Decent People

De'Shawn Charles Winslow

eBook - 2023

The "propulsive" (L.A. Times), "intriguing" (Wall Street Journal) story of a black community reeling from a triple homicide, and the dark secrets the killings reveal.In the still-segregated town of West Mills, North Carolina, in 1976, Marian, Marva, and Lazarus Harmon-three enigmatic siblings-are found shot to death in their home. The people of West Mills-on both sides of the canal that serves as the town's color line-are in a frenzy of finger-pointing, gossip, and wonder. The crime is the first reported murder in the area in decades, but the white authorities don't seem to have any interest in solving the case.Fortunately, one person is determined to do more than talk. Miss Josephine Wright has just moved back... to West Mills from New York City to retire and marry a childhood sweetheart, Olympus "Lymp" Seymore. When she discovers that the murder victims are Lymp's half-siblings, and that Lymp is one of West Mills's leading suspects, she... more