A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines [FIRST PAPERBACK PRINTING / 1984]

A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines  FIRST PAPERBACK PRINTING [1984] VINTAGE BOOKS Vintage mass market paperback in excellent condition.  An isolated line of foxing to fore edge of text block [see last photo]  Otherwise, like new and unread.  It begins with a murder: in the compound of a backwoods Louisiana plantation Beau Boutan, a Cajun farmer, is found shot. Immediately, we learn that something perhaps even more serious has taken place; we are in a maelstrom of startling events....Candy Marshall, the headstrong young white owner of the plantation (it's been in her family for generations) tells everyone in sight that she shot Beau, imploring them to believe her, though she knows from the start that no one will. And before she calls the sheriff, Candy has gathered more than a dozen aging black men with just-fired shotguns—which most of them seem barely able to carry, much less aim and shoot—each in his turn claiming that he shot Beau. Mapes, the old-line country sheriff, finds that even physical force—in the past, a foolproof method of persuasion and coercion—cannot break down the circle of protection that has suddenly been thrown up around the real murderer. And he realizes too that not only are these men unafraid of an act of vengeance by the Boutan family, but they are waiting for it, welcoming a chance for their own revenge after whole lifetimes of oppression. - Bookshop Apocalypse