[A] talented young author . . . Watching Winslow subvert the conventions of an old literary form is half the thrill of this novel. After all, the shelf of mystery detectives is hardly crowded with 60-year-old Black women. And that's not the only cozy convention Winslow toys with . . . The larger social context that Winslow explores is what moves this story beyond one crime into a reflection on the myriad unacknowledged crimes committed across decades.” —Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“Propulsive . . . a murder mystery that doubles as a savvy examination of race and class . . . Decent People practically turns its own pages, creating in the reader an insatiable curiosity.” —Los Angeles Times
“Hard-hitting . . . an intriguing murder puzzle-and a good deal more. Thanks to richly detailed chapters that switch between multiple points of view, readers are drawn into the lives and memories of several West Mills citizens. All have secrets to hide. But [main character] Ms. Wright, like Mr. Winslow, handles everything with grit and style.” —Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
“Decent People is a propulsive novel with rich characters drawn from life in North Carolina, written by a man who knows his state well enough to portray both its struggles and its people's enduring will to resolve them.” —Wiley Cash, The Assembly
"Decent People assures Winslow a place in the pantheon of great Southern writers." - Don Noble, Alabama Public Radio
"Spirited." - The New York Times Book Review
"[An] elegant mystery." - Oprah Daily
"If you love murder mysteries, Winslow's second novel is a fresh take on an old form." - New York Public Library Staff Picks 2023
"Winslow returns to the fictional Southern town of West Mills for a second time in this expertly-plotted and character-driven follow-up to his award-winning debut novel . . . A haunting, page-turning mystery, Decent People makes a must-read on anyone’s literary list." - The Millions
"Interconnected family secrets, a whodunit murder mystery and the unshakable remnants of bigotry spin North Carolina author De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s second novel ‘Decent People’ into an introspective and big-hearted examination of small-town Southern life … On the surface Decent People is a cozy, homespun mystery that sets out to answer who killed the Harmon siblings. But Winslow has tucked a sophisticated story full of entwined relationships and crackling social commentary inside this small-town tale. In examining the bigotry, racism and classism prevalent in West Mills four decades ago, Winslow puts forth the question without directly asking: How much has truly changed?" - Atlanta Journal
"Anyone who adored Charmaine Wilkerson’s Black Cake and Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s Take My Hand, take note. De’Shawn Charles Winslow invites readers on a satisfying ride that, through his keen observations of human nature, leads to deeper considerations of the glacial progress of racial equality." - BookPage, starred review
"Winslow offers several points of view in this character-driven mystery, once again pulling readers in with conversational, highly readable writing while deftly weaving in themes of race, sexuality, and small-town dynamics. Another winner." - Booklist
"As far as endearing, small-town amateur elder sleuths go, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple has some competition in Josephine "Jo" Wright, who features in De'Shawn Charles Winslow's splendid second novel, Decent People, a mystery in which there's a lot more at stake than finding a murderer." - Shelf Awareness
"It’s built around a mystery, but this novel is more a deep literary exploration of the complex dynamics of race, class, and homophobia in the 1970s American South; it proves a worthy successor to Winslow’s acclaimed In West Mills." - Library Journal
"Compelling . . . Winslow’s storytelling here shows ample ability and imagination, taking up [Toni] Morrison’s claim to see characters that represent all of us." — North Carolina Literary Review
"Winslow chronicles the aftermath of a triple homicide that rocks a segregated Southern community in his dynamic latest . . . There are a trove of surprises along the way to the well-earned resolution, and Winslow entrances readers with strong characters, impeccable prose, and brisk pacing. As a character-driven mystery, it delivers the goods." - Publishers Weekly
"This tale comes across as considerably more than a regional whodunit because of its author’s humane and sensitive perceptions toward his characters, even those who may not deserve such equanimity." - Kirkus Reviews
"Stellar . . . A first-rate literary mystery and a brilliantly threaded character-driven novel of fractured lives seeking a healing of the human spirit . . . Decent People further advances Winslow’s well-deserved reputation as a rising star in American literature with a novel that masterfully balances its themes of empathy and social justice with its structure as a small-town mystery page-turner. The narrative also serves as an inviting point of entrance for new readers and a welcome return for Winslow’s dedicated following into the fully realized world of West Mills, where love — be it romantic, familial, or platonic — still can alight a path home, even in the darkest times." - Post and Courier
