'John Vercher has such love and compassion for his characters in Three-Fifths that I couldn't help but be sucked into their lives from the very first pages. It's so incredibly suspenseful that I was continually surprised by the story and deeply moved by the time I turned the last page' -- Attica Locke

'John Vercher takes a timely, yet tragically timeless, cautionary tale and turns it into something so heartfelt, so frightening and dazzling that it sits easily amongst the best crime fiction novels I've read this year. Brutal and powerful, I adored it' -- Chris Whitaker

'Mesmerising' -- Sunday Times

'Short, lucid and harrowing' -- Observer, Thrillers of the Month

'A brilliant page-turner. John Vercher is a gifted new voice in the crime fiction genre; I can't wait to see what he does next' -- Sujata Massey, author of The Widows of Malabar Hill

'Three-Fifths by John Vercher is the emotional gut punch we need at this moment. Vercher puts us in the tortured mind of man who's very existence is an inflection point of race, masculinity and ultimately redemption. Three-Fifths is not to be missed' -- S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland

'Three-Fifths is a hard-hitting portrayal of race, class and violence in nineties America. Unflinching with moments of unbearable pathos, it is as urgent today as two decades ago' -- Kia Abdullah, author of Take it Back

'A sad, swift tale bearing rueful observations about color and class as urgent now as 24 years ago' -- Kirkus Reviews

'Tightly written... Vercher paints a resonant picture of a country seemingly willing to sacrifice generation after generation of young men over its historic failures on racism' -- Metro

'Vercher deftly explores identity and the ethics of accountability in this debut. Fans of realistic social issue narratives will be immersed in the moral dilemmas of this timely novel' -- Library Journal (Starred Review)

'John Vercher has achieved what few others have... This is a crime story that masterfully, beautifully, ingeniously reveals the duplicity of racial psychology and the far-reaching violence it spawns on the American landscape' -- Stephen Mack Jones, author of the August Snow thriller series

'Feverishly entertaining. Resoundingly important. A book treading this kind of ground should not be able to move this fast. Three-Fifths is an honest, fearless page-burner. Vercher is a writer to watch' --David Joy, author of The Line That Held Us

'Three-Fifths is a seriously impressive and timely debut, and I'm excited to see what Vercher does next' -- Spectator

Vercher's timely debut asks searching questions about race, identity and violence in this story of a bi-racial man who finds himself the witness to a terrible crime' -- iNews

'[An] intelligent, heart-rending novel... utterly devastating' -- Crime Time Magazine

'In Three-Fifths, John Vercher uses an explosive act of violence to tell a very harrowing, very relevant story about race, but also family and friendship and masculinity - and all the dangers that come with those things. Keep your eye on Vercher-any writer who comes out of the gate this strong is bound for great things' -- Rob Hart, author of The Warehouse and the Ash McKenna crime series

If a book can be both difficult to read and impossible to put down, it's this book. You should read books that challenge you. This is such a book' -- Matt Coleman, BookRiot

'A complex narrative with far-reaching societal calamities prevail in this riveting and gripping drama consumed by flaw and emotionally driven characters festering along the racial divide --Dru's Book Musings

John Vercher is a writer currently living in the Philadelphia area with his wife and two sons. He holds a Bachelor's in English from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Mountainview Master of Fine Arts program.
,br>His fiction has appeared on Akashic Books' Mondays are Murder and Fri-SciFi. and he is a contributing writer for Cognoscenti, the thoughts and opinions page of WBUR Boston. Two of his essays published there on race, identity, and parenting were picked up by NPR, and he has appeared on WBUR's Weekend Edition. His non-fiction has also appeared in Entropy Magazine. You can find him on his website www.johnvercherauthor.com and on Twitter at @jverch75.