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Hell at the Breech

by Tom Franklin (Goodreads Author)

4.07 of 5 stars 4.07 · rating details · 739 ratings · 122 reviews

In 1897, an aspiring politician is mysteriously murdered in the rural area of Alabama known as Mitcham Beat. His outraged friends——mostly poor cotton farmers——form a secret society, Hell-at-the-Breech, to punish the townspeople they believe responsible. The hooded members wage a bloody year-long campaign of terror that culminates in a massacre where the innocent suffer alo...more

Paperback, 344 pages

Published December 16th 2003 by HarperCollins (first published 2003)

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Apr 25, 2012 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2000-2005, audiobook, historical-fiction, thriller, noir, dark-and-gritty, mystery, gothic, signed-first-or-limited-edition

Western noir…despair-filled, hickory-smoked literature echoing the matter-of-fact cynicism of Cormac McCarthy, and the conspicuous immorality of Jim Thompson.

That’s the best way I can think of to describe Tom Franklin’s impressive first novel. A surprisingly strong, surprisingly powerful maiden effort that clearly heralds the blooming genius of the talent that would go on to pen Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, one of my favorite novels of 2011. The man can seriously tell stories.

But damn if th...more

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Dec 09, 2012 Eh?Eh! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: babble-added, lit-huh-rary

When I was a young 'un, when everything was new and there was no bitter experience to cast a cynical shade over whatever was before me, I would read everything. If it had letters, I would read it. There's this exercise the teacher pulled out sometime in early elementary school and then later in late high school, a paragraph where you were supposed to count all the letter e's. In high school, I'd forgotten the trick of it and missed all the ones in the small words, the ones I'd skim over in my by...more When I was a young 'un, when everything was new and there was no bitter experience to cast a cynical shade over whatever was before me, I would read everything. If it had letters, I would read it. There's this exercise the teacher pulled out sometime in early elementary school and then later in late high school, a paragraph where you were supposed to count all the letter e's. In high school, I'd forgotten the trick of it and missed all the ones in the small words, the ones I'd skim over in my by-then jaded reading technique. I think that mechanical deterioration can describe my current weary and inept reading style now, skipping-stone-like.

Man, I remember being 9 and taking home about 20 library books at a time, a mix of biography, science, and fiction. I wish I'd ranged wider before realizing there was such a thing as genre. FSF became the bear trap and I didn't know to chew my leg off to get away. I was caught for a couple decades. By the time it dawned on me that the reason why I probably wasn't enjoying what I was reading was because I wanted something meatier and real, I was lost.

So I'm glad for this site and the way we all shovel through the pile for each other, pointing out this and that, books that I would never look at twice ("this one? But...there's no dragon on the cover"). I'd never know there existed such a thing as fiction with themes of and in the storytelling lilt of certain eastern mountain regions. Kinda specific and odd to me. But these kinds of books have been an ease to the agitation of my attention span.

I'm uncomfortable with the thought that the miserable and hopeless lives of these folk have the opposite effect on me. I'm not sure why. Does this mean my compassion is also hardening? Do I like these because I'm not them, hah hah nyah nyah? I...hope not, I don't think that's so. I have no answer, even one fashioned in my favor. I think I'd been able to read those FSF books indiscriminately because I didn't notice quality of writing, just the escapism of the story in the sense that my thoughts were fully occupied to the exclusion of all other troubles. But a lot of these are badly written so that started popping me out of the lull. These, I dunno. Somehow reading about hard times, so hard I've never had and will likely never have them, works.

The book? It's good. I think it's the author's first novel. It's based on real events, fictionalized. The eternal dispute between the haves and have-nots, family, loyalty, guilt, secrets, cycling violence, duty, pain, poverty. I liked how a seemingly passive character was revealed to have been a fulcrum of events, a shield. A sociopath and a psychopath. Hard times, and an ending that doesn't provide an easy happy wrap-up.(less)

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Apr 27, 2012 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

I reviewed this for PW and the Chronicle, the latter of which is pasted below (my original text); fantastic book!

