About This Book
In the economically depressed town of Sawyer, PA, seventeen-year-old Charlie Hudson keeps her head down, stacks her savings, and counts the days until she can leave. Then the owner of the sandwich shop where she works turns up dead — a man both respected and feared — and suddenly Charlie, who is autistic and already an outsider, finds herself and her coworkers squarely in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. What follows is a tightly wound story about a young woman who can't afford to be a suspect, can't trust the community around her, and must figure out who among the people she knows is capable of killing.
Walker structures the novel around Charlie's particular way of moving through the world — her observations are precise, her logic sharp, and her social blind spots form the engine of genuine suspense. At under 250 pages, the book earns its pace; nothing is wasted. The small-town setting does real work here, creating the sense that everyone knows everyone and no one tells the full truth. Readers who like their thrillers character-driven rather than plot-manufactured will find Charlie a protagonist worth following.
