Crimes in Southern Indiana

This story collection explores the violent underbelly of America’s heartland: “A dark, hard-boiled debut . . . no doubt about it, Frank Bill can write.” —KirkusReviews

Welcome to heartland America circa right about now, when the union jobs and family farms have given way to meth labs, backwoods gunrunners, and bare-knuckle brawling. Frank Bill’s southern Indiana is haunted with the deep, abiding sense of place, and his people are men and women pressed to the brink—and beyond.

There is Scoot McCutchen, whose beloved wife falls terminally ill, leaving him with nothing to live for—which doesn’t quite explain his brutal actions, or his decision to turn himself in. In the title story, a man who breeds dogs for fighting crosses paths with a Salvadoran gangbanger tasked with taking over the rural drug trade, but who mostly wants to grow old in peace. Gritty yet literary, Crimes in Southern Indiana shines an unforgiving light on a region of contemporary America that is too often forgotten.