Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

     Can you guess what this book is about from the title? I couldn't.  I love titles that grab the reader and make you want to read the book to find out why the author chose it.  Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter is classified as a mystery, and the story does involve a 20 year old murder that was never solved.  But it is more about friendship and family. 
     Silas and Larry become friends by accident in the 1950's when Silas, a black boy squatting with his mother in a hunting shack owned by Larry's family, gets a ride to school with Larry and his Father.  This is the beginning of a short-lived friendship that haunts them both for the next 20+ years.  Larry is a misfit.  He is not the son his father, a mechanic,  wanted.  He has asthma, poor health, loves to read, and is not good at sports.  He doesn't fit in at school and has no friends.  Every night his mother prays for God to send Larry a friend.  When Silas and he start hanging out together, Larry is sure his Mom's prayers have been answered.  But Larry's father manages to destroy the friendship.  When the boy's are seniors in high school, Larry's beautiful neighbor and classmate disappears after he has a date with her and is never found.  Larry is accused of the murder and spends the next 25 years known as 'Scary Larry' in the community.
     Meanwhile, Silas gets a baseball scholarship and eventually returns to the small town as part of the police force.  Soon, two more people are killed and everyone assumes Larry killed them.  The story of how the  mystery is solved and what happens to these one-time friends makes a good book.
     Can you guess where the story takes place?  I'll spell it out for you:   M-I-crooked letter, crooked letter, I, hump back, hump back I, crooked letter, crooked letter, I.