The Sin-Eater's Confession

"Bick's compelling tale manages to be a blistering confessional and a page-turning whodunit . . . all in one. . . . Readers won't be able to look away." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

People in Merit, Wisconsin, always said Jimmy was . . . you know. But people said all sorts of stupid stuff. Nobody really knew anything. Nobody really knew Jimmy.

I guess you could say I knew Jimmy as well as anyone (which was not very well). I knew what scared him. And I knew he had dreams—even if I didn't understand them. Even if he nearly ruined my life to pursue them.

Jimmy's dead now, and I definitely know that better than anyone. I know about blood and bone and how bodies decompose. I know about shadows and stones and hatchets. I know what a last cry for help sounds like. I know what blood looks like on my own hands.

What I don't know is if I can trust my own eyes. I don't know who threw the stone. Who swung the hatchet? Who are the shadows? What do the living owe the dead?

 

"A powerful tale of bigotry and murder in small-town Wisconsin. . . . a potent examination of teenage emotions . . . peer and parental pressures, and . . . the evil that people are capable of." —Publishers Weekly, starred review