Vigilante “Justice” in the post-Civil War South

Hell at the Breech
By Tom Franklin
HarperCollins, 320 pages, $23.95

It’s a cliché of contemporary fiction: literary novels are character-driven; commercial novels are plot-driven. But surely the best, and most lasting, novels integrate both elements. Hell at the Breech, a remarkable first novel by Tom Franklin, represents a nearly perfect sy...more

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Jul 19, 2012 Pat rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a historical fiction about a real life gang called Hell at the Breech that declared war on the nearby towns of Grove Hill and Coffeeville in 1890s Alabama. This took place during a time when the merchants in the towns kept the poor farmers in perpetual debt, and anger over their situation led in part to the war between the two. There are as many questions as there are answers as to what really happened, and Tom Franklin's fictional portrayal imagines the truth behind the events.

Franklin...more

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Mar 12, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For me this book falls firmly into the category of: very happy to have read, but quite happy to never read again. This is a visceral, violent book that gives equal weight to both sides of the conflict and where rarely does a body appear on the page without a purpose, but it doesn't make the blood and deaths any easier to take.

Franklin doesn't shrink from presenting the dire living conditions and tenuous lifestyles of those that live on the fringes of society and he takes his time (almost the fir...more

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Apr 18, 2010 Lee Goldberg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For book lovers, the pleasure and discovery of browsing through a bookstore's shelves can never be replaced or replicated by visiting an online site.

A couple of months ago, I was browsing through an independent bookstore in Mendocino, California and happened upon HELL AT THE BREECH by Tom Franklin, which was published in 2003 and yet was still stocked on the shelves as a new title. Imagine a chain bookstore holding on to a title that long. I doubt I ever would have discovered the book otherwise...more For book lovers, the pleasure and discovery of browsing through a bookstore's shelves can never be replaced or replicated by visiting an online site.

A couple of months ago, I was browsing through an independent bookstore in Mendocino, California and happened upon HELL AT THE BREECH by Tom Franklin, which was published in 2003 and yet was still stocked on the shelves as a new title. Imagine a chain bookstore holding on to a title that long. I doubt I ever would have discovered the book otherwise.

I finally got around to reading HELL AT THE BREECH in two long, blissful sittings this week, finishing it at 2:30 this morning, invigorated and wishing the book wasn't finished. The experience was like re-uniting with an old lover. The pleasure of reading this fine novel brought back memories of all the hours I'd spent reading good books in my life....huddled in my sleeping bag in a cabin at Loon Lake, sitting on the boardwalk in Capitola, sunbathing on a chaise lounge at my grandfather's place in Palm Springs, lying in the bathtub with my head propped on a wet towel, laying in a hammock with my baby daughter asleep on my chest etc.... and all the associations that came with them, like the smell of suntan lotion, the fresh-caught trout in Nana's smoker, the soap bubbles in the bathtub, the baby lotion on my daughter's skin. A good book can do a lot more than simply entertain and pass the time.

HELL AT THE BREECH is one of those books. It's a wonderfully entertaining book, the best western I've read since LONESOME DOVE, though far be it from any of the critics who raved about it....and there were many...to concede it's a western. The closest anyone came was to refer to it as "historical fiction."

The book is full of vividly drawn, complex characters...violence, humor, and powerful imagery. There are many moving scenes and darkly funny moments...and many masterful descriptions of people, places, expressions and emotions. I often found myself re-reading passages just to experience the beautifully-evoked images and moment again...and to marvel at Franklin's prose, wishing I had his talent. It's a book that will make you eager to read another book to recapture that pleasure...and, if you are like me, it will inspire you to write.(less)

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Dec 17, 2012 wally rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: franklin

this is the 2nd from franklin for me...the 1st that collection of short stories, Poachers, that i enjoyed...the description of the storyline is enticing...

dedicated for beth ann and for claire

a quote: and the children of mitcham beat were warned that if they ever heard the whinny of horses and the squeak of good leather, they had better run and hide.
--the mitcham war of clarke county, alabama
harvey h. jackson iii, in collaboration w/joyce white burrage and james a. cox

there is a contents pages.....more

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Dec 10, 2010 Snotchocheez rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the opening lines of Tom Franklin's debut novel "Hell at the Breech", you know that you're in store for something refreshingly different, and powerful, and and and and (dare I say?) evil and wretched, and know you're holding the end product of some amazing story-telling talent.

