It’s hard to believe that it’s been five years since Lou Berney’s last novel NOVEMBER ROAD burst onto the mystery scene. It went on to win our Barry Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year.

It’s been too long a Berney Drought. I’ll tell him that when I see him at the San Diego Bouchercon later this year.

Plot Summary:

Twenty-one-year-old Hardy “Hardly” Reed—good-natured, easygoing, usually stoned—is drifting through life. A minimum-wage scare actor at an amusement park, he avoids unnecessary effort and unrealistic ambitions. He’s just an ordinary guy and nothing will change that, so why try? 

Then one day he notices two children, around six or seven, sitting all alone on a bench. Hardly checks if they’re okay and sees cigarette burns on the little girl’s ankle, on the little boy’s collarbone. Someone is hurting these kids.

Before Hardly realizes what’s happening, a woman hustles the kids away. He reports the incident to Child Protective Service.

That should be the end of it. But Hardly’s haunted by the two kids with the cigarette burns, his heart breaking for them. And the more research he does the less he trusts that CPS—understaffed and overworked—will follow through.

That leaves…Hardly. He knows he’s no hero. In fact he’s probably the last person you’d ever want to count on. But those two kids have nobody else but him. Hardly has to help them.

For the first time in his life, Hardly decides to fight for something. This might be the one point in his entire life, he realizes, that is the entire point of his life. He will help those kids.

At first, trying to gather evidence that will force CPS to intervene, Hardly is a disaster. Gradually, with assistance from unexpected sources, he develops investigative skills and discovers he’s smarter and more capable than he ever imagined.

But Hardly also discovers that the situation is more dangerous than he ever expected. The abusive father isn’t just a lawyer—he also runs a violent drug-dealing operation. The mother claims she wants to escape with the kids—but can she be trusted?

The new version of Hardly refuses to give up. While his single-minded commitment to the kids is well-intentioned, though, it might end up getting the kids, and Hardly himself, killed.