The Blue Line Down

In this wrenching debut, a young man grows up quickly in 1920s West Virginia coal mining country amid familial violence and betrayal. After Willis Washer, 10, is beaten by his drunken father, Hezekiah, he flees to the mine, where he dies. In revenge, his brother, Jude, 13, falsely tells the mine owner that Hezekiah is the ringleader behind a group of miners working to unionize, then runs away. Several years later, Jude joins the Baldwin-Felts, a band of ex-cons and ex-military men tasked with suppressing unionists in nearby Bluefield, Va. Jude becomes so disillusioned by a violent raid staged on a mining camp that he flees the Baldwin-Felts with young recruit Harvey Morgan, and the two eventually land in Whitmill, S.C., where they end up indebted to bootleggers. What Jude must do to exorcize his guilt over his brother’s death, and to fulfill a promise to loved ones he had to leave behind, brings things to a satisfying conclusion. Lawyer’s prose is suffused with the earthy, smoky atmosphere of Appalachia and is full of feeling without getting sentimental. This is worth a look. (June)