“Superb… King tells this complex story with grace and sensitivity, and his narrative never flags. His mastery of the materials is complete…occasional detours into such subjects as the history of the citrus industry…are welcome and illuminating.”—Jeffrey Toobin, New York Times Book Review
“Riveting…In ‘Beneath a Ruthless Sun,’ journalist Gilbert King recounts this perplexing story with compassion and a vibrant sense of time and place…[a] sobering but expertly told saga.”—Washington Post
“A gripping tale of entrenched racism and complicity… King’s reporting defies cliché with depth and specificity. He holds to verifiable facts and knows how to let a story and characters evolve… King’s book haunts as an uncurtained stare into history.”—Jacqui Banaszynski Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Remarkable… Beneath a Ruthless Sun is multiple books in one – a gripping true-crime narrative, a deeply wrenching story of American bigotry and corruption, and an inspiring tale of heroes fired by love and righteous fury… King reminds us of [Florida’s] not-so-distant history as a stronghold of Southern racism and bigotry, a state that produced both horrific violence and courageous protest.” —Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor
“Chilling…Beneath a Ruthless Sun plunges the reader deeply into the legal practices, civil rights battles, and stubborn sexual inequalities of the mid-20th century, but this fast-moving and impeccably sourced book is anything but a slog. Truth oftentimes beggars belief, and the “true” in “true crime” can be a promise that betrays as much as it entices. Not so with Gilbert King’s scorching, compelling, and — unfortunately — still entirely relevant new work.” —Jean Zimmerman, National Public Radio
“The plot against Daniels seems baffling, verging on nonsensical — until you begin to see the community the way King does: so deformed by racial animus and misogyny that the white establishment of Lake County deemed it less of an ‘indignity’ for Knowles to have been raped by a white man than a black man…Timely and important.”—Jennifer Szalai, New York Times
“King’s style is gentle but insistent. It’s laid out cleanly, with precision and without condemnation…And there lies the secret to the power behind King’s books: Truth.” —Lauren Ritchie, Orlando Sentinel
“Extraordinary…This book reads like a first-rate crime thriller, built on shocking plot twists and vivid characters and evidence of the darkest corners of human nature.” —Colette Bancroft, Tampa Bay Times
“In Beneath a Ruthless Sun, Pulitzer Prize winner Gilbert King continues his extraordinary historical autopsy of 1950s and ’60s Lake County, Florida, and its infamous racist sheriff Willis McCall… this is a fascinating look at the South and its people in an era many today fondly remember as when America was ‘great.’”—Florida Times-Union
“Through [King’s] exploration of a crime committed in one small Florida town over 60 years ago, he strikes at the heart of questions of race, justice, privilege, and corruption that have long been left unanswered. In doing so, his latest work proves that, in the right hands, true crime stories aren’t just cash grabs. They can be forms of literary activism… [A] truly fascinating journey King recounts in page-turning detail. A brilliant and heavily researched work, Beneath the Ruthless Sun takes readers along for a wild and thought-provoking ride towards truth and justice.”—Bustle
“A spellbinding true story of racism, privilege, and official corruption…By turns sobering, frightening, and thrilling, this meticulous account of the power and tenacity of officially sanctioned racism recalls a dark era that America is still struggling to leave behind.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“The perversions of justice under Jim Crow chart a devious path in this labyrinthine true crime saga… Packed with riveting characters and startling twists, King’s narrative unfolds like a Southern gothic noir probing the recesses of a poisoned society.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred)
“This book is every bit as gripping as the author’s Pulitzer-winning Devil in the Grove.” —Booklist (starred)
“King provides a glimpse into the past that is equal parts enlightening, frustrating, and invariably un-put-downable.” —Harper’s Bazaar
“A true-crime masterwork.” —Men’s Journal
“A powerful page-turner.” —Garden & Gun
“Gilbert King’s new book has the potential to be the historical crime investigation that takes up the mantle from David Grann’s sensation, Killers of the Flower Moon. King looks at the many layers of corruption and mystery swirling around a late 1950s case stemming from the rape of a Florida citrus baron’s wife. A backwards local sheriff railroads a series of suspects, while a crusading journalist pushes ahead in the face of tremendous resistance and secrecy. King’s book unfolds a conspiracy implicating institutional racism, mental healthcare, treatment of the mentally impaired, and the fabric of Southern town life in the buildup to a truly tumultuous era.” —Crime Reads
“A tense and stunning true-crime read.” —BookPage
“A narrative of sex, race, and corruption in 1957 Florida that must be read to be believed.”—Library Journal
“Compelling, insightful and important, Gilbert King exposes the corruption of racial bigotry and animus that shadows a community, a state and a nation. A fascinating examination of an injustice story all too familiar and still largely ignored, an engaging and essential read.” —Bryan Stevenson, author of Just Mercy
“In the tradition of Harper Lee, Gilbert King tells the story of a small southern town corrupted by racism, a perverse genteel honor, and utter disdain for poor “crackers.” Three women stand out in this gripping tale of a falsely accused man: an unrelenting reporter, a mother, and a victim doubly victimized as a pawn of others’ ambitions. In deftly unraveling a tragic mixture of lies, violence, and hatred, King powerfully reminds us how the unpalatable beliefs of 1957 haunt us still.” —Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash
“Gilbert King’s stunning chronicle of race, sex and power in fatal combination yields so many truly tragic turns that it’s almost uncanny when goodness endures. With breakneck drama and cold clarity, Beneath a Ruthless Sun captures the sultry particulars of a uniquely charged place and time as well as a universal truth about how difficult it is for humans in the aggregate to do the right thing.” —Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama—the Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution