Anthony Wolff is a thirteen-year-old paperboy who feels marooned in childhood after two murders stupefy the adults of his town and put his life on hold. Anthony narrates a boy’s-eye-view of mayhem and harmony with poignant observations of a prosperous, post-war prairie town stunned by the savage murders of two boys. While the paperboys deliver news of a stalled police investigation, and the dazed community searches for explanation, a paralytic dread settles over the town like a fog. After his parents send their son away to the safety of a Quaker boarding school in Ohio, Anthony and his roommate Steve, a sophisticated fifteen-year-old, discover the skeletal remains of a former student and a connection between an illustrious alumnus of the school and the murders in Anthony’s town.
