The Troop: A Novel

“I guess some people must find it funny that Tom was a fat kid.” Claire Padgett smiles, but there’s not a drop of humor in it. “Yeah, I guess a certain type of person would find that deliciously ironic, considering how things came out in the wash.”

The moon hung in its western altar like the last melancholy guest at a dinner party, who was too lonely to leave.

but the quote came to him whole cloth, the words leaping from a dark cubbyhole in his memory.

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

extruded from the subject’s anus. Approx seven inches long. Significant

“It’s love. Love is the absolute killer.