cover image Dead Center

Dead Center

Joanna Higgins, Permanent, $28 (272p) ISBN 978-1-57962-212-1

In Higgins's sharply probing novel, her first since A Soldier's Book (1998), Laura Weber and her sister, Lin, grow up knowing that their father, Pete Hyland, died in a hunting accident when they were quite young. Their mother, Karen, later married Dr. Ben Weber, who became their loving stepfather. Weber and Hyland were hunting together when Hyland was fatally shot in what was quickly and quietly dismissed as an accident. Eighteen years later, the investigation was reopened, and two years later, Weber was arrested and extradited from the family's Hawaii home to Tunley, Mich., where the shooting took place. As the kids gather to support their parents at the hearing and then the trial, details emerge that rock and test them all. Based on a true incident, Higgins's psychologically acute story deftly illuminates the complexities that bind and separate an American family. (Jan.)