Dua’s Monthly Read for September 2025
“The scene: a white man in Money, Mississippi, is brutally killed, and the battered corpse of a long-dead but familiar young Black man is also left at the murder scene. Before long, a second white man is found beaten and mutilated, with the same Black figure by his side. As more and more men wind up killed, each with these eerily similar dead bodies beside them, local cops are left baffled – and mayhem ensues.
“Enter wisecracking detectives Ed Morgan and Jim Davis, sent down to investigate from the big city. It doesn’t take them long to work out that each victim has a connection to historical cases of lynching, and that the recurring Black corpse bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy brutally murdered in real life by a lynch mob in that same Mississippi town in 1955.
“It might sound like a grim tale – and, of course, the subject matter is harrowing. But as the story unfolds, author Percival Everett cleverly sends up all the usual tropes, from TV cop shows to classic detective stories, using satire to bring deep-rooted political issues to light in this masterful blend of horror and humour. He even throws in zombies for good measure.
“And then there’s the simmering rage that lies at the heart of this book: at racial violence, at police brutality, at the inequity of American history. It’s Percival at his very best – delivering one-liners that will make you howl with laughter, while simultaneously punching you in the gut.
“Nobody puts it better than Herberta Hind, the book’s straight-talking (Black) FBI agent, when she says: ‘History is a motherfucker.’ And once you’ve read The Trees, you’ll understand why.” – Dua Lipa
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