Duplicates

OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, 1957: Reaching the top of his profession, lawyer Robert Andrews Winslow wins the triple murder/rape trial of black man Otis Lee Williams, but less than a year later, Otis Lee is executed for a similar crime. Guilt-ridden for not helping save Otis Lee and scorned for helping in the first trial, Winslow's slide begins. Alone, broke and usually drunk, he leaves Mississippi and his profession. OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, 1991: Down and out, Winslow has no place left to go but home to the small bungalow on General's Road outside Oxford, his meager inheritance. Now a writer, he's given two files, which might contain a desperately needed story, and musters himself for a last try to salvage his life. He drags his weary, sedentary and abused body along dusty back roads where he encounters Mississippi Delta families who share the land, wealth and a special desire to conceal secrets long-buried in the rich black soil. Constantly in danger and aided by friends whose motives he doubts, Winslow pieces together the story hinted in two autopsy files: Rosemary Thompson - Antigua, Raymond Thompson - Los Angeles. The twins died almost the same time at age thirty-two, thousands of miles apart, both naked in bed. The dead twins are the story but when Rob discovers the other DUPLICATES, he begins to realize the connection to himself, his past... and his downfall. A few secrets remaining, the murder of his black friend Hook Todd forces Rob Winslow back into to the courtroom in defense of another innocent man. Manipulating the justice system he once loved, Winslow is able to solve six crimes committed over seventy-five years, including his own murder by a so-called crazy man who isn't crazy at all.