The Scribe: A Novel

by Matthew Guinn

Overview

Detectives Canby and Underwood hunt down a serial killer in this “heady mix of history, sizzle, punch, and danger” (Steve Berry, New York Times best-selling author of The Patriot Threat).

Disgraced former detective and Civil War veteran Thomas Canby partners with Atlanta’s first African American police officer, Cyrus Underwood, to track down a serial murderer who seems to be targeting the city’s wealthiest black entrepreneurs. Even after the killer is revealed, his astonishing ability to elude capture raises the question: is there such a thing as supernatural evil at loose in the world? Matthew Guinn draws readers into a vortex of tense, atmospheric storytelling, confronting the fears of both old South and new, compelling the reader through a breathless, disturbing finale.

A Los Angeles Public Library Best Book of the Year and a Finalist for the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393353273
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	306
Sales rank:	580,476
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Matthew Guinn's first novel, The Resurrectionist, was a finalist for the Edgar Award. A native Atlantan, he now lives with his family in Jackson, Mississippi.

Editorial Reviews

"A gripping tale that will have readers gasping, both in suspense and in horror…. [Guinn is] one of the most promising fiction writers in America today."

The Clarion-Ledger - Jim Ewing

"Matthew Guinn is the real thing…Do yourself a favor and read this."

Greg Iles

"Exciting, atmospheric…. A fine historical thriller that deserves a wide readership."

The Missourian - Nelson Appell

"The Scribe creates a nightmare, penetrates the darkness, and balances ever so nimbly between the surreal and the physical worlds. Yet there is hope, always hope, and you’ll follow that light at the end of the tunnel to see where Guinn will take you."

Michael Farris Smith

"Guinn has written an excellent sequel to the first novel…in his series of mysteries set in the Reconstruction South. The author superbly portrays the evil that lurks along the streets of post-war Atlanta. His research of Atlanta after the war is impeccable, and the plot, with its twists and turns, is fast-paced, gripping, and compels the reader to turn each page. I highly recommend this mystery."

Historical Novel Society - Jeff Westerhoff

"So good…Historical figures mingle freely with Guinn’s own fully fleshed characters in a time and setting that make this horror story something much more than just scary reading at dusk."

Daily Herald - Laura Wadley

"[A]n absorbing historical mystery filled with evocative period detail, a brooding atmosphere of corruption and pervasive evil, and compelling characters…. Readers will be reminded of Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City (2003) and the distinctly southern, melancholy tone of James Lee Burke’s Robicheaux series."

Booklist

"Guinn makes the reader realize that the present is an extension of the past, and our predecessors are not our predecessors but are us. The Scribe is a remarkable book and hard to put down."

James Lee Burke

"Few writers seem to understand the difficult balance between historical detail and suspense better than Edgar Award finalist Matthew Guinn. [The Scribe] is a master class in historical mystery…. A powerful, elaborate page-turner, perfect for fans of everything from Caleb Carr’s The Alienist to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian."

BookPage - Matthew Jackson

"One of the most tense and exciting novels I have read in ages."

Tuscaloosa News - Don Noble

★ 07/27/2015
Set in Atlanta in 1881, this superior whodunit from Edgar-finalist Guinn (The Resurrectionist) stars Thomas Canby, a former detective on the Atlanta Police Force, who lost his job after a false accusation of taking bribes. When someone murders barber Alonzo Lewis, “the richest Negro in Atlanta,” severing his head and carving the letter M on his forehead, Canby’s old boss recalls the disgraced detective. The powers that be have suppressed the news, as the city is relying on the success of the International Cotton Exposition to revitalize municipal finances. Another wealthy African-American is killed soon afterward, but this time the letter A is left as the killer’s mark. Canby, who is white, partners with the city’s first African-American police officer, Cyrus Underwood. Since Underwood was the first to find both dead men, he himself is an obvious suspect, but the plot takes numerous turns before the final, painful resolution. The richness of the characters and period detail make the prospect of a sequel welcome. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Emma Sweeney Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2015-06-17
Graphic gothic horror and 19th-century American caste politics meld with unsettling force in this (often literally) scorching whodunit. It is the autumn of 1881 in the American South. President James Garfield is dead, and so is Reconstruction. The city of Atlanta wishes to mark its gradual ascent from the ashes of its Civil War ravishment-by-fire with its International Cotton Exposition, which may even include a visit of reconciliation from its one-time scourge, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman himself. But just before the festivities begin, police find grotesquely mutilated corpses of African-American entrepreneurs with capital letters carved into their foreheads. Desperate for a quick, timely solution, a cabal of prominent businessmen, known as "the Ring," discreetly hires a discredited, disillusioned ex-Atlanta detective named Thomas Canby to investigate these bizarre serial killings. Since the Ring's suspicions settle primarily on the city's segregated black population, Canby is aided in this task by pious, prim Cyrus Underwood, Atlanta's first duly authorized constable of color, who Canby soon finds is a lot steelier than he seems. And they both soon find that there's far more to this gory series of murders than meets the eye, as white corpses, each with foreheads bearing bloody single letters, join the black ones in what another character likens to a accursed "spelling bee." Guinn's previous period mystery, last year's The Resurrectionist, was an Edgar finalist for its thoroughbred-racing momentum, and with his conscientious attention to historic detail, and vividly ghoulish imagery, he could conceivably cross the finish line with this ripsnorting follow-up, an intricately woven page-turner whose subtext of class and racial animus ingrained in the American psyche reinforces James Joyce's assertion of history being the true nightmare from which it's impossible to awaken. Imagine a sequel to Birth of a Nation as conceived, written, and directed by David Lynch. Too much of a stretch? Wait till you see who—or what—is behind the mayhem.

Kirkus Reviews