The Mark of Cain

by Tyler Keith

In a world that has changed much during the six years he's been in prison, Ronnie Harrison struggles to piece together a new life from the wreckage of his old one. As a condition of his early parole, Ronnie must stay at a halfway-house for ex-cons called Camp Eden, where things are not exactly what they seem. As Ronnie realizes that he may still be imprisoned, a man from his past, Travis Campbell, shows up to bring Ronnie back into the world that led him to prison the first time. A rough world of moonshine, marijuana, and meth, which also happens to be the Harrison family's business. Eventually, Ronnie's struggle for a new life brings everything to a head in a violent revealing conclusion.

Tyler Keith's debut novel is delivered in a deft hand, detailing the landscape of his native Florida panhandle as intimately as his complex characters.

244 pages, Paperback

Published November 10, 2022

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve known of Tyler Keith for about 30 years. He’s fronted & played guitar in some of the noisiest, greasiest, purest rock and roll bands in Mississippi. The Neckbones. The Preacher’s Kids. The Apostles. Teardrop City. He has great taste in books, poetry, music, and movies (follow him on IG for more on this.) All of that is to preface this: This book is pure Tyler and I loved it. Pulp. Southern. Noir. The tale of a down-on-his luck ex-con in the Florida panhandle trying to adjust to a post-prison life and the temptation that haunts him at every turn. The book read so quickly that I felt like I had only read the first chapter of a sprawling tale by the time I finished the last page.

[Paul McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and well told southern Noir.
Can a man escape his past?
Ronnie, Fresh out of Prison is having a tough time going straight. Then his past, and his Kin come calling.
The only reason this isn’t a 5 star book is it took a long time foe the book to fully develop even though it is only about 230 pages.

This author can certainly write a story, he just needs a good editor to keep the story on track.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all my usual, but I read and enjoyed it, and was completely engaged with and rooting for the protagonist despite the hard living and violence.
The author was a wild musician and my neighbor when I was in grad school. He later received an MA and MFA from my same program. This book was on my radar after he did a pre-holiday reading at a local record shop. I bought the book for my husband but read it before he could.

[Phil Overeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Mr. Keith's music for almost a quarter-century, and I really applaud his dive into Southern noir fiction / modern pulp. Unsurprisingly, it's threaded with the moral struggles and random danger of life that characterizes his music. I really enjoyed it--especially the Florida atmospherics, which made me sweat--and fans of noir, pulp, and regionalism should, too.

[Richard Dinter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense at times ponderous deep dive into the incipient crime in the Florida Panhandle and the mind of a man who drifts into the family business while wondering if his fate is sealed. The prologue is masterful and the best part of the book. Better than JD Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy.

[Max Hipp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great dive into Pensacola of the 80s, a place of old-man bars and lots of crime. Luckily our narrator is well-connected to the criminal element of the place. He's just out of jail and trying to fly right. If you think you know where this is going, you're wrong. Too much fun to put down.