num_pages: 304
description: An auspicious debut novel by a young writer who will remind readers of Anne Lamott and Anne TylerCrime in the Neighborhood centers on a headline event-- the molestation and murder of a twelve-year-old boy in a Washington, D.C., suburb. At the time of the murder, 1973, Marsha was nine years old and as an adult she still remembers that summer as a time when murder and her own family's upheaval were intertwined. Everyone, it seemed to Marsha at the time, was committing crimes. Her father deserted his family to take up with her mother's younger sister. Her teenage brother and sister were smoking and shoplifting, and her mother was "flirting" with Mr. Green, the new next-door neighbor. Even the president of the United States seemed to be a crook. But it is Marsha's own suspicions about who committed this crime that has the town up in arms and reveals what happens when fear runs wild.
language: English
title: A Crime in the Neighborhood
titlecomplete: A Crime in the Neighborhood
genres: Historical, Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Coming Of Age, Mystery Thriller, Crime
ratings_count: 2559
awards: awardedAt: 915177600000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 883641600000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best First Novel, name: Women's Prize
category: Fiction
publisher: Henry Holt