Cross Dog Blues

CROSS DOG BLUES brings the wild pioneers of the Delta blues exploding to life in this adventurous and evocative debut novel about the mysterious mission at the center of the invention of blues music.



THEN: In 1915, Charlie Patton -- the enigmatic inventor of blues music -- founds a shadowy alliance with Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter and Blind Lemon Jefferson. A pact is made, and the seeds of revolution are sown. But, these three bluesman have no way of knowing the tragic series of events they are setting into motion, or the vast and lasting effect this pact will have on the world. Nor do they know the Ku Klux Klan is watching.



NOW: In 2002, Franklyn O'Connor -- a rebellious, nineteen-year-old white kid -- flees his Upstate New York hometown on a train destined for the Crossroads in the Mississippi Delta. He has his mind set on one thing: tracking down his deadbeat father, who walked out on his family when Frank was five. With nothing but a backpack and the unsolicited assistance of the little old man called Furry Jenkins, Frank soon drifts into the middle of a combustible racial feud at the intersection of a still divided society. A shocking truth awaiting him down the line.



Over the past hundred years, in the land where the Southern crosses the Dog, there raged a great long battle between the Devil and his music. This is that story.