# The Trees

By Percival Everett

Profile: https://hahafiction.com/books/the-trees-f05c7895/

Black detectives Ed Morgan and Jim Davis arrive in Money, Mississippi, to investigate brutal murders. Each scene includes another body resembling Emmett Till. As similar killings appear around the country, their case leads into a history of lynching that the town would prefer to leave alone.

## What makes it funny?

Ed and Jim can turn their own designation as special detectives into a deadpan joke about being Black. Elsewhere, white supremacists reminisce about cross burnings as though the important thing were the family picnic and cake. Their nostalgia exposes how casually they accommodate terror.

### The comedy at work

Everett deliberately caricatures racist characters while refusing their wish to treat racial violence as finished history. The detectives' comic exchanges run alongside grisly discoveries; the investigation keeps bringing back what the people around them would rather dismiss.

### Try this if…

The appeal lies in the uneasy movement between a police mystery, macabre comedy and political anger. Readers who enjoy abrasive satire will find a book willing to make racist folly ridiculous while keeping the history behind the murders in view.

### Good to know

Expect graphic murder and mutilation, racial slurs and strong language. The novel draws on the lynching of Emmett Till. Its exceptionally short chapters often shift perspective, moving quickly among the people caught in the investigation.

## What to expect

- Genre: Contemporary & literary · Crime & thriller · Horror · Mystery
- On the shelf: Comic noir · Private eye & detective
- Kind of humor: Banter · Dark comedy · Satire
- The atmosphere: Irreverent
- Audience: Adult
- Format: Novel
- Length: 352 pages
- Audiobook: 7 hr 43 min
- Published: 2021

## A few distinguishing details

- A corpse resembling Emmett Till at each murder scene
- Deadpan exchanges between two Black detectives
- Very short chapters that shift perspective

## Sources & further reading

- Library catalog: [Library audiobook edition](https://ncdigital-buncombe.overdrive.com/media/8721025)
- Author commentary: [Author interview on NPR](https://www.nprillinois.org/2021-09-18/percival-everetts-novel-the-trees-parses-through-races-part-in-a-southern-murder)
- Publisher: [Picador paperback edition](https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/percival-everett/the-trees/9781035036615)
- Publisher: [Graywolf publisher listing](https://books-events.graywolfpress.org/books/trees)
- Awards: [Booker reading guide](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/reading-guide-the-trees-by-percival-everett)