Make a glass of sweet tea, pull up a porch chair, and a cloth to mop your brow.  Red Clay Suzie roots readers in the pacing of the South as Lofton coaxes his people from the heat and the rain and the gardens and the cars.  It is a journey of refuge and emergence – helped and hindered by family and friends.  Even through the character’s most painful moments of discovery and loss, it is an absolute joy to read.  Three cheers to Jeffrey Dale Lofton and his stellar debut novel.