Only A Hummingbird Flies Backwards by John J. Quick

Summary take from Goodreads

A racial divide threatens to split apart a small southern town in 1967: a white child disappears, a community market burns to the ground, and a young black man stands accused of both crimes. When an elderly grandmother attempts to hide an old family secret, she unwittingly pushes her grandchildren into the middle of a dark tale of violence, deception, prejudice, and redemption, as Boo Radley's shadow appears in the less innocent 60s.

My Review:

5 Stars for Only A Hummingbird Flies Backwards, a historical fiction novel by John J. Quick, that takes us back into time during the 1960's when the Civil Rights movement was going on in America and innocent people were being blamed for crimes solely for the reason of their race.

Chapters A Shift In The Wind - Lanny's Fall:  At first, I couldn't take to the characters, especially parts that Quick had written of the boys setting caterpillars on fire, or the part of dogs being poisoned.  Being an animal lover, I don't enjoy reading parts of any animals being killed.  If Quick wanted to get his point across of what wrong some of these people were doing...pick other ways.  Not having animals harmed or killed.

Quick makes it easily known that Johnny, Billy, and Jim will be the main characters of this novel in the first scene when the three of them save the town from the fire that burnt down a local, famous supermarket.  Little is it known that this fire was the one thing to turn everyone in the towns lives' around.  Just when you think that everything is over and done with once the fire is put to a stop, Quick hits us with a mystery of a body being found among the rubble.  Who's body is it?  It was the beginning of the end for one person.

What I liked most was how Quick wrote this book.  It is a narration of Johnny which I found made it easier to read.  The setting is during the 60's in the southern states when segregation was still prominent.  All it took was three boys crossing over to the other side to help save the life of an innocent man.  By writing the novel as Johnny telling the story, it felt as if I was seeing everything through their eyes.  The only thing I didn't like with the style was that the chapters weren't numbered.  I find it much easier reading when chapters are numbered, not just with titles.

Each character was written very well that Quick gave us a sense of what they really are like, especially when it came to Lanny.  Immediately, you think he's the real murderer, which is just Quick's way of us getting to know the complex character. 

Straight from the first chapter, it was mystery after mystery.  Quick has you constantly wondering who it is that is the murderer.  I thought I knew from the beginning, but I was wrong.

Chapters Seeing What Lanny Sees - To Catch A Murderer:  This was when I thought Quick was starting to have the mystery unravel.  It was anything but that.  In fact, us getting to see Lanny in a different light was only the beginning.  In this part of the book, Quick give us a closer look into Lanny's mind and it is then when you see how strange he really is.  Was Lanny the murderer?  It was a question I had on my mind constantly during this part of the book.

Chapters To Catch A Murderer -Epilogue:  During the final part of the book, Quick had many twists and turns.  Every time I thought the mystery was solved, something came up and then I didn't know what to expect.  Up until the very end, the reader doesn't know who was the murderer which always make a great mystery.  Most importantly, Quick tied everything up in the end.  There wasn't anything left unsolved or open feeling incomplete.