"In Night Letter, Sterling Watson delivers an evocative tale of a young man struggling to come of age in the wake of a troubled childhood. Using pitch-perfect language, Watson transports readers to a Florida of the past and immerses them in a nuanced era. From its first page, the novel simmers with a certainty that if Watson's well-drawn protagonist is to find redemption, it will not come without a fight."
" Critical Praise for Watson's previous novels:
The Committee:
"Watson has written a fine, eloquent, powerful book and its message will remain timely. Let us heed its warning even as we savor the story so well told in its pages." —Southern Literary Review
"The Committee is a triumph of historical fiction—and a warning from our past . . . Watson is the rare writer who can address the big ideas—politics and power, love and hate, fear and freedom—without ever losing sight of the characters at the story’s heart." —Michael Koryta, New York Times best-selling author of How It Happened
"Sterling Watson is a rare find among writers as he commands all the elements of great fiction, and he continues to prove this with The Committee. In his latest must-read, Watson uses his great skill to shepherd readers back to 1950s Florida and a terrifying time when unchecked power, driven by hatred and prejudice, destroyed lives." —Lori Roy, Edgar Award–winning author of Gone Too Long
"Sterling Watson's The Committee shines a bright light on one of the darkest times in our collective history. This multilayered and complex look at how easy—and terrifying—it is for power and hatred to corrupt is a must-read for anyone who still subscribes to the notion that the 1950s were an idyllic time in American history." —Greg Herren, author of Survivor's Guilt and Other Stories
"Timely and pertinent to today's cultural and political climate, this fictional account of the persecution of gay people by the state in the 1950s reveals a part of Florida's past that sowed prejudice against our community for decades. This is a must-read." —Gale Massey, author of The Girl from Blind River
Suitcase City:
"[A] hypnotically beautiful novel . . . Paranoia has been defined as 'seeing too much pattern.' Author Watson can make us sweaty victims of that madness, partaking of it, suffering from it, and loving every minute." —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
"I am a huge fan of Sterling Watson's writing and take it from me: Suitcase City is arguably his best novel to date. I began reading and did not look up again until the very last page, so taken was I by its twists and turns, its explorations of race and honor and the love a father has for his daughter. Turn off your phone, lock your door, and dive into Suitcase City." —Ann Hood, author of The Obituary Writer
"As Watson reminds us, corruption and cruelty survive through their uncanny ability to take on new shapes." —Laura Lippman, author of I’d Know You Anywhere
Fighting in the Shade:
"High school football mixes with Faust in this blitz of a novel from Watson . . . The novel avoids slipping into morality tale excess as it spins out a big Dennis Lehane–like story of society, opportunity, and consequences, revealing Watson as an accomplished storyteller." —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW"
"A superbly crafted work of eloquent storytelling, Night Letter by novelist Sterling Watson will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in the combination of crime fiction and coming-of-age fiction. The result is a memorable read from first page to last."
"Watson does a good job with atmosphere, too, in this noirish coming-of-age novel whose convoluted plot will keep the pages turning."
"In this bleak and beautiful noir, we follow 18-year-old Travis Hollister, just released from reform school, driving through the Florida panhandle, and trying to find the woman he’s pined for since he was 12—his aunt, who’s also four years older. Publishers Weekly compares it to the works of S. E. Hinton, which is really all I need to know to want to read it."
"Sterling Watson is an American treasure."
"Compelling . . . Watson crafts the plot of Night Letter skillfully, keeping the tension between Travis's past and present tight. Key to that tension is the narrative voice, which draws us into Travis's struggle to understand his obsession and the danger it can unleash . . . Memory, he discovers, is a slippery thing, and what emerges from the past has shocking reverberations in the present, and into the future."
"The novels of Sterling Watson are to be treasured and passed on to the next generation."
"With Night Letter, Florida author Sterling Watson proves once more that he is a master storyteller and an exemplary writer . . . Through the taut thriller/noir fabric of this novel, Watson writes with a precision and eloquence befitting the best of literature."
"A taut thriller with a noir gloss, Night Letter balances revenge with loyalty and violence with redemption to create an evocative coming-of-age tale. This is an excellent novel which Watson writes with a precision and eloquence befitting the best of literature."
"Sterling Watson's Night Letter is a revelation and one of the most engaging books I've read in a long time. Part voice-driven coming-of-age, part atmospheric noir, the writing itself is incisive and poetic, and the characters themselves are those rare literary creations—complicated and human and real. Imagine a thriller conceived by David Goodis and written by Carson McCullers. This book helps to redefine the boundaries of contemporary American fiction."
"Amid the classic noir elements, author Sterling Watson slow-rolls a moving reflection on the costs to the human heart of vast social and economic change."
★ 2022-11-29
After six years in a Nebraska reform school, 18-year-old Travis Hollister heads south during the Lyndon Johnson era to get back with the illicit woman of his dreams only to become involved with another teenager.
When Travis was 12, he had a brief but intense romance with Delia—his 16-year-old aunt—before being sent up for a stabbing. In Florida, which "gets the crazies...because it's the last place you can go in one direction and still be American," he discovers that she has married an opportunistic Panama City lawyer but still is as obsessed with him as he is with her. While biding his time as a busboy, Travis encounters trouble in the form of Dawnell, a 16-year-old in a faded white party dress who "smokes like a thirty-year-old woman sitting on a barstool waiting for her future to walk in the door in a Palm Beach suit." Between secret meetings with Delia, he becomes Dawnell's protector and boyfriend-in-waiting, shaking off warnings about her from his seasoned co-worker Emil and hard-drinking, bighearted landlady, the Widow. Dotted with AM hits by the likes of Otis Redding and the Isley Brothers, the book unfolds like a fever dream, marked by good memories (riding with Delia in her white '54 Chevy with the radio on) and bad (the deaths of two boys she knew). "Like a rip current that takes your feet from under you and sweeps you out past the markers before you can wave at the shore, time comes to us again," Watson writes. Ultimately, this book is about freedom: "What is America if not a place where you can write your own story?"
An atmospheric coming-of-age story equally touched by noir and Southern soul.
06/10/2024
Watson (The Committee) reunites listeners with Travis and Delia, characters from his 2002 novel Sweet Dream Baby. Newly released from reform school after stabbing a boy in self-defense, 18-year-old Travis Hollister returns to Panama City, FL, to reconnect with the love of his life, Aunt Delia. Six years earlier, as a conflicted 12-year-old healing from his parents' separation, Travis fell in love with his 16-year-old aunt. Back at the reform school, psychiatrist Dr. Janeway feels that Travis has never fully opened up to him and expects that he may be unable to rejoin society successfully. Against those odds, Travis tentatively picks up past relationships and forms new ones as he works as a busboy and tries to come to terms with his past actions and misdeeds. Narrator Nick Walther skillfully communicates the story's emotional depth, bringing Travis's fragile heart into the foreground. Walther ably conveys Travis's roughness and regret, making him a character to root for. VERDICT An affecting coming-of-age story that will have listeners hoping that Travis will find a path forward to a healthy, happy future. Recommended for fans of Charles Davis's Drifting South.—Laura Trombley
