Easter Lilly — Tom Wicker

When a white man is found with a knife in his heart and his pants around his knees, all signs point to a black woman as the killer. Sure enough, Easter Lilly Odum doesn't deny doing the deed-but, she claims, it was either that or getting raped.

In a place where white is white, black is black, and the dead man is the brother of the county prosecutor, folks find this story hard to believe. Yet the clear fact is, Easter Lilly is knock-out beautiful, the sort of woman that men lose their minds over-men such as Shep Riley, a New York civil rights lawyer. Riley aims to save Easter Lilly from Southern injustice, even when he is forced to admit that justice, like truth, is a pretty elusive thing.

Ingenious, its Southernness palpable, Easter Lilly will beguile and entertain at the same time that it tests the limits of our prejudices.