by Norman German

Prize Winning Author of No Other World

    Sunday, October 4, 2009

    The chair was made of heavy, dark oak, like a throne. Someone, a man with children perhaps, had crafted the chair especially for this purpose, put the care of his hands into the wood. A heavy mask was fitted against Toni Jo’s face and secured to the chair with laces. The barn-like smell of leather and decay filled her nostrils. The man in the back of the truck looked at a dial. “We’re below threshold!” he bellowed as the motor was winding to the high-pitched wail before the squall of deadly energy.

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Praise

Recreating stark, simple Depression-era Louisiana, Norman German vividly brings to life the sad tale of Toni Jo Henry: a beautiful, love-struck southern girl . . . and cold-blooded murderer. Her story is both chilling and tragic.
—Billy Fontenot, The Louisiana Review

Here is a powerful, page-turning account of crime and punishment, told in terms of the literary tradition of true crime stories that includes Capote’s In Cold Blood and Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song. Norman German has created a worthy companion to and version of this all-American genre.
—George Garrett, novelist and poet laureate of Virginia

A Savage Wisdom explores how an innocent woman became a murderer. Norman German’s painstaking research of an era in Louisiana history and his intricate characterizations let the reader understand how Toni Jo Henry was deceived, manipulated and ultimately betrayed by the men she loved. On many levels, the novel is a study in how deception leads to fatal consequences.
—Tim Gautreaux, author of Welding with Children

Norman German’s novel follows the hard life and heinous crimes of Toni Jo Henry, the first and only woman to die in Louisiana’s infamous electric chair. The novel meets this bone-chilling story head-on, and it leaves the reader burning with the heartless brutality of the tale. Read A Savage Wisdom to see the darkness and comprehend its cold light.
—Dayne Sherman, author of Welcome to the Fallen Paradise

"He appeared suddenly, as if from nowhere,
like angels and cockroaches tend to do."

                                    A Savage Wisdom