The Sin-Eater’s Confession

Bick (Drowning Instinct) crafts a powerful tale of bigotry and murder in small-town Wisconsin. High school senior Ben imagines he will go to Yale and become a doctor, just like his mother has always encouraged him to do. When a star athlete dies in an accident, Ben helps the boy’s family out and befriends his younger brother, Jimmy, who dreams of becoming a great photographer. Jimmy’s evangelical father fears that his son’s hobby and friendship with Ben are indicators of homosexuality, and the rumors and conflicts that emerge over the following months result in Ben witnessing Jimmy’s brutal murder. Ben’s attempts to understand what he saw, as well as his uncertainties about his own sexuality (Ben’s friendships with Jimmy and a classmate named Brooke are both sources of self-doubt), drive the rest of the novel. Told entirely in flashback from Ben’s perspective as a medic in Afghanistan, Bick’s story isn’t a mystery in the whodunit sense. Instead, it’s a potent examination of teenage emotions and reactions to peer and parental pressures, and to the evil that people are capable of. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Mar.)