Reckoning
a novel by Rusty Barnes

BLURBS
"Rusty Barnes’s long-awaited first novel doesn’t disappoint. It’s an action- and suspense-filled story of growing up in the hills of Pennsylvania, where life is hard and often dangerous. The love story of Richard and Katie is honest, rich, and artfully told. This is an impressive debut.”
—Thomas Cobb, author of Crazy Heart and With Blood in Their Eyes

“Rarely can a writer ratchet up a story’s tension as relentlessly as Rusty Barnes does in Reckoning, a beautifully told and almost painfully suspenseful novel in which the stakes couldn’t be higher. I loved this book.”
—John M McManus, author of Bitter Milk

BACK COVER
Richard Logan begins his summer day as any fourteen-year-old might: working a farm job bringing in hay, avoiding his hard-headed father, and hanging out with his friends. When he stumbles onto an unconscious woman in the woods, he has no idea that the process of helping her will lead him into the darkness of the deeply held deceits of his rural Appalachian town. Both brutal and beautiful, Reckoning shows the seams and limits of family love and community tolerance while Richard discovers where manhood truly lies.