David L Britt

A Bitter Birthright David L Britt

It is May, 1964, and the little town of Hampton in Beauchamp County is trying to cope with a turbulent decade while handicapped by a unique identity crisis of its own. On top of the typical Southern heritage of paranoia born of defeat and occupation, an untenable social structure based on inequality and exploitation, and a vulnerable economy tied to textiles, Hampton residents are particularly mistrustful of outsiders due to a perceived betrayal and psychologically haunted by a terrible town secret, written in blood and buried in a shallow grave of silence and denial. When the Chief of Police is killed by a sniper, Josiah Bates, his part-time deputy, and James Barnett, a detective from the State Police, partner to find the killer. They follow a trail of leads and red herrings: arguments, adulterous affairs, trans-generational grudges, official corruption, criminal enterprise, alibis, lies and retractions, and threats and intimidation. As the investigation draws to a conclusion, the residents of the town are forced to resurrect that buried secret and finally to deal with it in the light of day.