Who Killed Christopher Goodman?

In a novel set in 1979 Virginia, Wolf (The Watch That Ends the Night) combines prose, poetry, and script-style dialogue as he traces the events that led 15-year-old Leonard Pelf to shoot and kill Christopher Goodman, 17, during their town’s annual Deadwood Days celebration. Shifting perspective among several teens who interacted with Christopher in the days leading up to the festival, Wolf weaves a tense story of shared grief and guilt. As Scott “Squib” Kaplan writes, “This is not Christopher Goodman’s murder. It is ours.... It belongs to every single one of us who is left alive.” The various narrative devices help keep the characters distinct (Leonard’s thoughts, written in verse, paint a picture of a foster child whose hopes and ambitions seem thwarted at every turn), though the story occasionally becomes slightly disjointed amid the frequent perspective changes. Closing notes reveal Wolf’s personal connection to this story: during his junior year in high school, a young neighbor was killed in a similar fashion. A spare yet powerful account of a teenager’s influence on his community and the rippling aftereffects of his death. Ages 14–up. (Mar.)