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Cover of Holy City

Holy City

by Henry Wise

Book Details

Publisher:Bedford Square Publishers
Published:2025-02-27
Pages:255
Format:BOOK
Language:en

Reading Info

About This Book

'A dense, brilliantly rendered novel by a new master of Southern gothic' Kirkus After a decade of exile precipitated by the tragic death of his mother, Will Seems returns home from Richmond to rural Southern Virginia, taking a job as deputy sheriff in a landscape given way to crime and defeat. But his attempts to start again are wrecked when a brutal homicide claims the life of an old friend and he is forced to face the true reason for his return – to pay an old debt. Then a man Will knows to be

Our Review

After a decade away, a young man returns to his rural Virginia hometown only to find himself entangled in a brutal homicide that forces him to confront the dark debt that truly drew him back. This is a dense and brilliantly rendered Southern gothic novel where a landscape given way to crime and defeat becomes a character in itself, pulling the protagonist into a past he can't escape.

Wise establishes himself as a new master of the genre, weaving a complex narrative where personal history and present violence are inextricably linked. Readers who appreciate the morally complex, atmospheric tension of authors like William Faulkner or Cormac McCarthy will find a haunting and immersive world here, one that grapples with the inescapable weight of home and the ghosts that demand payment.

Themes

Fiction

Subjects

Fiction