"The Tilted World" (William Morrow), by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly "The Tilted World" is a captivating Deep South drama that unfolds in the spring of 1927 as the rising, roiling waters of the Mississippi River head toward an epic and catastrophic flood. It also is a beautifully written, smartly crafted thriller that offers many delights, among them its hard-luck heroine, Dixie Clay, a fetching young woman who ends up on the wrong side of the law against bootlegging. Her counterpoint is Ted Ingersoll, one of two federal revenue agents who arrive in Mississippi Delta moonshine territory on a Prohibition-era mission. Amid incessant rain and wind, as well as fears that an imperiled levee may be ripped by dynamite, Ingersoll will find much more than white lightning on his path. That includes a newly orphaned infant named Willy, whose fate becomes as uncertain as Dixie Clay's. Written jointly by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly, a married couple who live, write and teach in Oxford, Miss., the novel is a page turner with witty historical asides, including an early appearance by then-Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, who is riding the great flood to the White House. With romantic twists and tense scenes that make it hard to put down, the book is a pleasure to read. The writing is deft and memorable, at times potent with emotional punch. That's to be expected. Its authors have won notable praise, Franklin for his fiction, Fennelly for her poetry. His previous novel, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter," also in the "Southern Noir" or "Southern Gothic" vein, won the 2010 Los Angeles Times prize for best mystery-thriller. Her first book of poems, "Open House," won the 2001 Kenyon Review Prize for debut poetry. "The Tilted World" was suggested by their agents, the husband-and-wife team of Nat Sobel and Judith Weber, as an expanded version of Franklin and Fennelly's collaborative short story, "What His Hands Had Been Waiting For." Collaborating on a novel might seem to create prickly problems, but Franklin and Fennelly write almost seamlessly, rarely allowing the rhythm of the narrative to shift when the writer's baton is passed from one to the other. The 1927 Mississippi River flood was one of the country's worst disasters, but was little-remembered until John Barry's 1997 book, "Rising Tide," captured its historic impact. In fiction, the Mississippi master, William Faulkner, used the flood as the backdrop for his short novel "Old Man," which he wrote in alternating chapters with a distinctly different short novel, "The Wild Palms" — a kind of collaboration with himself using two contrasting voices. In the Deep South suspense genre, "The Tilted World" is a worthy addition to the literature of the 1927 flood.   mes Ne0 ? mn(|? ?/? 333333;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>Romney was hurt by his immigration stances and his biography should have been an asset in troubled economic times, but his campaign had done little "to inoculate him" from coming attacks. Romney's claim at a conservative gathering that he was "a severely conservative governor" wasn't a hit with activists, who thought he was trying to impersonate a conservative, Balz writes. The GOP nomination battle had been wildly unpredictable and it had highlighted that the party's base was pulling it to the right and out of the mainstream, Balz says. Romney said after the election that it wasn't for him to say if the election was a sign of problems for the party. He maintains the party principles are right for the country, though he acknowledged that it had to more effectively woo Hispanic voters. The Republican Party announced after the election that it was clear the party had to actively appeal to minorities, especially Hispanics. And it would have to pursue positions with more appeal to a broad range of voters. But the conservative base of the GOP has made it difficult for party leaders to reset the party's image. In the run-up to the next presidential election, candidates are already lining up. The challenge for the GOP is to find someone who can provide "a center of gravity" and broad appeal, and survive the intense pressure of a primary campaign with a good chance to win the White House.