Scott Blackwood (1965–2023)

Trending toward 4 stars. This is a small book, but very powerful. Evocative of The Lovely Bones, so you are not in for light reading, but worthwhile reading. The novel is set in a Texas town, outside of Austin -- with a small town feel, but (that's one flaw) big enough that outsiders aren't remembered or noticed on the day of the tragedy. 3 teenage girls (Zadie, Elizabeth, -- sisters and Meredith) who work in an ice cream shop are brutally murdered at closing time and the shop is torched, which botches evidence. The only witness who might be useful is the town eccentric, Hollis Finger, who is a damaged Iraqui War vet, which also hampers the investigation. The story floats in and out of the immediate past and the present, sometimes from the dead girls' perspective and sometimes from the survivors and even perpetrators' view point. Kate, mother of Zadie & Elizabeth, and owner of the shop is almost mad with grief and anger. Jack Dewey, the first fire fighter on the scene who discovers the bodies is wrecked afterward. Michael, one of the "bad guys" who drove the get-away car is not as far-removed from the scene as you would think. It's all told very airily, as if observing events from a great distance, and yet upon closer scrutiny and vivid detail from the author as he zeroes in on tiny moments in the day of and weeks that follow. The title refers to the small ways people are all connected, even when we don't want to acknowledge it.… (plus d'informations)