Magic Time by Doug Marlette

This was my week for Civil Rights Movement books. After reading the account of Emmett Till’s death, I realized that this book in my ‘to read’ pile was set in Mississippi during Freedom Summer (1964), so I thought it’d be a nice contrast to the true account of the beginning of the movement and it was.

New York City newspaper columnist Carter Ransom returns home to Mississippi after an emotional breakdown to face a formidable father he has disappointed and a traumatic past he has long repressed. That past is now thrust back into the news by the reopinging of a 25-year-old civil rights murder case – a church bombing that took Carter’s first love. Carter’s father, the local judge, had presided over the original trial of the Klansman accused of murder. But now there’s evidence that the trial was flawed, even fixed, and the case’s reopening strikes at Carter’s very identity, threatening to shatter the entire family.

This was a gripping story and seamlessly blended past and present as the Carter had flashbacks to that summer in 1964. The characters were well-drawn and likeable, although since it is a southern novel, there is a large cast of characters.