Small Town Corruption Gets the Literary Treatment

Nick Tabor’s excellent “A Town Under Trial” was published in the most recent issue of the Oxford American. In the piece, Tabor examines the twenty-two-year-old murders of two prostitutes in Oak Grove, Kentucky. Situated near the Army’s massive Fort Campbell base, Oak Grove stood apart for a number of reasons outlined by Tabor. As a result of this sort of isolation, the town seemed to breed an outstanding amount of corruption.

“Oak Grove was rotten, and it seemed it always had been,” Tabor writes.

As a whole, the article is extremely well-written and interesting.

The small town corruption angle also reminded me of Ace Atkins’ excellent 2008 novel Wicked City.