Arkansas

Arkansas veers between languid and lazy, humour-filled and joyful and bleak and violent with ease. Swin and Kyle are two con-artists, hustlers, scammers, petty criminals and summer buddies, who spend their evenings working for a crime boss they've never met, transporting illicit and stolen goods, doing dodgy deals in trailer parks and getting in and out of trouble. Their days are spent living the high life, in paradise- a neglected state park in Arkansas. But a shot rings out in the dark and changes their lives, propelling them from youthful exuberance to survival extinct.

The book is dark and funny and brutal all at once, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. Characters are explored brilliantly: college exile Swin Ruiz, shoplifting layabout Kyle Ribb and entrepreneur-turned-dealer Ken Hovan, known as Frog. Swin and Kyle, frozen by the deadend landscapes surrounding them (Tennessee and Florida), and having no grander design than to avoid boredom, wind up working for Frog as drug couriers. They are headquartered, wholesomely, in a state park. The book sparkles with energy and wit and as events lead to a satisfyingly tense conclusion, all three characters are pushed to the edge. Quite the startlingly tense debut.