His account of the very-real Mitcham Beat "war" (hardly a war, more like an extreme case of territorial pissing, in light of the war-to-end-all-wars twenty years or so preceding it) in antebellum southern Alabama is h...more

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Aug 08, 2012 Melki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, crime, best-of-2012

"This here is a commitment you won't be able to get out of once you sign up," Tooch went on. He placed a fatherly hand his shoulder and squeezed it until Mack looked up. "Are you willing to own up to the responsibility we're fixing to yoke upon you?"
"Yes, sir," he said.
"Are you willing to kill, if given the order?"
"Yes, sir."
"Willing to die, if it comes to that?"
"Yes, sir."
"In return, you'll get the protection of this inner circle, and of the larger circle without. Since Arch was murdered, we've...more "This here is a commitment you won't be able to get out of once you sign up," Tooch went on. He placed a fatherly hand his shoulder and squeezed it until Mack looked up. "Are you willing to own up to the responsibility we're fixing to yoke upon you?"
"Yes, sir," he said.
"Are you willing to kill, if given the order?"
"Yes, sir."
"Willing to die, if it comes to that?"
"Yes, sir."
"In return, you'll get the protection of this inner circle, and of the larger circle without. Since Arch was murdered, we've all bunched together in this alliance, with the goal to set things right, and if we all get rich in the meantime, well, that's okay too.
"If you ever tell any of what you'll learn, you'll forfeit your life. We all kill you. Do you understand that, Mack?"
"Yes, sir."
"Welcome," Tooch said, "to Hell-at-the-Breech."

Welcome, indeed, to your friendly neighborhood protection racket and terrorist society, 1898 Alabama-style, where a band of night riders do and take whatever they want, and damn the consequences.

It's up to the town's sheriff to find a way to end the recent crime spree - difficult to do since all witnesses are either dead, or just not talking. Also looking to stop the gang is an ambitious man with a dark past and an agenda of his own; a man who is as greedy and immoral as the men he is seeking.

One teenage boy can bring the violence to a halt, but doing so would not only jeopardize his life and the lives of those he cares for, it would expose his own terrible secret.

When the town sends forth a "lynch mob with an appetite" that starts shooting everything in sight, an all out war seems inevitable.

This is not a book for everyone. Bad things happen to a lot of people. (And puppies. And a more than a few mules.)

I found it to be a completely engrossing read. Normally I need to read at least three books by an author before joining their fan club, but after reading this book and Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter earlier this year, all I can say is - Tom Franklin - I'm yours.(less)

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May 25, 2011 Christina Ramos rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It took me three tries to finally get through the first chapter of this book and onward through the rest of it. If the descriptions of a boy drowning a sack of puppies or slitting the throat of a snapper turtle only to find it still upside-down clinging to life the next day doesn't completely turn you off from reading the rest of the book you are in for a hell of a ride. Tom Franklin is as fine a writer as any produced in the South, and this here is his first novel. It is a fictionalized account...more

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Nov 04, 2011 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Man oh man! Can this guy ever write! Not for the squeamish, this is one of the most violent books I have ever read. It is also a stroll through the darkest aspects of human nature, a Lord of the Flies set in the rural south at the turn of the century, as the underpinnings of civil order disintegrate into a mob mentality. The writing is a blend of Faulkner and Charles Frazier ("Cold Mountain"). The theme is, as I said, Lord of the Flies, Cold Mountain, and The Oxbow Incident rolled into one novel...more

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Mar 13, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fic

Loosely based on true events, Hell at the Breech takes place in late 19th century Alabama. When Arch Bledsole, a popular business owner and aspiring politician from rural Mitcham Beat is murdered, his cousin Quincy "Tooch" Bledsole and a handful of local men form a secret outlaw gang dubbed "Hell at the Breech." The tragedy of Arch's murder becomes a catalyst for the Mitcham War, pitting Hell's lower class sharecroppers against the middle class businessmen and landowners of the neighboring towns...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Alex Hoshor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

awesome. a historical retelling of a blood-soaked feud that puts old west flavor in old south mouths. a narrative so enveloping that you actually get your clothes dirty reading it. beautiful writing of a gritty and often very grisly time and place laced with humor and humanity.

