Excerpt from The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. I better go. Buds?" She reached over and hugged him goodbye.

Dill breathed in her smell once more, gathering it along with his new clothes. "Thanks for doing this. I didn't mean to come off as unappreciative."

"Good, because I made you something." She pulled from the center console a CD with "Joy Division/New Order" written on it in black Sharpie. "This is what we were listen-ing to on the drive to Nashville. I knew you'd want a copy."

Dill tapped the CD. "You were right. Thanks."

"And you should know that 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' is my favorite song on Earth."

"Noted."

"Tomorrow, seven- fifteen."

He gave her a thumbs- up. "I'll be ready."

Dill got out and walked up to his house. He climbed the cracked, eroding concrete steps to his front door and had his hand on the doorknob before thinking better of it. No use sitting in a gloomy house until it got dark. He laid his bags of clothes and CD on the steps, then sat and stared at the church sign.

No peace, no peace. No peace, no peace.

Excerpted from The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner. Copyright © 2016 by Jeff Zentner. Excerpted by permission of Crown. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.