Night Letter by Sterling Watson

A taut thriller set in Florida's desolate panhandle, part coming-of-age story, all hard-boiled noir.
"Compelling . . . Watson crafts the plot of Night Letter skillfully, keeping the tension between Travis's past and present tight. Key to that tension is the narrative voice, which draws us into Travis's struggle to understand his obsession and the danger it can unleash . . . Memory, he discovers, is a slippery thing, and what emerges from the past has shocking reverberations in the present, and into the future."
—Tampa Bay Times

"Watson evocatively blends the dreamy, hormonally addled banality of teen life with the existential anxieties of lost innocence and regret. Fans of S.E. Hinton's rough-hewn teens and the gothic noir of Tennessee Williams will welcome this bittersweet tale of redemption."
—Publishers Weekly
"An atmospheric coming-of-age story equally touched by noir and Southern...