Don't Know Tough

Don’t Know Tough is the debut novel of Eli Cranor, an Arkansas native who was chosen to be a writer-in-residence at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville (Pope County). Published on March 22, 2022, by Soho Crime, Don’t Know Tough is a murder mystery novel set in the fictional Arkansas town of Denton.

Cranor was born on January 15, 1988, in Forrest City (St. Francis County) but spent his formative years in Russellville, where he was the star quarterback for Russellville High School. He attended Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia (Clark County), where he was the starting quarterback for the Tigers’ football team. After graduation, he played for the Carlstadt Crusaders, a professional team in Sweden. Following that, he coached high school football in Arkansas for five years.

Don’t Know Tough centers upon Billy Lowe, a gifted high school running back who narrates alternating chapters, as he leads his team to the state championship playoffs. Billy’s life is filled with grinding poverty and the daily chaos of living in a trailer with his abusive and alcoholic stepfather, Travis Rodney. As the book opens, the two are locked in a confrontation that ends when Rodney grinds a lit cigarette into Billy’s neck. Billy is also toiling in the shadow of his older brother Ricky, still idolized by locals as the better player of the two. Ricky was once the Pirates’ star quarterback, although drugs and alcohol altered the path of his life.

Billy puts his inner rage to spectacular use on the football field. However, even in practice sessions, Billy is so aggressive with teammates that he earns a suspension. Off the field, Billy is devoted to his mother, Tina, and his little brother but is hardly able to defend them from Rodney’s violent tendencies.

Billy’s coach Trent Powers is a California transplant who has fled several losing seasons to wind up in what he and his family consider to be a “podunk” town. Largely due to Billy, however, Powers’s team is headed to the playoffs. Powers’s fundamentalist Christianity, he believes, can prevail in almost any situation and certainly will rescue Billy from his personal demons. Powers and his supportive wife, Marley, take Billy into their home, where he becomes a rehabilitation project, particularly for their attractive daughter Lorna. However, things change drastically when Powers and assistant coach Bull Connors find Travis Rodney beaten to death. Everyone assumes that Billy is responsible. True to theme, the book ends with a clash of violent forces threatening to upset the entire town on its way to the playoffs.

Upon publication, Don’t Know Tough was greeted with broad critical acclaim. Sarah Weinman of the New York Times called the book a “top-shelf debut,” writing, “There is a raw ferocity to Cranor’s prose, perfectly in keeping with the novel’s examination of curdling masculinity.” USA Today reviewer Ted Goldberg wrote that the book is “a major work from a bright, young talent.” USA Today later named it as one of its best books of the year.

Cranor won the award for Best First Novel by an American Author at the Mystery Writers of America’s 77^th Edgar Awards in 2023. Cranor also was announced as the winner of the inaugural Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest. During his acceptance speech for this latter award, Cranor noted that Don’t Know Tough had been rejected by more than 200 agents before finally reaching publication.

When Don’t Know Tough was released on March 22, 2022, Cranor posted a video on Facebook in which he described the book as “a penance of sorts” for his failure to follow up on a hunch that one of his former students was being physically abused at home. At the time, Cranor was teaching English to high school students in an alternative learning environment. “Students,” he said, “whose stories remind me that Billy Lowe’s struggle is real. My hope is that this book opens readers’ eyes to the often overlooked lives of my students and former players—existences so painful, so tough, that they are truly unfathomable.”

For additional information:
Clancy, Sean. “Ex-Football Player Scores Book Award.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, December 28, 2020. https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2020/dec/28/ex-football-player-scores-book-award/ (accessed June 25, 2024).

Goldberg, Ted. “‘Don’t Know Tough’ Unmasks the Violent Hypocrisy of American Football Culture.” USA Today, March 20, 2022. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/03/20/dont-know-tough-book-unmasks-violent-hypocrisy-football-culture/7098548001/ (accessed June 25, 2024).

Martin, Philip. “‘Tough’ Book Tackles Sports in Small Town.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, April 17, 2022. https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/apr/17/tough-book-tackles-sports-in-small-town/ (accessed June 25, 2024).

Weinman, Sarah. “He Got a Cigarette Stuck in His Neck, and He Took It Like a Man.” New York Times, March 11, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/11/books/review/new-crime-fiction.html (accessed June 25, 2024).

Rod Lorenzen
Little Rock, Arkansas