First published 2014
Small-town America becomes a stage for moral reckonings in these eleven crime stories. Characters navigate the complexities of marriage, betrayal, and violence in communities where everyone knows everyone else's business. A wife contemplates her options when her husband's secrets surface. Neighbors discover what lies beneath polite facades. Local residents find themselves caught between loyalty and justice when crimes hit close to home. Each story peels back the veneer of respectability to reveal the calculations people make when pushed to their limits. Coburn writes with elegant restraint, letting tension build through understated prose rather than melodrama. These tales capture the weight of decisions that ordinary people face when circumstances turn extraordinary. The collection explores how crime ripples through tight-knit communities, affecting not just perpetrators and victims but everyone connected to them.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, mystery, crime
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: moral-ambiguity, ordinary-people
Setting: America
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
156 pages · Paperback · Stark House Press
Content warnings: violence