Dead Weight
By Batt Humphreys
Historical Fiction
Hardcover
224 pages (Hardcover with full color jacket)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9818735-6-5
In one of America's most beautiful cities, an ugly crime has been committed.
Based on events that took place in Charleston, South Carolina a hundred
years ago; Dead Weight tells the story of the murder of a Jewish merchant,
the black man accused of the murder and the white populace primed for a
hanging. Into these real events, steps a fictional character. A reporter
from New York is assigned to cover a story with would seem to be a fait
accompli. The outsider's view of Charleston just after the turn of the
century, still clinging to a cultural past and caught in the racial
realities of the time, brings a Menckenesque perspective to a plot that is
anything but a simple tale of racial wrongdoing.
Through the narration of Hal Hinson, we see the beauty of Charleston, the
ugliness of the racial divide and a struggle, through the transcripts of
actual court testimony, between two lawyers for the life of a man accused of
murder. The reader also comes to know the real character of the accused -
Daniel Cornelius "Nealy" Duncan who was the last man hanged by the state of
South Carolina.
“A stunning story, masterfully told. This is historical sleuthing with a
journalist's eye: real people and a real tragedy.
”
HARLAN COBEN, New York Times bestselling author
“Compelling and satisfying, Dead Weight, is a moving historical novel, a
heart pounding legal thriller and a poignant love story. Batt Humphreys
debuts with a memorable and beautifully written book which illustrates the
triumph of the human spirit against all odds.
”
MARY JANE CLARK, New York Times best selling author of It Only
Takes a Moment
“Batt Humphreys brings both a reporter's gift for research and a novelist's
imagination to his vivid recreation of 1910 Charleston and one of the city's
most shameful episodes of racial injustice.
”
RON RASH, New York Times bestselling author of Serena
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