Billy Dead

When his universally despised older brother meets a bloody end, Ray Johnson and his family are forced by their small Michigan town to relive their scandalous past

When mean, violent and generally despised Billy Johnson turns up gruesomely murdered in this heartwrenching debut, his blue-collar Michigan town is full of suspects, including members of his own family. While relatives gather for the funeral and the police investigation intensifies, Billy's troubled younger brother, Ray, tries to make sense of it all by reluctantly dredging up his family's shameful past. He, Billy and their sister, Jean, were horribly abused by their father when they were children. They also abused one another. As adults, they continue to inflict pain on themselves and those around them. After having struggled to lead a normal life, Ray has yet to master his complex feelings for the estranged, withdrawn Jean, feelings that have come between Ray and his girlfriend. Meanwhile his father remains unrepentant and his long-suffering mother, having escaped and remarried, still can't acknowledge that the abuses ever occurred. The real brilliance in this grim tale lies in the author's choice of narrator, for it is only Ray's sweet, bruised voice that makes any of it tolerable. Reardon falters in straining for a redemptive conclusion, but that doesn't diminish her overall accomplishment: this is a compelling work, reminiscent of both Dorothy Allison and Caroline Chute, that evokes empathy for those who lead bleak, savage lives and even finds a measure of dignity and love in people raised in a world where all the rules and taboos are broken on a daily basis. Agent, Virginia Barber; author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Startling, alarming, altogether original, and one of the more challenging novels of recent memory. Reardon's debut novel is narrated by Ray Johnson, younger brother of the recently murdered Billy and middle child of perhaps the sickest family in Michigan. Ray, and Reardon, cast no aspersions though, as Ray sleepily reveals the layers of pain that go way beyond the self-perpetuating spirals of "abuse." As the police and Ray try to find Billy's killer, the covers are lifted on the not-so-secret secrets of the Johnson clan. In the tangled core of the story is Ray's love for, and love affair with, his younger sister, Jean. Reardon dares to challenge the very nature of sin as she suggests that incest can have color and layers; indeed, she creates between Ray and Jean a terribly beautiful love story. Reardon writes in a masterful, an artfully quiet, and a most unfabulous way, which has the effect of making this tale seem acceptable. If this one doesn't cause a buzz, then our collective consciousness is more damaged than we thought. David Cline

Rural Michigan appears alternately bucolic and backward in this chilling tale, which unfolds in narrative. Ray Johnson is a young man struggling to exorcise demons from his childhood, when, along a country road one night, his abusive and feared older brother, Billy, is brutally beaten and left to die. Family relationships bring to light clues to his death and reveal an illicit (to say nothing of illegal) love affair. Though the well-told story is often depressing and sometimes distasteful, there is also humor and an occasional moment of childlike joy, made more powerful by its unexpectedness. Ultimately, the characters' strength in attempting to change their lives through any available method is redemptive. As much dysfunctional family portrait as mystery, this is an honest, thought-provoking slice of a not-yet-wasted young life. This book should find a home in public libraries, large and small.?Margaret A. Smith, Grace A. Dow Memorial Lib., Midland, MI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.