James Catledge

Celester and The Captain James Catledge

When their small, rural community is shaken by a murder and botched kidnapping involving a prominent local family, an aging white sheriff and his young black driver set out to get to the bottom of things, never dreaming how far their investigation will take them. Or the ghosts from the past it will turn up. The sheriff, whom everyone calls Captain, is limping towards retirement on a bad right knee. Celester has grown up in the Captain's household and has been the Captain's driver since he was a teenager. Celester longs to know more than the scant details he has about his father's lynching over 30 years earlier. Despite their generational and racial differences and Celester's suspicion that the Captain has held back details of the lynching, the two men share a comfortable and easy-going relationship. As Celester and the Captain begin peeling back the layers of the crimes, long simmering hostility between the patriarch of the Hollowell family and the Captain bubble to the surface. Soon the two discover they are dealing not only with multiple crimes, but multiple suspects and motives as well, some of which lead back to corruption within the sheriff's department. Furthermore, within the extended Hollowell family, they discover drug use, in-fighting over inheritance, and a multi-generational legacy of marital infidelity and deceit that leads all the way back to the fateful events surrounding the lynching of Celester's father. Celester and the Captain is on one level a crime drama, but more than that, it is a study of the relationship between two men who inhabit different worlds that exist side by side. As Celester struggles with his evolving racial awareness, he and the Captain uncover old grudges and shameful events from the Captain's past which have profound repercussions for both men. Through it all the Captain and Celester struggle with the changing nature of their relationship as they continue to follow every lead to uncover the truth despite the personal and professional costs they are forced to pay.