Small Town Sins: A Novel

by Ken Jaworowski

Overview

EDGAR AWARD FINALIST

Ken Jaworowski’s Small Town Sins is a gripping Rust Belt thriller that captures the characters of a down-and-out Pennsylvania town, revealing their troubled pasts and the crimes that could cost them their lives.

In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a former coal and steel town whose best days seem long past, five thousand residents have toughed it out, and have reasons for both worry and hope as this neglected place teeters between decay and renewal. For some of them, their biggest troubles have just arrived.

After years of just scraping by, three restless souls have their lives upended: Nathan, a volunteer fireman who uncovers a secret stash of money in a burning building and takes it; Callie, a nurse whose tender patient may not have long to live, despite the girl’s fundamentalist parents’ ardent beliefs; and Andy, a recovering heroin addict who undertakes a nightmare mission to hunt down and stop a serial predator.

Before long, Nathan’s stolen riches threaten to destroy everyone around him as he tries to cover his haphazard trail of lies. Callie risks her career to grant her young patient a final, and likely illegal, wish. And Andy’s hunger for vigilante justice becomes a fierce obsession that may end in violence.

As their stories barrel toward unexpected ends, Nathan, Callie, and Andy struggle to endure—or escape. They each face their pasts and gamble on their futures, and confront the underside of their rough Rust Belt town. Riveting, evocative, and unforgettable, Small Town Sins is a debut novel that marks the arrival of a major new talent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250881670
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	29,418
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Ken Jaworowski is an editor at the New York Times. He graduated from Shippensburg University and the University of Pennsylvania. While growing up in Philadelphia, he was also an amateur boxer. He lives in New Jersey with his family. Small Town Sins is his first novel.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/08/2023

New York Times editor Jaworowski shines in his artful debut, which interweaves the stories of several struggling residents in the Rust Belt town of Locksburg, Pa. When Nathan was 17, he impregnated the first girl he slept with and had to come up with the $1,000 she needed to get an abortion. He resorted to pawning his disabled mother’s wedding ring, but when its disappearance was noted, the search for it ended tragically. Decades later, Nathan is a volunteer firefighter whose marriage is troubled by his wife’s fertility issues. His fortunes change when he stumbles on millions in cash while saving a man from a burning building and chooses to keep the loot. Violent complications ensue, and Jaworowski weaves them with the stories of other desperate town residents, including the former-addict father of a disabled child and a nurse with a congenital facial disfigurement who hopes to give a girl with terminal cancer her dying wish, even if doing so would break the law. Jaworowski skillfully toggles between his plot threads, never sacrificing character development for cheap thrills. Admirers of Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan will be eager for more from this talented storyteller. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2023-06-08
In a lonesome town, three locals embark on treacherous paths toward adventure.

In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a backwater where nothing much happens, folks keep to themselves and keep their heads down; they wrestle with despair and heartbreak and struggle in the clutches of multiplying problems. This includes locals Andy Devon, a former junkie whose wife and child have recently died; lonely, disfigured nurse Callie, who tends a dying girl at the close of stage 4 cancer; and volunteer fireman Nathan Stultz, the kind of nice guy who’s always tried to do the right thing and only ever suffered for it. But then, fate intervenes. Andy stumbles upon a briefcase full of child pornography and sees a way to save his life and make it worthwhile by catching the pedophile priest responsible. Callie decides to risk her career to make her patient’s final wish come true: to drive across the state and see the ocean. And Nathan, in a burning house with his arms full of a man he’s trying to rescue, finds $2 million in stolen drug money, a windfall that could finally allow him to leave the town that’s been holding him back for so long. In a suspenseful, intertwining narrative, Jaworowski crafts a tale of three souls grasping at slippery chances, finding themselves with no way out other than to keep pushing forward into new, disturbing places. Andy’s plan to catch a predator goes horribly awry. Callie’s jaunt to the sea quickly turns more perilous than she could have ever foreseen. And Nathan’s secreted stash, just waiting for him to finalize his plans to high-tail it out of town, releases a former lover’s spite and destructive vindictiveness. Locksburg, for all its remoteness, its staleness and vacuity, never seemed so full of dangerous, teeming forms of life. And death.

A satisfying thriller with finely drawn, highly sympathetic characters.

Kirkus Reviews

“A deeply evocative thriller that lives at the intersection of bad decisions and bad luck, Small Town Sins is an extraordinary debut, which will have you riveted from page one.”
—Laura Dave, author of The Last Thing He Told Me

“Jaworowski is a brilliant storyteller…and a merciless one. His three main characters draw bad card after bad card. It would be a daunting world to visit if it weren’t so redeemed by the startling generosity and warmth of Jaworowski’s writing: he pulls your heartstrings till they snap. And he’s written a gripping, poignant book.”
—Scott Smith, author of A Simple Plan

“Imagine my delight at this wonderful little book, this riotous cross-section of John Irving and Jim Thompson. These characters breathe the same air other people breathe, they work jobs like real people do. An addictive read from its first page, Small Town Sins pays the reader’s attention back with love. A crime book that kept surprising me with its warmth and vigor page after page—it’s a delight, well-told and deeply felt.”
—John Darnielle, author of Devil House

“Original, bittersweet, twisting, and triumphant. Small Town Sins takes a thrilling and deeply emotive look at cause and effect, at the decisions we make and the lessons we disregard. I adored it.”
—Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End

“A tour de force of lives on the edge. A page-turner that I couldn’t put down. When you think left, it hits you right; when you think it’s safe, the ice starts to crack. A seriously good noir thriller.”
—Willy Vlautin, author of Lean on Pete

"I really enjoyed the dark, gritty, and very human Small Town Sins by Ken Jaworowski. Callie, Nathan, and Andy are three characters who will stay with you."
—Harlan Coben, author of Tell No One

“Small Town Sins is a compelling portrait of a community, told through the eyes of three desperate people whose lives go off the rails. Jaworowski has given the reader both a page-turning noir thriller and a rich, character-driven tragedy of hard lives and bad choices. A fierce and propulsive book!”
—Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk

“Sitting comfortably at the pinnacle of psychological thriller writing, Small Town Sins is smart, compelling and, by turns, harrowing and heartfelt. Under the author’s deft touch, the plots of the novel speed relentlessly from first page to last, through a Rust-Belt America so perfectly realized that we feel we’re there in person. And what an unforgettable trio of protagonists! Given Jaworowski’s masterful stylistic voice, you will hardly believe this is a debut novel. Bravo!”
—Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone Collector and Hunting Time

“Small Town Sins is full of surprises and moves like a bullet train. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Fans of A Simple Plan and other rural noirs are sure to savor this dark and twisted thriller. I’m excited to read whatever Ken Jaworowski writes next.”
—Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures

“A stunning novel. Think Peter Dexter blended with James Sallis. It is that good and beautifully written. The sort of novel where you want to underline whole passages. I’m going to be pressing this book on those I care about. It restored my joy in the mystery genre.”
—Ken Bruen, author of The Guards

“A compulsively readable first novel that offers a very quirky look at downtrodden suburban life. Sad, seedy, horrific, humorous, and hopeful, this book is a tremendous debut.”
—Fabian Nicieza, co-creator of Deadpool and author of The Self-Made Widow

"Poignant . . . evocative. . . . Jaworowski weaves these characters’ stories with believable action, keeping in mind their desire to be more than ordinary while the threat of violence lingers in the background. . . . Jaworowski’s approach to storytelling will make readers eager for his next outing."
—Oline Cogdill, The Sun Sentinel

From the Publisher