Published by Random House/One World on June 9, 2026
The Fervent Whites uses a murder mystery to drive the story of a community’s racial disharmony. The Whites in the title are James and Ella White. They live near Saugerties, New York in a hamlet called Fervent. So the book is literally about the Fervent Whites, but the title undoubtedly has a double meaning. Working out that meaning would seem to be a natural topic for a book club discussion.
Fervent has twelve tract houses and “a post office the size of a tool shed.” The houses were built by the Fervent brothers. The last three houses did not sell so, in need of cash, the Fervents sold them to Black families. Most of the white owners of the remaining houses sold to Black buyers and moved to all-white neighborhoods. In 1982, the only white families in Fervent are the Whites and the gossipy Mrs. Talbot, a recent widow who is remaking herself as a realtor.
As the novel opens, Sylvia Upshaw is getting ready to go to a party at Mrs. Talbot’s house when the Whites arrive at her front door. Based on testimony that the Whites and Hopes got into a fistfight shortly before Paul Hope was found dead, the Whites were convicted of murder. They were released from prison after Christopher Josey confessed to killing Hope. Josey is a serial killer “with a penchant for terrorizing and taking the lives of Black people,” making it odd that he would target a blond man like Hope.
Sylvia is surprised to see the Whites returning to Fervent. So is Sylvia’s neighbor and best friend, Lafayette “Fate” Jolly, a gay man living in a time when HIV has only started to make headlines. Since Fate testified about James’ unwarranted anger at him for mowing the lawn before ten, he’s worried that the Whites will make his life uncomfortable if they resume their life in Fervent.
Ella was raised in an orphanage where she developed a friendship with a Black girl. Years after entering adulthood, Ella’s friend gave birth to her son Morgan. She told Ella she had to give up the baby and Ella agreed to adopt him, although she had to overcome James’ objections.
Morgan hung out with Sylvia’s kids and became close to her family. Ella explained Morgan’s history to Sylvia in confidence and made her swear never to reveal the identities of Morgan’s real parents to him. Sylvia strongly believed that Morgan was entitled to know the truth about his biological parents, so she broke her vow after Ella went to prison. Sylvia assumed her betrayal would have no consequences because she did not expect to see Ella again.
Soon after Morgan learned his parents’ names, he decided to visit Washington, D.C. to search for them. He died on that trip. Sylvia now lives in fear that Ella will learn of her betrayal and will blame her for Morgan’s death.
Against that background, The Fervent Whites tells a crime story. A disciple of Christopher Josey has been murdering Black people. When one of the story’s characters is murdered in Fervent, the reader will wonder whether the death is being blamed on the wrong person. The story eventually takes on the characteristics of a thriller when Sylvia finds herself facing great danger.
The crime story provides the glue to bind the novel’s elements, but the most interesting themes address questions of race and identity. Sylvia was vocal in her concerns about a white family raising a Black child. She thought Morgan needed to be exposed to a Black church and visit a barber who understood a Black boy’s hair. Emma resented the implication that she was unfit to raise a Black son. Sylvia didn’t handle Emma’s resentment well, telling her “it takes a village, and you just happen to be living in a village full of Black people. If you gon’ get pissed every time one of us gives Morgan some advice, or even shows him some care, maybe move some damn where else.”
Morgan loved his adopted parents but also loved and identified with the Upshaws. His experience suggests that Sylvia is wrong to think that white parents should not raise Black children. At the same time, Morgan’s relationship with the Upshaws suggests that the village theory is true, that an adopted Black child will benefit from interaction with Black culture. Identity is more than a skin color, but adopted children more readily construct an identity when they are exposed to members of their own race as well as members of their parents’ race.
As a gay man, Fate’s story is also one of identity. Fate doesn’t hide who he is, but he is the victim of homophobia as well as the lingering racism that dominated the Hudson Valley for centuries. Fate has an open relationship, but his lover might be jealous of his interest in entertaining other men. That dynamic plays into the crime story.
As it develops those themes, the story casts doubt on whether the Whites were actually innocent of the crime for which they were exonerated. Families trade gossip and fear as they wonder who might die next and speculate about the killer.
De’Shawn Charles Winslow creates a strong sense of time and place and fills Fervent with multifaceted characters. While the story works as a satisfying murder mystery, and to some extent as a thriller when a new serial killer seems to be terrorizing Fervent, The Fervent Whites excels as a captivating drama of racial tension in a small community.
RECOMMENDED