**if one qualm must be had about it, which one doesn’t, but… i would only say that at times i wondered if character behaviors were being fudged to draw hero/villain distinctions for the sake of broader audience appeal, or...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Lynn rated it 4 of 5 stars

I enjoy well-written historical fiction because the reader is given a glimpse of remote life & times, but through the imaginatinative "eye" of the writer. This is a fictionalized account of real-life "turf" wars, vigilantism, lawlessness and wanton violence in 1897 - 1898 Clarke County, Alabama. The place was like "the wild West"! As I read this book I had to constantly remind myself that the action took place just over 100 years ago in SW Alabama. My grandparents both hailed from this part...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Snotchocheez rated it 5 of 5 stars

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Apr 27, 2009 Scott Sanders rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Through the first half of this book, I thought to myself that I was going to give it six stars out of five. That's how good the writing and characters were. But as the book went on, it began to feel like more of the same. Back and forth we went between the two sides, with everything getting progressively bloodier and more violent. I'm not at all opposed to violence (just look at my own books) but this seemed to be gratuitous after awhile. I did like the final little twist at the end, but by that...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Jeff Tucker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Tom Franklin is one hell of a fine writer. There are only a handful of authors who are his equal when it comes to describing the plight of the poor in the rural south. This is a work of historical fiction and it takes place in a lawless section of rural Alabama called Mitcham Beat in the late 1800’s. The area is sparsely populated by desperately poor subsistence farmers, small time cotton growers and even poorer sharecroppers. Some of the residents feel that they are being taken advantage of by...more

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Apr 15, 2013 William rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book as a follow-up to Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter which I enjoyed immensely. But I can honestly say that I liked this one better. For at least three-quarters of the novel, the author seemed to stand back and let the characters move freely through the landscape of violence, poverty, and various forms of guilt. In the last quarter, he does seem to be pushing his character around a bit more in order to wrap it up. The novel is about the precarious balance of teetering bet...more

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Jan 07, 2011 Carl rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Don't recall how I came across this book/author; maybe a notice of new paperback edition of one of his in the NY Times Book Review?
On the one hand, an excellent historical novel (assuming it's fairly accurate) that gives you a feel for the life of poor rural southern cotton sharecroppers in the 1890's, and their world, including the middle class townfolk who become the enemies of some. On the other, a graphically violent story of a mini-war among residents of that world, quite full of blood and...more

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May 31, 2009 Bett rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fascinating, well written novel of actual Mitcham Beat war in south Alabama in the 1890's.
Wonderful novel set in actual events in south Alabama during the 1890's, fictional account of the Mitcham Beat War. I grew up in that area, and find the book fascinating, and the language lush and lyrical: "cotton as white as a senator's eyebrow." Other images are as stark as Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and evoke similar feelings.

I grew up in Clarke County, and the stories about the Mitcham Beat War are...more

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Jan 07, 2013 Vicky rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Franklin has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and with this book I can see why. It was a bit too bloody and violent for me which is why I gave it 3 stars. Having said that I would still recommend it for the story and writing. Based on true events in 1890s Alabama, it is one of the best accounts I have read of the circumstances that create mob violence and the innocent people that suffer. But in Franklin's hands there is also a "mystery" and unexpected twists. Personally, I found "Crooked Letter,...more

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Jul 13, 2011 Kasa Cotugno rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: location-usa-south

Another fine example of Southern literature. This book, as beautiful as it is brutal, is set against actual events in rural Alabama shortly before the turn of the last century. Franklin knows his local mythology, and although he issues a disclaimer that the characters are fictional even if some of the events really happened, there is a vitality and richness usual in southern prose. As with Peter Carey's embodiment of the Ned Kelley gang, there is much action and local color, but unlike that grou...more

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Jun 22, 2011 Kim Mccully-mobley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing writing! Tom Franklin crafts a fictional tale based on real life events over a century ago in Alabama. His gut instincts are right on target to bring vigilante justice to a raw, messy and complicated level. The stories within stories and how everyone is connected is pure southern heritage that transcends itself to some of what I have discovered in the files of Ozarkian history today. Everyone has the capacity to be both good and evil, depending on conscience, choice and pure desperation....more

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May 26, 2011 Elaine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle

Murder, fire, lynching. A group formed to avenge the death of one of their own strikes fear among their neighbors, not thinking twice about killing someone just for laughing at them. Those who know of a particular doing won't speak a word of it lest they meet with similar vengeance. If they want you in their group, you sign in blood or else. Folks'll even find you dead if the group doesn't like the way you play croquet.

