Welcome to Heartland America circa right about now, when the union jobs and family farms that kept the white on the picket fences have given way to meth labs, backwoods gunrunners, and bare-knuckle brawling.

Frank Bill's southern Indiana is haunted by a deep, abiding sense of place, and Frank Bill's people are men and women pressed to the brink - and beyond. They are survivors, and in Frank Bill's hands, their stories bristle with noir energy.

Flat-out fearless and unputdownable, Crimes in Southern Indiana is at once a gut punch and a wake-up call - and the announcement of an authentic, original American literary voice we simply can't ignore.