embarrassment of Mangoes and The Spice NecklaceThe genial style of Rick Bragg meets the pathos of Pat Conroy in this touching often laugh-out-loud tale brimming with wry language and knee-slapping metaphors. The novel could have stayed in the shallows of humor and succeeded but the story becomes noteworthy even enduring because it delves deeper. A correction of Harper Lees view of the South instead of an homage Rascal on the Run persistently questions how a person community and region can recover from a haunted past. Its in these explorations and the answers offered that it shines. Fans of Southern stories and historical fiction are sure to love this insightful unforgettable debut.-Blueink Review