Michael Farris Smith is now two for two at producing exceptional, dark, thoughtful, human, literary noir novels. Creating vivid portraits of difficult lives and the things that people do to survive, this is another of those great novels that have no obvious start and no obvious end, no obvious peaks and troughs and no obvious three act structure. It just goes ahead relentless in its examination of the ache of the heart and the head and the soul of people and life and small town America.