Books about the South -- No Defense by Rangeley Wallace

No Defense

by Rangeley Wallace (A Wyatt Book for St. Martin's Press, $21.95)

LuAnn Hagerdorn turned 12 in August 1963. That year two young black men traveling through her small town, Tallagumsa, Alabama, were murdered on their way to desegregate a state university. The killer escaped--at least, until 15 years later, when LuAnn returns home with her husband and three children, and discovers that the FBI has named her father as the prime suspect. LuAnn is devastated.

Rangeley Wallace's ambitious first novel begins slowly, an almost leisurely exploration of a conventional Southern family, but before long, the pace quickens. Propelled by a series of fast-moving courtroom scenes, No Defense tells the compelling story of a young woman's tormented refusal to accept the possibility of her father's guilt. Still, as decades-old secrets come to light, the soul of her small Southern town finally starts to heal, and LuAnn, too, can face her world with honest, hard-earned understanding. Susan L. Duncan

Copyright Southern Progress Corporation Jan 1996
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