Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Books Make Brainz Taste Bad | 2020 | Eli Cranor | Buy |
| 2 | Don’t Know Tough | 2022 | Eli Cranor | Buy |
| 3 | Ozark Dogs | 2023 | Eli Cranor | Buy |
| 4 | Broiler | 2024 | Eli Cranor | Buy |
| 5 | Mississippi Blue 42 | 2025 | Eli Cranor | Buy |
Eli Cranor writes standalone novels rather than series, which means each book arrives with its own cast and its own particular preoccupation. The unifying thread is place: rural Arkansas, where football is religion, money is scarce, and secrets have a way of calcifying over generations. Don’t Know Tough, his most celebrated title, centers on a high school football player whose talent can’t insulate him from the violence waiting at home.
Later books like Ozark Dogs and Broiler push into adjacent terrain, examining the opioid crisis, the poultry industry, and the specific kind of desperation that takes hold when industry collapses and options narrow. Cranor has a gift for finding the crime story inside a social reality without flattening either one.
The books read quickly but leave an impression. Cranor writes lean, efficient sentences that don’t soften what they’re describing, and his characters carry enough history that their choices feel earned rather than convenient. For readers drawn to Southern fiction with moral weight and no easy answers, this collection is worth working through.