Blacklands

The central idea of his book is a beauty. A kid writing to an incarcerated serial killer to try persuading him to reveal where he murdered and buried the boy’s brother. Bauer makes you really care about the crap existence of a nondescript sad sack child you wouldn’t give the time of day to in real life. I love it because the writing is superb and there’s a genuine sense of tension. All right, you know the outcome is going to be grimly inevitable. Until the story starts to take some very unexpected turns.