“Compelling . . . Watson crafts the plot of Night Letter skillfully, keeping the tension between Travis’s past and present tight. Key to that tension is the narrative voice, which draws us into Travis’s struggle to understand his obsession and the danger it can unleash . . . Memory, he discovers, is a slippery thing, and what emerges from the past has shocking reverberations in the present, and into the future.”
—Tampa Bay Times

“Amid the classic noir elements, author Sterling Watson slow-rolls a moving reflection on the costs to the human heart of vast social and economic change.”
—New York Magazine

“In this bleak and beautiful noir, we follow 18-year-old Travis Hollister, just released from reform school, driving through the Florida panhandle, and trying to find the woman he’s pined for since he was 12—his aunt, who’s also four years older. Publishers Weekly compares it to the works of S. E. Hinton, which is really all I need to know to want to read it.”
—CrimeReads 

“A taut thriller with a noir gloss, Night Letter balances revenge with loyalty and violence with redemption to create an evocative coming-of-age tale. This is an excellent novel which Watson writes with a precision and eloquence befitting the best of literature.”
—Tallahassee Democrat

“With Night Letter, Florida author Sterling Watson proves once more that he is a master storyteller and an exemplary writer . . . Through the taut thriller/noir fabric of this novel, Watson writes with a precision and eloquence befitting the best of literature.”
—Southern Literary Review

“A superbly crafted work of eloquent storytelling, Night Letter by novelist Sterling Watson will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in the combination of crime fiction and coming-of-age fiction. The result is a memorable read from first page to last.”
—Midwest Book Review

“Watson evocatively blends the dreamy, hormonally addled banality of teen life with the existential anxieties of lost innocence and regret. Fans of S.E. Hinton’s rough-hewn teens and the gothic noir of Tennessee Williams will welcome this bittersweet tale of redemption.”
—Publishers Weekly

“An atmospheric coming-of-age story equally touched by noir and Southern soul.”
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Watson does a good job with atmosphere, too, in this noirish coming-of-age novel whose convoluted plot will keep the pages turning.”
—Booklist

“Sterling Watson is an American treasure.”
—Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

“The novels of Sterling Watson are to be treasured and passed on to the next generation.”
—Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River

“Night Letter is a psychological thriller, a coming-of-age story and a sprawling historical epic. It is a massively ambitious novel . . . It’s intriguing to see what, according to Watson, lies beneath 1960s America’s literal and figurative swamps.”
—Reviewing the Evidence

“Sterling Watson’s Night Letter is a revelation and one of the most engaging books I’ve read in a long time. Part voice-driven coming-of-age, part atmospheric noir, the writing itself is incisive and poetic, and the characters themselves are those rare literary creations—complicated and human and real. Imagine a thriller conceived by David Goodis and written by Carson McCullers. This book helps to redefine the boundaries of contemporary American fiction.”
—Joe Meno, author of Book of Extraordinary Tragedies

“In Night Letter, Sterling Watson delivers an evocative tale of a young man struggling to come of age in the wake of a troubled childhood. Using pitch-perfect language, Watson transports readers to a Florida of the past and immerses them in a nuanced era. From its first page, the novel simmers with a certainty that if Watson’s well-drawn protagonist is to find redemption, it will not come without a fight.”
—Lori Roy, author of Gone Too Long