978-1-58838-192-7
1-58838-192-7
$27.95 hardcover
6 x 9
360 pages
NewSouth Books
"Grievances is a beautifully written, compelling tale of
race and redemption. Mark Ethridge has captured the South in a way that is
every bit as evocative as Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and he
has told a story as riveting as the best Grisham courtroom thriller. But
Grievances is no mere thriller. It is a story of the heart that will
resonate with readers long after they have turned the final page. This is
one of the most deeply satisfying novels I have read in a long, long time.
I can't recommend it highly enough."
--Pat Conroy
"It is rare to come across a first novel as satisfying and
sophisticated as Mark Ethridge's Grievances. While it is undeniably
a thriller of the top order, it also displays a subtle understanding of
race, of memory, and of The South. That Mark Ethridge, a former reporter
and editor himself, knows the territory about which he writes is to be
expected. But what comes as a far greater pleasure is that he understands
realms of the heart. This conjunction of tradition and psychology, meshed
with truly break-neck, evocative prose makes Grievances a book that
can be appreciated both as the thriller it is, and yet also for the deeper
questions about society that it probes."
--John Katzenbach
"Mark Ethridge's Grievances captures the romance, intrigue
and sheer fun of good old-fashioned journalistic detective work. An
irresistible tale of personal redemption and self-discovery that is both
moving and compelling."
--Doug Marlette
"Grievances is a haunting blend of simple beauty and larger
truths, intertwined with a gripping mystery and a lead character as heroic
as he is cursed by his own past. Ethridge captures the gutty workings of
big city newspapers and small-town America like few authors ever have. The
effect of it all is truly rare-a riveting tale out of the South, uplifting
and sorrowful and most of all timeless."
--H.G. Bissinger
For more than twenty years, the murder of a thirteen-year-old boy during racial unrest in rural South Carolina has gone unpunished, unsolved, even uninvestigated. But that changes when Charlotte Times reporter Matt Harper sits down with a fellow who shows up in the news room, a guy with a grievance.
As he struggles with his journalistic legacy, Harper comes to understand why the investigation must be pursued and why he must be the one to do it—despite the opposition of his publisher, violent threats from mysterious forces who do not want the story told, and the fact that his father is dying. Set in the rich scenery of a Savannah River town that time and justice have forgotten, Grievances is a story of newspapers, murder, and of redemption—for a small Southern town and for Matt Harper.about the author
Mark Ethridge is a third-generation reporter and writer who directed two Pulitzer-winning investigations at the Charlotte Observer and was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and this is his first novel.