Synopsis

In The Heathen Paradise, a catastrophic economic collapse has shattered the nation, and violent ideologues are clamoring to reassemble the Confederacy and impose a newly imagined Bolshevik regime. As the elections approach, it’s increasingly likely they will get their way.

Meanwhile, in tiny Rose, Mississippi, young Thomas Fleming discovers an infant’s body in a remote forest. Sheriff Clyde Savage hopes the death will give him the evidence he needs to imprison Wallace Slade, a racist thug who has terrorized the town for years. But Clyde is half-Choctaw Indian, and no jury will convict Slade with him in the lead. Clyde’s best hope is that U.S. President Curtis Cole, a moderate Rose native, can stay in office long enough to put Slade away on a federal charge.

But then Cole’s brother-in-law is beheaded, the killers making a bold statement about their impending criminal state. Soon, Clyde is plunged into a horrifying assassination scheme that reaches the highest levels of the U.S. government. The leader of the conspiracy is an aging fanatic possessed by visions of slaughtering non-believers, and only Clyde can stop this new messiah.