Amazon.com
So, you find out one day that your brother has just been killed, brutally murdered in fact, by someone who seemed to take calm delight in watching him die slowly, agonizingly. The thing is, you can think of dozens of people who wished Billy harm, and a few who very well might have done it, including members of your own family.

Such is the situation of Ray Johnson, the narrator of Lisa Reardon'sfirst novel, Billy Dead, as we begin a gut-wrenching trip into the past of an American family that's about as unappetizing as you will find. Arelatively decent, tender man who's spent much of his life trying to keep out of harm's way, Ray has managed to cobble together a pretty good existence of steady job and thoughtful, intelligent girlfriend, Sally... until now. As he ranges around town in a surreal haze in the days following Billy's murder, meeting up with ghosts from the past, and interacting with various and sundry family members (including a mother who flirts with an old boyfriend in sight of her son's coffin), Ray realizes just how much he remains shackled to a past chock full of domestic abuse, alcoholism, incest, and just plain meanness.

While Billy's death seems a just, but unavoidable, conclusion to a nasty existence--"Somebody took that thing full of mean and made it nothing at all"--maybe he was the lucky one. For Ray, the killing pulls into sharp relief the hell on earth that is his when he realizes his only life passion is his forbidden love for his younger sister, Jean: "All the hurt and confusion about Billy being killed is like a big forest fire that's burned through everything in me. Burned clean through all the underbrush of when we were little, all the deadwood memories. Even the big strong trees that I thought would live forever, blocking all the sun ... Jean and me, we're looking at each other now in that empty, burned-out place."

In a narrative that explores in terrifying detail the violent nature of Jean and Ray's past and the poignant truth of their love, Reardon creates a skillful and credible tale. This is a hard, in-your-face kind of book that takes you for a disturbing ride, and finally asks you to reexamine your notions of what is and what is not right when it comes to affairs of the heart. --Marianne PainterBook Description
When Ray Johnson's brother Billy is found murdered in a ditch, Ray is overcome with sorrow and a strange sense of relief. In a quiet Michigan town with no secrets, Billy's death unleashes some ugly memories--events that the working-class Johnson family has struggled for years to forget. Ray watches closely as the sheriff pursues the killer, and soon he is reluctantly drawn back to a violent and chaotic family history, which he reveals in a voice that is sometimes funny, often shocking, but always unsparingly honest. In the span of four unforgettable days Ray Johnson propels us through past and present, desolation and joy, as he is forced to reassess a life of stark abuse and remarkable love.

Billy Dead looks unflinchingly at the web of devotion and cruelty that can bind families together in a merciless pact. In a world of brutality both given and received, we are asked finally what redemption is possible.

"Reardon owes something to Faulkner; like him, she can summon up the menace of the past, rustling in the dark." --The New Yorker

"Billy Dead is a brave, heartwrenching debut. I couldn't look away." --Alice Munro ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Occasionally stomach churning
Some authors just have the ability to make your skin crawl, and Ms. Reardon appears to be firmly in that category. This is not a horror story by any means (at least, not in the classic sense), but as you read the feeling of dread and horror heightens until the end, and even then you have a difficult time shaking off the unclean feeling you have. I believe that the ability to invoke this feeling is the sign of an excellent author, and so I rated the book five stars. The plot is like a runaway freight train going downhill and gaining speed with each foot it crosses. There are times you just want to cover your eyes, or close the book and give your senses a rest, but you soldier on, anxious to find out what happens at the end. Highly recommended!

Haunting--This book tore my heart out.
This is a great book and author.Shows how family abuse and secrets can tear lives apart.

Brutally honest and heart wrenching
This book is among the best I've ever read-- and I'm an avid reader.The author uses the voice of the brother of a dead man to tell the story of a highly dysfunctional family-- spoken from the perspective of a boy (now man) trying to cope with memories of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse.Her writing style is unique but quite appealing and helps the reader relate to the story teller even more.Somehow, he makes sense of his world and though his ultimate choice isn't exactly appropriate, you can understand how he got to it.As a psychologist, I found her portrayal of these characters to be brutally honest and it's a wonder the author hasn't experienced similar abuse herself since she speaks of the damage so accurately.

Wow...
GREAT book.Controversial, but amazing, I recommend it to anyone.I look forward to reading blameless by the same author...

Alarming...honest...brutal
Ray Johnson's brother Billy is found murdered.
Four days prior to the funeral, (during the police investigation) Ray relives the past and recalls the years of abuse received & given while growing up with Billy and their younger sister Jean.

Skipping around in time, he tells of terrible painful events with such raw honesty, even just reading about them is difficult.
At times, his own behaviour is so brutal & despicable, I would have normally despised him, but somehow the more I read, the more I found myself growing fond of him and his sister Jean.

Their love is so simple yet so complex and alarming. It was their way of keeping it together, their method of survival, through the years of hate & cruelty they constantly faced.
I loved Jean & Ray and finally accepted them for who they were. Their past made them what they became and clearly they can never be the same again.

This alarming and disturbing story will stay with me for a long long time... I am looking forward to read Lisa Reardon's other book Blameless. ... Read more

Book Description
"On a rainy evening in the spring of 1967, Old Jerry hunkers on his bar stool like a liquor-soaked question mark..."

