A Map of the Dark

Halloween turns into a nightmare in a small Midwestern town. "In this debut novel, adults are mean, but little boys are meaner” (Kirkus Reviews). It's Halloween night, 1963, in De Pere, Wisconsin, and all is not well. Evelyn Schmidt’s life is almost at an end. she has cancer and has been given only days to live, But she’ll be damned if she’ll go quietly, in the hospital or at home. She’s heading for the Idle Hour to drink up a storm, whether her fellow drinkers want her there or not. Steve Omsted is only sixteen, but he feels his life might as well be over already. He’s on academic probation, he’s been kicked off the football team, and now his girlfriend has dropped him. He’s looking for a convenient target for his rage and has set up a nighttime ambush for his victim. Chuck Williams feels his life has hardly even started yet, but he can’t wait any longer. he’ll go trick-or-treating, but he won’t be waxing windows like his fellow fifth-graders. he’s going to hang out with the older kids and cause some real trouble. As the evening unfolds, the paths of these characters and others converge in a series of shocking events that will change the lives of everyone involved. In stark language and with bold, cinematic vision, John Dixon delivers a stunning portrait of a small town at war with itself.