The Pallbearer

October 15, 2018
Lynch, West Virginia, is a dying town ruled by Ferris Gilbert, a man who collects on his debts, ties up loose ends, and kills without qualms. When his younger brother, Huddles, is caught doing work for Ferris and sent to the youth correctional facility known as the Shell, Ferris coerces young Terry Blankenship into killing the town sheriff. Arrested for burglarizing pills, Terry forms a bond with Huddles at the Shell, where Jason Felts, a dwarf whose uncle once owned the town funeral parlor, works as a counselor. The bleakness of this hardscrabble tale is relieved by glimmers of love?between Terry and his partner, Davey; between Terry and Huddles; and between Felts and Sharon Hendricks, the wife of one of the Shell's guards with whom he is having an affair. And there is the relief of justice gained for lives taken too soon. Farmer's debut is an unrelenting view of life in a place that, despite its total lack of promise, manages to harbor a sense of home for a few of its residents.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)