Copperhead Road

As summer dies, the first boy is found in a shallow grave. More will follow. His hometown has a serial child killer in its midst…. At seventeen, John Ray has silently survived years of molestation at the hands of a respected coach and mentor. When younger boys start disappearing, found sexually abused and murdered in the same woods where he was once victimized, John must confront not only his own past but an interwoven set of characters, some evil, some desperate and some both, who share his memories in one way or another. What John must do, who he must open up to, and the corpses he must unearth-- literally and figuratively in order to stop the madness around him-- is what drives this intense story to its heart-pounding conclusion. In addition to its pace and rich character development, Copperhead Road features an eerie and remarkable sense of place; its setting is the Northern Virginia suburbs of the mid-1980s, pre-cell phone, and pre-Internet, and will carry any reader back to a simpler but sometimes darker recent past. Please don't forget to check the "Look Inside" feature for more detail as well. Author's note: I am a former special victims prosecutor and myself a victim of chronic child sexual abuse. There are touches of my personal story in this book, but more an amalgamation of the thousands of stories I came face to face with while prosecuting and eventually consulting on child abuse cases worldwide. I remain in awe of every child who had the courage to work with my teams on the investigation and prosecution of the horror they endured. This book was written for all of them. And for every boy and girl still silent, helpless, and alone.