Ned hates himself for being this kind of messenger. He hates racism, but fears standing up to Mack even more. But this is not necessarily a drawback. Instead of moving forward, the book expands like a balloon. We learn the details of Sunflower County, thick with humidity and mosquitoes.
Life is torpid in the Delta, subdued and quiet.
But bit by bit, as we read and soak it all in, the social structure of Sunflower County starts to emerge. Rooted deep beneath the placid social veneer is a brutal, exploitative hierarchy fixed in history, money and race. All of these tensions meld into a web of suspense running throughout the novel. Every word spoken, every hint or understatement makes the entire web quiver a little. When this kind of web actually becomes the story's plot, a novel that might have been a plain mystery story has transformed itself into literature.