The Work is the first of three novels by JD Hollingsworth that form a loose triptych of interwoven tales set in a mythical town in the lonesome vastness of southern Georgia. Though each stands alone as a complete book, the three novels together detail the broad cultural landscape of the deep south that is seldom explored, especially in such rich detail.
His stories draw from his array of personal experience which, coupled with his training in the sciences and engineering, bring sharp detail and precision to his writing as he reveals an intimate knowledge of the region's customs and speech, with plots that keep the pages turning.
The authenticity of his descriptions follow in the tradition of America's local colorists such as Hamlin Garland and Sarah Orne Jewett, and the interwoven nature of his plots and characters are reminiscent of Sherwood Anderson and Louise Erdrich.
Readers will find in his work a unique Southern voice, one that captivates the ear and mind as they are swept along in an unravelling mystery they won't want to fully resolve.
Mystery? Yes, there is some of the who-dunnit complexity of Raymond Chandler here, a slow boil that in Hollingsworth's imagination rises from the disenfranchised towns and backwoods far off I-75.
This is brilliant, entertaining, and radically original prose.