SMALL TOWN SINS

In a lonesome town, three locals embark on treacherous paths toward adventure.

In Locksburg, Pennsylvania, a backwater where nothing much happens, folks keep to themselves and keep their heads down; they wrestle with despair and heartbreak and struggle in the clutches of multiplying problems. This includes locals Andy Devon, a former junkie whose wife and child have recently died; lonely, disfigured nurse Callie, who tends a dying girl at the close of stage 4 cancer; and volunteer fireman Nathan Stultz, the kind of nice guy who’s always tried to do the right thing and only ever suffered for it. But then, fate intervenes. Andy stumbles upon a briefcase full of child pornography and sees a way to save his life and make it worthwhile by catching the pedophile priest responsible. Callie decides to risk her career to make her patient’s final wish come true: to drive across the state and see the ocean. And Nathan, in a burning house with his arms full of a man he’s trying to rescue, finds $2 million in stolen drug money, a windfall that could finally allow him to leave the town that’s been holding him back for so long. In a suspenseful, intertwining narrative, Jaworowski crafts a tale of three souls grasping at slippery chances, finding themselves with no way out other than to keep pushing forward into new, disturbing places. Andy’s plan to catch a predator goes horribly awry. Callie’s jaunt to the sea quickly turns more perilous than she could have ever foreseen. And Nathan’s secreted stash, just waiting for him to finalize his plans to high-tail it out of town, releases a former lover’s spite and destructive vindictiveness. Locksburg, for all its remoteness, its staleness and vacuity, never seemed so full of dangerous, teeming forms of life. And death.

A satisfying thriller with finely drawn, highly sympathetic characters.