Killer Diller

January 1, 1991
Edgerton's trademark characters are country folks whose righteous intentions are comically undermined by their fallibility. Wesley Benfield, the mischievous delinquent introduced in Walking Across Egypt , is now 24, still honorary grandson of Mrs. Mattie Rigsbee, and a resident of BOTA (Back on Track Again) House, a halfway house near the campus of a Christian college in North Carolina. Beginning a bumbling romance with overweight, red-haired Phoebe, Wesley tries with limited success to reconcile his libido with biblical injunctions. He also participates in community projects including playing in a gospel band with other reforming criminals and teaching masonry to Vernon, a minimally retarded, musically gifted and outspoken teenager who eventually joins the band. Evolving into an amateur preacher who creatively updates Genesis and champions unorthodox gospel songs, Wesley unforgivably riles the band's straightlaced sponsors. Edgerton's latest is whimsical, warmhearted fare, easily visualized as a fast-moving film script, with an ending that conspicuously allows for another sequel by leaving more questions than it answers. Paperback rights to Ballantine; $100,000 ad/promo; BOMC alternate; author tour.

May 1, 1991
YA- -Through a federal grant, Ballard University, a Baptist school in North Carolina sponsors a halfway house with the optimistic name "Back on Track Again." Its residents teach skills such as masonry, sewing, and plumbing to the public school's special-education classes. Former car thief Wesley Benfield, first introduced in Edgerton's Walking Across Egypt (Algonquin, 1987), lives there and teaches the art of bricklaying to 16-year-old Vernon Jackson. Vernon, although mentally handicapped, has a vivid imagination and a talent for hard-headed arguments. He also has an incredible musical talent. YAs will delight in Edgerton's finely drawn and wonderfully human characters. In addition to Wesley and Vernon, they will meet Wesley's girlfriend, a resident of the the university's Christian diet center; Mattie Rigsby, the grandmotherly instrument of Wesley's reformation; and Ned and Ted Sears, the gladhanding president and provost who seem more interested in Universtiy expansion than the word of God. The book abounds with lighthearted situations and with subtle satirical undercurrents. Edgerton humorously chides the Christian college establishment for its judgmental attitudes and opportunistic behavior. Killer Diller will surely provide side-splitting comic relief in this day of social, economic, and political crises.- Carol Clark, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA