Biloxi, Mississippi, is a city of contradictions. A lush green jewel on
the Gulf of Mexico, a Southern Riviera steeped in Confederate history,
where antebellum mansions command staggering ocean views. Yet it has
also been home to The Strip, a beachside center of neon decadence,
prostitution, drugs, and corrupt public servants - all in thrall to a
shadowy band of criminals called the Dixie Mafia. Here in Biloxi, Old
South virtue clashes with a long-standing tolerance for evil. When one
of the city's most prominent couples - a judge and his mayoral-candidate
wife - were shot in their home, their daughter embarked on a dangerous
crusade for justice that would forever change the complexion of Biloxi.
She wanted to accomplish what the police could not or would not do: find
the assassins and shake the city of Biloxi from its jaded complacency.
In Mississippi Mud, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Edward Humes tells
the inspiring and harrowing story of Lynne Sposito, whose obsession with
solving her parents' murder "irresistibly draws us into a ripe, teeming,
darkness, " into a sin-belt world of conscienceless killers, illegal
casinos, and venal politicians. At the same time, Mississippi Mud
provides a fascinating and vivid portrait of a little-known corner of
the Deep South where corruption and betrayal arise not only from the
criminal element but also from the good people of Biloxi's long-standing
tradition of turning a blind eye to the malignancy in their midst.
Though a work of nonfiction, scrupulously reported and documented,
Mississippi Mud reads like an exquisitely taut and suspenseful novel,
building toward a surprising - and chilling - conclusion, as the forces
unleashed by Lynne'sinvestigation forever alter her life, and Biloxi's
future.