"One of De'Shawn Charles Winslow's greatest gifts is his world-building mastery. West Mills and the people who reside in it feel so real, recognizable, tangible, vibrant, and vivid. His rendering of this southern landscape is extraordinary. And this skill serves Decent People very well. It's been a very long time since I've read a good, old-fashioned whodunnit, and this is a most outstanding one, accomplishing several feats at once: it's a compelling mystery with brilliant misdirections and surprising revelations, all while having depth of purpose and critical, crucial social commentary. Decent People is quite the achievement." - Robert Jones Jr., author of the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestseller, THE PROPHETS
"De’Shawn Charles Winslow’s powerful second novel Decent People is a gripping mystery but also something more. A thoughtful examination of small-town life becomes a story about America itself, looking directly at the legacies of racism and segregation, homophobia and secrecy, poverty and power." - Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
"Despite the darkness of the subject matter, Winslow has a light touch, moving readers briskly through the novel’s kaleidoscopic events. He spices the story with period detail, apposite references to McMillan & Wife and Patty Hearst that remind us we are visiting a lost world. Winslow’s novel partakes of seedy crime and racial violence, family secrets and betrayals, romantic rivalries and hopeless loves but resolves into an essentially domestic question: Where can we find a home?" - Humanities Tennessee, Chapter 16
01/01/2023
In the mid-1970s, after decades in New York, Josephine Wright returns to her sleepy North Carolina hometown of West Mills to be with her beau, Olympus "Lymp" Seymore, whom she knew growing up. Not long after Jo's arrival, Marion Harmon, a prominent Black doctor, is found murdered along with Lymp's half-brother and -sister. Estranged from his siblings and having been heard threatening to kill them, Lymp is immediately suspected. Jo instinctively feels it wasn't him and sets out to do the investigative work the town's police department isn't bothering to do. Gathering clues, she learns many of the town's long-hidden secrets along the way, with her most promising lead centering on Eunice Loving, who brought her son La'Roy to Marion to have his homosexual tendencies "fixed." Marion's "treatment" turned out to be an attempted beating by the biracial sons of Savannah Russet, traumatizing La'Roy and leading to a threatening argument between Eunice and Marion. Despite Eunice having motive, the truth, when it finally comes out, will surprise everyone. VERDICT It's built around a mystery, but this novel is more a deep literary exploration of the complex dynamics of race, class, and homophobia in the 1970s American South; it proves a worthy successor to Winslow's acclaimed In West Mills.—Lawrence Rungren
2022-10-26
A triple murder shocks a small North Carolina town into confronting its deepest fears and darker secrets lingering in the wake of the civil rights era.
Winslow follows up his widely praised debut, In West Mills (2019), by returning to the eponymous Southern locale of that multilayered romance with a murder mystery set in the mid-1970s. The story begins shortly after the bullet-riddled bodies of Dr. Marian Harmon, her sister, Marva, and brother, Lazarus, are discovered at the foot of the staircase of their home in the predominantly Black western section of West Mills. As readers of the earlier novel will recall, the hamlet is divided along racial lines by a small canal, and even after Jim Crow’s demise, the scars of racial segregation remain deep and raw. The town’s sheriff’s department regards their first homicide in decades as little more than a drug-related break-in, even after they interrogate, then release, the siblings’ half brother, Olympus “Lymp” Seymore, who was first suspected because of an argument he’d had with the three Harmons. Arrested or not, Lymp nonetheless walks around town with a taint of suspicion. And this deeply distresses Josephine Wright, a middle-aged native daughter of West Mills who has returned home after a 48-year stint in New York City to make a new life for herself with her childhood friend Lymp. Jo decides to remove any doubts about Lymp’s innocence by wandering around town asking who else might have a motive for murder. Is it Eunice Loving, who had taken her son La’Roy to Dr. Harmon to “have the gay removed” but was later horrified by the doctor’s violent methods? Is it Ted Temple, the town’s most prominent White real estate mogul, who was landlord for the Harmons’ home and, until a bitter dispute separated them, Marian’s secret lover? Or could it have been Ted’s daughter, Savannah, who more than a decade before had been ostracized by her father and exiled from the predominantly White part of town because she’d fallen in love with a Black man? Or could it have been Lymp after all? Jo isn’t sure of anything, but she proves a relentless and incisive sleuth, not just in pursuit of what happened, but in untangling the complex social dynamics within the seemingly bucolic rural Carolina hamlet. Though not as intricately woven as Winslow’s first novel, this tale comes across as considerably more than a regional whodunit because of its author’s humane and sensitive perceptions toward his characters, even those who may not deserve such equanimity.
A sequel that whets your appetite for another taste of life in West Mills.
