Very interesting, though disturbing true account of the 1960's KKK activity in rural Mississippi. The book centers on the FBI's investigation of the murder of Vernon Dahmer for his role in encouraging black residents to register to vote. The FBI was able to infiltrate the Klan with the help of Tom Landrum, an informant posing as a Klan member. Fear was rampant during this time, not only were the black residents living in fear, but the Klan members were also fearful of being discovered as well. Many members were law enforcement and other prominent members of the community who would be ruined if their secret evil activities were revealed. Wilkie heavily researched this very informative and haunting book and it is definitely worth the read for anyone interested in this era of history.

With this book, author Wilkie tries to tell the story of Tom Landrum, an undercover agent for the FBI in one of Mississippi's Klans in the 1950s and 60s. I really wanted to read more of Landrum's own words and descriptions, rather than Wilkie's somewhat plodding and long paraphrases. Wilkie is also too often fatphobic and otherwise prejudiced in describing people, as if there is a certain look or body type found more often in bigots. Another round of edits could tighten this up, work in more primary sources, and make it a much better book.

This book is especially timely despite being set in the late 1960's. Anyone who has had an interest in the Mississippi Burning case will be very interested to read FBI agent Tom Landrum's firsthand reports of his infiltration of the KKK. He was assigned the murder case of Vernon Dahmer, a prominent civil rights advocate who founded a youth chapter of the NAACP with Medgar Evers. This is as gripping as any murder mystery, and as fact-based as any reputable history book. I was surprised to realize that the KKK was not a monolithic organization but one that varied greatly in goals and methods from state to state and community to community. It was this rivalry and disunity that eroded the prominence of the KKK.
An excellent book and highly readable!

Curtis Wilkie gives an up close account of how, in the late 1960's, a young white man infiltrates the KKK as an informant to bring justice for the murder of Vernon Dahmer. A black man who started a chapter of the NAACP, Dahmer was a marked man, and he paid with his life and his livelihood. The writing is riveting. This is a story of the brutality and terror enacted by the Klan, a story that must be told.

"When Evil Lived in Laurel" is a nonfiction book centering around the FBI investigation of the murder of Vernon Dahmer and the activities of the Ku Klux Klan in Laurel, Mississippi. This book is really interesting look into the specific attack launched against Dahmer and his family for Dahmer's role in speaking up for Black people to vote in the South and how he was ultimately murdered for his activism. Tom Landrum, an FBI agent, infiltrates the KKK, along with many other FBI informants who are mostly unnamed in this book, to investigate Dahmer's murder and the overall daily Klan activities that terrorized life in the South. Something this book really highlighted for me was the infighting that occurred within each Klan faction and among the different factions, and increasing disinvestment from Klan members as a result thereof, that really contributed to the Klan's downfall. Wilkie relies on Landrum's first-hand accounts to layout the details in this really well-written and informative book.

This book was a look into the horrors of the civil rights era in Mississippi and what people went through. Once I started reading I could not quit. I highly recommend this book.

Thanks netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the ARC

This book paints an accurate and haunting picture of Mississippi during the civil rights era, when the KKK was at its most powerful, and evil. I was aghast at the actions the KKK took, and how involved/encouraging the police and governments both local and not were. I was surprised by how informative this book was, and how much I had missed about the movement.

The author has created a great nonfictional book that handles the subject matter with grace - but it does not sugarcoat it. Overall I highly recommend this book. I will be buying it.

I want to sincerely thank netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the ARC!