In a novel set in this state, a girl steals a snake from a preacher and nearly kills an old woman by dropping it into the sunroof of her car. Harry Houdini inspires that girl in this state to learn to hold her breath, which allows her to avoid drowning in a water tower. In another novel, crimes in this state apparently inspire a massacre at a bar in Rock Springs, Wyoming by Chinese men. In that novel, a strange dead Black man appears at the scene of this state’s serial killings of White men. Donna Tartt’s novel about Harriet Dufresnes (“dew-FRAYN”), The Little Friend, draws on her childhood in this state, where Percival Everett set The Trees. After a man in this state compares Milly, who has just borne him a child, to a mare, he is killed with a scythe by Wash Jones. For 10 points, what state contains the mansion of Sutpen’s Hundred in William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!? ■END■
ANSWER: Mississippi [or MS]
<American Literature>
= Average correct buzz position