Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2008
336 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
In Fresh Kills, the murder of John Sanders, Sr. on a New York street corner reunites his estranged and abused children, John, Jr. and Julia. While Julia struggles to keep things together on the home front, Junior, unhinged by his father's death, searches for the killer across the bleak, haunted landscape of his Staten Island hometown.
Complicating Junior's pursuit are two police detectives: one, a former childhood friend; the other, a veteran cop who might have his own reasons to wish John, Sr. dead. Junior's emotional state crumbles under the pressure coming at him from every side. Bedding his high school sweetheart doesn't exactly simplify the situation. When the opportunity for revenge presents itself, Junior must decide whether he will continue the chain of violence that has nearly destroyed his life, or give in to the possibility of a new beginning.
With emotional intensity, crackling dialogue and a heartfelt sense of place and character, Fresh Kills delivers unexpected and profound insights that speak to the soul of its struggling hero, and heralds a breakthrough voice in fiction.
"Fresh Kills quickly expands past itself, blows away its limiting genre boundaries, and becomes a story of real psychological complexity and emotional realism." - Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love.
"Starred Review. The portrait of Junior's damaged personality is so subtly developed that he becomes a sympathetic character despite his faults, and his eventual, hard-won epiphany brings a gust of pleasure. Could this author be the next Dennis Lehane?" - Publishers Weekly.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Celeste Marshall
Bill Loehfelm is the author of The Devil in Her Way, The Devil She Knows, Bloodroot, and Fresh Kills. He lives in New Orleans with his wife, the writer AC Lambeth, and plays drums in the Ibervillains, a rock-and-soul cover band.
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