Their messiness portrayed with cringe-inducing accuracy, hapless characters strive to survive what life throws at them—and it’s a lot—in Edgar-nominated Jaworowski’s latest. Reed, a young man who’s autistic, has just lost the person at the center of his life. He wants to do the right thing, and…kind of…wants to do what his brother, who is his guardian, asks, but surely a little excursion to keep a promise won’t hurt anyone. Then there’s Billy, another resident of Locksburg, PA, who needs his single-mother’s help to hide one of the bodies of the title. It’s not a fresh body, leading to some gruesome scenes but mostly to edge-of-your-seat moments as the two struggle to stop their lives from sliding even deeper into darkness. Trying to escape the town is Liz, a musician who’s taken up with a local bad boy who, you guessed it, gets both of them into trouble just as she’s on the brink of getting out. These all-too-realistic lives collide in a memorably character-driven story whose dialog—especially that of Liz—will make readers laugh even as they despair that anything can ever go right in Locksburg. Plenty of readers love a small-town thriller and this one’s just the ticket.
