Content warning: murder and drugging.
Five years before the events of the book, I Don’t Wish You Well, the four star football players of a small town in Louisiana were murdered. The killer was the closeted queer drug dealer whose secret relationship with another openly gay boy was discovered by the players. That’s the context of the sweltering Louisiana summer that takes place in Jumata Emill’s new book I Don’t Wish You Well. The culprit of the murders, Deuce Beales, went down as a cautionary tale against being queer in the small town because, clearly, being gay inevitably led directly to grisly murder.
Fast forward five years, and now enters the main character of the book, Pryce Cummings. He is, similar to the killer, a closeted gay in his hometown, but, during the academic year, he finds the freedom to be more open about it at college. As a freshman journalism major, Pryce sets out to prove that Deuce was innocent. To whomever asks, he is pursuing the truth as any good journalist should. To himself, it’s to show Deuce’s sexuality had nothing to do with the murders. Unfortunately for Pryce, his investigation leads him even deeper into the disturbing sexual exploits of the small town.
In my opinion, the most mysterious and intriguing way that authors can capture their audience in a murder mystery is through a red herring. A red herring is when the reader and character are led down the wrong path before being shocked by the real culprit. This book was more akin to the crazed swarming a school of fish does when attacked by a shark, meant as a compliment. It all starts with a few dubious theories and first-hand witnesses who said they’d seen Deuce, the alleged killer, doing various innocuous things at the time he was supposedly killing star football players. From there, Pryce follows lead after lead searching for the truth while harboring a great, all-encompassing secret of his own.
When we were introduced to the character, he was openly gay at his college. But we soon discover that he hasn’t come out to anybody in his town, especially because of the stigma surrounding queerness after Deuce, a queer Black man, killed four white, heterosexual footballers. In classic fashion, the actions of just one person belonging to a minority are seized upon by the majority as proof that belonging to said minority means succumbing to animalistic behaviors. Although the behavior in this case is greatly exaggerated to murder, the most often-seen critique of queerness zeroes in on the extremes, such as critics ironically identifying themselves as toasters or helicopters. Emill presents an entertaining take on this phenomenon, flipping the script to show how ironic it is to assume that it was because Deuce was queer that he was the killer. Emill, or rather Pryce, does this by uncovering the brutal crimes the football players themselves had committed. It all serves to prove the absurdity of queer stigma.
Overall, this book was delightful. First of all, the prose was a breeze to read. It was clear, straightforward and never had me confused, a particularly valuable characteristic in a complex murder mystery such as this. Despite how confusing the story could’ve gotten, it never did because of Emill’s masterful writing. In addition, the story flowed beautifully throughout much of the book. Pryce moves from interview to interview, helping the novel to maintain good pacing. Along the way, Pryce also has the time to agonize over coming out to his parents, whom he has the impression will not be welcoming at all. In fact, given that the main character is a real journalist, the book has a very nice realistic and factual vibe to it. The truths are presented clearly, even the biases that might be present, which really immerses the reader into Pryce’s investigation.
Overall, this was a great whodunit story that presents a new and exciting premise. The twist was nothing if not unpredictable, and although the ending wasn’t satisfying at all, that is why I enjoyed it. In my opinion, murder mysteries that end happily-ever-after don’t accurately reflect reality because murder is such a hateful act that it will never end cleanly. I highly recommend this book, whether as a more serious read or as a light, murder-mystery, because, either way, Jumata Emill’s new book is fantastic and will linger for many days after closing the back cover.
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