Reading along and I thought "This book is going nowhere" and I was contempla...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Adam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: heart-of-darkness, noir

Hell at Breach more than lives up to its awe inspiring name as a wild and wooly tale. Franklin’s stunning debut combines southern literature, historical novel, and hardboiled crime in this tale of a group of poor sharecroppers forming a gang to fight rich landowners and shop keepers (and for more self serving and nefarious reasons). Assured prose, historical detail and terrific dialogue give authenticity to the tale, but it’s the characters that make it memorable. The Widow, Tooch, the Burkes, S...more

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Jan 26, 2011 Darryl Mexic rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this novel because I loved his later novel, “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter”. It was disappointing only because it did not compare favorably with the latter one. It takes place in 1897 in rural Alabama and involves a war of sorts between the “city” folks of some tiny Alabama hamlet, and the rurals of a nearby town. There are lots of killings and weird characters. The main character is an aging sheriff who is the good guy and several really bad dudes. It is a fun read but nothing spectacu...more

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Sep 14, 2009 Sallie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-shelf-fiction

I wish I knew a Hollywood screenwriter, because I would urge them to read this book. Though I probably could not stand to watch the violence if it were accurately depicted on screen.

Beautifully written, complex characters.

You won't finish this book with an romantic notions about the "good ol' days" intact. Hell at the Breech does what well-written historical fiction does best -- makes the facts, figures and statistics come to life (and death). You will understand the crop-lien/sharecropping sys...more

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Nov 19, 2012 David James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've been working my way through Tom Franklin, and this is definitely the best of those I've already read. Franklin paced this one perfectly, his major characters are well presented, and the storyline is compelling. This one is nowhere near as sick as "Smonk," although not as disgustingly funny either. But it's a much stronger story. Based as it is on an actual event, it has a believability that "Smonk" lacked. Meanwhile, owing to its length, it delivers far more than "Poachers," the unforgettab...more

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Sep 26, 2012 James rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Franklin is an unabashed Son of Cormac. The self-conscious lyricism. The shocking, clinically- observed violence. The obsession with cruel, inarticulate men, in portrayals that contain equal parts rueful condemnation and homoerotic celebration. The Biblical pretension. They are all here in spades. I'm a huge McCarthy fan and I really liked this book, but just as I grew tired, as a Carver admirer, of the ubiquity of St. Raymond's minimalist acolytes, I'm starting find the Genesis in cowboy boots...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Andrea rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-noir

Couldn't put this down, and for the first time in a long time I thought I had the characters figured and didn't...but the twists made them more real than my figuring. That's what stands out for me, but there's also the writing -- an old fashioned flavour to it, but gritty and raw and sometimes beautiful. Paragraphs capped off with razors. And the story line, which slowly gathers speed until you're on a speeding train so exciting you don't jump even though you know the wreck is coming.

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About Tom Franklin

Tom Franklin was born and raised in Dickinson, Alabama. He held various jobs as a struggling writer living in South Alabama, including working as a heavy-equipment operator in a grit factory, a construction inspector in a chemical plant and a clerk in a hospital morgue. In 1997 he received his MFA from the University of Arkansas. His first book, Poachers was named as a Best First Book of Fiction b...more

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Quotes from Hell at the Breech

“Dawn crept up out of the trees, defining a bole, a burl, a leaf at a time the world he'd spent the night trying to comprehend. But what would daylight offer except the illusion of understanding? At least in darkness you were spared the pretending.” — 4 people liked it

“What damn fool punches his own horse?” — 3 people liked it

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