Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta

Today's nonfiction post is on Deer Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta by Beverly Lowry. It is 354 pages long and is published by Alfred A. Knopf. The is a street with a map of Mississippi and garden shears. The intended reader is someone who is interested in historical murders and southern history. There is some foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- The stunning true story of a murder that rocked the Mississippi Delta and forever shaped one author's life and perception of home.
In 1948, in the most stubbornly Dixiefied corner of the Jim Crow south, society matron Idella Thompson was viciously murdered in her own home: stabbed at least 150 times and left facedown in one of the bathrooms. Her daughter, Ruth Dickins, was the only other person in the house. She told authorities a Black man she didn't recognize had fled the scene, but no evidence of the man's presence was uncovered. When Dickins herself was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, the community exploded. Petitions pleading for her release were drafted, signed, and circulated, and after only six years, the governor of Mississippi granted Ruth Dickins an indefinite suspension of her sentence and she was set free.
In Deer Creek Drive, Beverly Lowry--who was ten at the time of the murder and lived mere miles from the Thompsons' home--tells a story of white privilege that still has ramifications today, and reflects on the brutal crime, its aftermath, and the ways it clarified her own upbringing in Mississippi.

Review- This is an interesting historical true crime and memoir of the author. She lived in the area when the murder happened and she remembers reading about it as a young teenager. The book starts after the murder then backs up to give content. The content is not just about the murder, the victim, or her family, but about the world of Delta Mississippi and how it worked. Lowry follows the case from beginning to end and adds in what was going on in her world as the same time. She discusses how being a white woman affected the case, from how long it took for her to be arrested, and how she was treated after. The writing was good, the research was good, and the examination of the southern Delta Mississippi at that particular time was very fascinating. 

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.