Solid with a few incredibly tense scenes. The actual story itself and most of the characters are pretty generic. (view spoiler)[how many of these mysteries use the old, white, state Senator as the bad guy? It's like all of them I think. As soon as you hear "senator" you know everything besides a few details. (hide spoiler)] The mix of the setting and the lead protagonists is what makes it bearable. There are a couple of scenes between the white cops and a black farmer that are great(and have absolutely no parallel to today, right?) The Dunlow character is just plain lazy generic racist cop though. Don't expect to have your mind blown after about the halfway point you get it.