Book Around the Corner

The Devil Himself by Peter Farris (2017) French title: Le diable en personne. Translated by Anatole Pons-Reumaux. In my copy of the book, the original title is Ghost in the Field. I don’t know which one is the title the writer chose.

We’re in Trickum County, Georgia. Maya is a prostitute who works for a pimp, Mexico. He’s the head of a vast drug-dealing and prostitution network. He has cops and politicians in his pocket. Maya is young, black and the mayor of the city is infatuated with her. He requires her all the time and he ends up oversharing information in bed.

Problem? Maya has an extraordinary flash memory and she’s a liability for Mexico now. Since he and the mayor are in cahoots and protect each other’s interests, Mexico sends two of his best goons on a mission. Javon and Willie have to kill Maya. But, she resists, escapes and ends of up on Leonard’s property. It’s the kind of property where you see a No trespassing sign and your instinct tells you you’d better comply and stay off these grounds.

Leonard is an old eccentric who lives like a hermit on a property covered with woods and swamps. He fishes, hunts, grows vegetables and only goes to town for absolute necessities. His wife is gone (either she died or she left him) and he lives with a doll he dresses like her and talks to as if she were with him. He looks like a dangerous basket case and the good people of Trickum steer clear of him.

He’s well-known as a former bootlegger, one & who played cat-and-mouse with the police and never got caught. For years. The man is mean, independent, and clever. He welcomes Javon and Willie with a shotgun and leaves them beaten up and dead.

The local sheriff, Jack Chalmer, gets involved. He quickly suspects that something big is happening and that their local detective won’t do anything about it. And indeed, he’s crooked and belongs to the mayor and Mexico.

Leonard takes care of Maya, heals her wounds, feeds her with hearty meals, hides her in his house and basically adopts her as his long-lost granddaughter. He teaches her how to survive in the area and he’s ready to risk his life to protect her.

He is true to himself. He lives with a tragedy in his past, one that concurred to his self-imposed isolation. Maya comes like a breath of fresh air and she needs help.

And she welcomes the rough love because for the first time, someone is fighting in her corner. She’s been on her own for a while, an easy prey to Mexico and his prostitution houses. She’s in danger but she’s free. For the first time too, a man pays her attention and it’s gratuitous, no sexual favors involved. It’s also a novelty.

The Devil Himself is an atmospheric book full of fascinating descriptions of the grounds surrounding Leonard’s property. It’s deep in the woods, and a bit creepy, with swamps, alligators, Spanish moss on trees. The heat is humid and suffocating. It’s on Leonard’s side and it’s a weapon again the people who want to reach Maya and kill her.

No such luck. Leonard is dangerous with firearms, and he’s got a lot of them at his house. He lives according to his own code of conduct, his own set of values. He’s in the wrong, what he does is illegal but the reader understands his motives and his logic anyway. His past is unveiled page after page and he’s a true bastard but I liked him anyway. Perhaps because his helping out Maya without asking anything in return is his way to redemption.

The whole book is like a thriller, even if it’s not tagged as crime fiction. Maya’s life has been hard, she was practically a sex slave in one of Mexico’s brothels. She reclaims herself, enjoys her freedom and grows attached to the place even if she’s more a city girl than a farm one.

Peter Farris writes well, takes us to a small town where criminal organizations are taking over, where opioids are a plague, where politicians are crooked and people too focused on living from pay check to pay check to care about politics.

The Devil Himself is a novel from the Deep South. Readers who enjoy books by Jim Thompson, David Joy or Chris Offutt will love it.

Highly recommended.