Last fall, Thomas Mullen published his third novel, but on Thursday it was his second work of fiction that caught the spotlight.

Mullen, 37, was awarded the 2012 Townsend Prize for fiction for “The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers” (Random House, $26).

"I was very flattered and humbled. As someone who has only lived in Georgia for three and a half  years, it is very nice to be recognized and welcomed into this community," said Mullen, who lives in Decatur with his wife and two sons.

The Townsend Prize honors Georgia writers of book-length fiction published in the previous two years. Launched in 1981, the prize is named for Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta magazine and associate editor of Atlanta Weekly magazine, which was published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It is currently sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book, the Southern Academy for Literary Arts and Scholarly Research at Georgia Perimeter College and the Chattahoochee Review. Past winners include Alice Walker and Kathryn Stockett.

Mullen's novel, set in Depression Era America, tells the story of Jason and Whit Fireson, bank-robbing brothers from the Midwest who survive a shootout with authorities only to discover they may be better off relying on their out-sized fame to preserve their lives and legacy.

"I wrote it before the [economic] crash, but I think people find it resonates to what we are going through now," Mullen said. "I wanted to write a novel about financial hardship and what it does to a family. I grew up with that. It is rarely addressed in literary fiction."

The bank-robbing and gun-slinging, he said, is a little sugar to make help the message in the medicine go down.

"It is Bonnie and Clyde inspired, about those bootlegging, bank-robbing days," said Joe Davich, assistant at Georgia Center for the Book. The author, he said, draws readers into the time period while also developing good, memorable characters.

"The standard that we look for is voice," Davich said. "Living breathing individuals in the book that literally leap off the page. That is a hallmark of Southern writing. We identify so strongly with characters ... these people become part of our culture."

Mullen said he strives to create those types of three dimensional characters to which readers respond. "When I am writing something, it doesn't really click until I figure out, who are these people?" Mullen said. "[The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers] is largely a story of three brothers and their relationship with their parents."

Each of this year's 10 finalists, which also included Joshilyn Jackson, Daniel Black and Amanda Kyle Williams, crafted stories that Davich said could easily garner national attention. "This year was our strongest in three or four cycles," he said.

Among the 40 entries was the first ebook, Davich said. Collin Kelley's “Remain In Light,” (Vanilla Heart Publishing, $4.99 for the Kindle edition) was selected as a finalist.

As the prize winner, Mullen, currently at work on a new novel set at the end of World War II, received a $2,000 cash award and a silver commemorative tray.