Harms’ Way

Ethan Harms, the narrator of this intense, claustrophobic novel from Rayfiel (Time Among the Dead), is serving a life sentence for multiple murders in a nameless maximum security prison somewhere in the northern U.S. He leads a cold, cruel existence, with no privacy. Virtually all of his fellow prisoners have dangerous quirks, such as Crow, who doesn’t speak but can turn violent quickly, and Raymond Cooney, the author of a bestselling book about his killing spree who has filed suit against the warden and the prison. Harms fights for little victories—avoiding the pills that he’s supposed to take; trying to control his interview sessions with visiting doctoral candidate Roberta Bush, who’s collecting data for a study; and managing the warden, who wants him to get information from Cooney about the killer’s victims. The suspense grows once Harms finds an item in the exercise yard that could improve his situation. Those who like unsparing depictions of prison and the men who inhabit its lower rungs with little hope will be rewarded. (Sept.)