Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2023
272 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Ken Jaworowski's Small Town Sins is a gripping Rust Belt thriller that captures the characters of a down-and-out Pennsylvania town, revealing their troubled pasts and the crimes that could cost them their lives.
In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, five thousand residents have toughed it out, and have reasons for both worry and hope as this neglected place teeters between decay and renewal. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived.
After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose tender patient may not have long to live, despite the girl's fundamentalist parents' ardent beliefs; and Andy, a recovering heroin addict who undertakes a nightmare mission to hunt down and stop a serial predator.
Before long, Nathan's stolen riches threaten to destroy everyone around him as he tries to cover his haphazard trail of lies. Callie risks her career to grant her young patient a final, and likely illegal, wish. And Andy's hunger for vigilante justice becomes a fierce obsession that may end in violence.
As their stories barrel toward unexpected ends, Nathan, Callie, and Andy struggle to endure—or escape. They each face their pasts and gamble on their futures, and confront the underside of their rough Rust Belt town. Riveting, evocative, and unforgettable, Small Town Sins is a debut novel that marks the arrival of a major new talent.
"Jaworowski shines in his artful debut...Admirers of Scott Smith's A Simple Plan will be eager for more from this talented storyteller." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A satisfying thriller with finely drawn, highly sympathetic characters." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Sitting comfortably at the pinnacle of psychological thriller writing, Small Town Sins is smart, compelling and, by turns, harrowing and heartfelt. Under the author's deft touch, the plots of the novel speed relentlessly from first page to last, through a Rust-Belt America so perfectly realized that we feel we're there in person. And what an unforgettable trio of protagonists! Given Jaworowski's masterful stylistic voice, you will hardly believe this is a debut novel. Bravo!"
―Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector and Hunting Time
"A deeply evocative thriller that lives at the intersection of bad decisions and bad luck, Small Town Sins is an extraordinary debut, which will have you riveted from page one."
―Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me
"Jaworowski is a brilliant storyteller…and a merciless one. His three main characters draw bad card after bad card. It would be a daunting world to visit if it weren't so redeemed by the startling generosity and warmth of Jaworowski's writing: he pulls your heartstrings till they snap. And he's written a gripping, poignant book."
―Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan
"Imagine my delight at this wonderful little book, this riotous cross-section of John Irving and Jim Thompson. These characters breathe the same air other people breathe, they work jobs like real people do. An addictive read from its first page, Small Town Sins pays the reader's attention back with love. A crime book that kept surprising me with its warmth and vigor page after page―it's a delight, well-told and deeply felt."
―John Darnielle, author of Devil House
This information about Small Town Sins was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ken Jaworowski is an editor at the New York Times. He graduated from Shippensburg University and the University of Pennsylvania. He grew up in Philadelphia, where he was an amateur boxer, and his plays have been produced in New York and Europe. He lives in New Jersey with his family. Small Town Sins is his first novel.
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