Paradise, WV
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- £14.99
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- £14.99
Publisher Description
In a poor West Virginia town decimated by the opioid epidemic, teenagers Henry and Jane have it worse than most. Their father is Hollis Lusher, a convicted serial killer known as “the Blind Spot Slasher.”
Despite being bullied and ostracized, the siblings maintain their father’s innocence. But now, a popular true-crime podcast is coming to town, and their presence turns all eyes to the Blind Spot Slasher’s case . . . and Henry and Jane.
Meanwhile, an eager young officer, Lieutenant Elena Garcia, is put on the case of a missing girl. Despite warnings from her superiors, Garcia begins to dig deeper into the case and realizes there may be other mysteries buried in the flood of opioid-related crimes. With many deaths quickly labeled as overdoses, or “No Human Involved,” she fears the drug epidemic has created the perfect storm for a Blind Spot Slasher copycat to thrive. Unless that is, they never caught the real Blind Spot Slasher.
An amateur private investigator is also on the case: Henry’s new friend, Otis. A home-schooled genius with his own family issues and a suspicion their father might be innocent, Otis makes it his mission to help Henry and Jane find the real killer. As the three probe into the evidence, they discover a possible connection between the killings and a doomsday, snake-handling cult—propelling them all down the dark backroads of Appalachia to find justice for Hollis and themselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rufus's dark, pulpy latest (after The Vinyl Underground) follows a diverse cast of characters in a poor West Virginia town into which opioids have "sunk their claws." There's nothing to do in Paradise, and the only reason anyone's heard of the place is because it was the home of Hollis Lusher, a convicted serial killer known as "the Blind Spot Slasher." Lusher's notoriety causes his children, teenagers Henry and Jane—who insist Lusher's innocent—to be constantly bullied. When the host of a popular true crime podcast arrives in Paradise to report on Lusher, Henry and Jane's lives are thrown further into chaos. Meanwhile, sheriff's lieutenant Elena Garcia is investigating the case of a missing girl and determines to dig deeper into the deaths of several people who were addicted to opioids that were previously classified NHI ("no human involved"), suspecting a Blind Spot Slasher copycat is at work, but she is stymied by the sheriff, who dismisses her theory and disparages the victims. Rufus does a great job triangulating the recent interest in true crime narratives with a deep understanding of an isolated and suffering small town, where the local bookstore is "the one place in town where happy endings were still within reach," pulling off an infectious mix of thriller and social commentary. It adds up to a brilliant critique of the way law enforcement often overlooks those on the wrong side of the tracks.