So begins the story of Old Jerry, seventy years old, a lifetime drunk, and ready to die. His grandson Charlie has troubles of his own: the scars of a father's rage, a juvenile record, and brother P.T., who lives in another world with the ghost of their long-dead mother. When Old Jerry fails to show up for his birthday party at McGurk's Tap Room, these two young men are the first to ask questions. But the discovery of the old man's body in a nearby lake will send one off to war in Vietnam-and everyone else to pick up the pieces. Set in the dusky world of a working-class Midwestern city, The Mercy Killers tells a chilling story of actions taken in the name of love, and of histories spun from unspeakable pasts.

"Sharply written and stylistically brilliant, The Mercy Killers I a wonderful novel of crime with an authentic human story at its heart." -Chicago Sun-Times

"Reardon takes us into a world so complete...that nothing seems more important than reading these pages and discovering what her vivid, ferocious characters will do next." -Margot Livesey, author of Banishing Verona

"Reardon...keeps the action churning away." -Chicago Tribune ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Lisa Reardon is simply amazing!
Blameless and Billy Dead were both so touching and honest that I wrote to Lisa via her website.Not only did she write me back, but she asked for my address and mailed me a free signed copy of The Mercy Killers! She is as kind as she is talented.Thank you Lisa for your amazing novels which have enriched my life!

Another Triumph
I find it amazing how Lisa Reardon can put a voice to a population we see every day but never see.With out falsely glorifying, Lisa takes the story of the people who live day by day, making the choice to survive regardless if it is the right choice.I'm too young to remember the Vietnam era but I do know many bars like the one portrayed, and she hits the culture right on. When one has no family, they find family where they can.Lisa has a real knack for dialog and makes the each person an identity instead of a stereotype.As before, I loved this book and can't wait for the next.

Mercy Killers
Once again Lisa Reardon makes us feel passionately about characters that inhabit the dark, sad underbelly of society. It is a talented writer that makes you cry and laugh on the same page and root for people for whom we usually distain in real life.Her writing is sad and hopeful and so true it makes your heart ache.I couldn't put this one down until it was finished and it left me wanting these characters to make it.Bravo Lisa, this one's your best yet! ... Read more

Amazon.com
Penzler Pick, June 2000: After reading a strong debut, I am always eager to see the author's next offering. Will it live up to the potential of that first book, or will that book remain a flash of brilliance, never to be equaled? No worries here. Reardon's first book, Billy Dead, was an outstanding first novel in a year of excellent first novels, and her second book more than confirms that we have a major new talent in our midst.

While not a mystery in the strictest sense of the word, there is a killing. Blameless, however, is not about who did it, or even why. It is about the effect that killing has on one member of the community: the woman who discovered the body. Mary Culpepper, a school-bus driver, is strong, fearless, independent, and seemingly in command of her life. Sure, her husband left her for her best friend, but she's over that, and when the novel opens, Mary is waiting to testify in the death of one of her charges. She will have to take the stand and tell what she witnessed. As Mary tries to keep her mind off the upcoming trial, she enters into an affair with a local guy who plays softball with her. A dream man, except that he's the father of another of her charges.

All this drama does nothing to keep away the Night Visitor, the stone monster who, each night, climbs onto Mary's chest and destroys her sleep. As we get to know Mary, we understand that she, like many of us, chooses very carefully what she does and does not witness. Layer by layer, Reardon peels away the protective covering that Mary has grown until the explosive finale when Mary will have to come to terms with her past and the way she has chosen to live her life. This novel explores moral accountability and the way we all look away from what we don't want to see, and in that way Blameless is both profoundly disturbing and utterly compelling. --Otto Penzler Book Description
"The night turned blacker and colder. I switched off the car radio. I had a home to go to. I had locks on my doors. But just outside were dark hungry shapes that had once had names like Hero or Jack. Muzzles that used to nudge someone's hand for a pat now sniffed the air for prey. People walked away from the things they were responsible for, like those things weren't going to come back in the middle of the night and tear your throat open. I rolled up the window against the chill. Lit another cigarette with my head pounding like a kettledrum. The Merc rolled toward home."

Mary Culpepper is a strong woman, fearless and independent to a fault. But when she discovers the body of a child in her small northern Michigan town, she suffers a breakdown that has family and friends treating her like "sulfuric acid about to spatter." In the following months Mary does all she can to keep her mind off the upcoming trial, in which she will have to tell what she did--and did not--witness. It's a time when she most needs her best friend, Amy, whose history of lies and betrayal Mary is not willing to face. As the trial looms closer, and Mary's past catches up to her, not even the heated passion of an illicit affair can fend off the presence of the Night Visitor, a monster of stone and silence who destroys her sleep.

One young girl has already been sacrificed to the Culpepper legacy of willful blindness. Now another girl lies in the path of danger, another girl about to suffer the consequences of someone choosing to shut her eyes and remain blameless. But when Mary attempts to break the chain of betrayal, the resulting explosion could destroy all that she has sought to protect.

Following Billy Dead, which Alice Munro called a "brave, heart-wrenching debut," Blameless combines the emotional resonance of Sue Miller's The Good Mother with the gripping suspense of Chris Bohjalian's Midwives. A story of tender humor, violent passion, and a fierce exploration of moral accountability, it will pull you in, unable to look away until its last unforgettable page. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

An Amazing Read
I just finished reading this novel for the second time, and I remain perplexed by the fact that the book was never issued in paperback.Aside from the entertaining and hard-hitting plot, there were two aspects of this work that I especiallly appreciated.First, there is hardly any exposition.Even though the narration is in the first person, Reardon makes the reader work a bit.We spend some time saying "Wait a minute: is her best friend's husband, Carl, the same as her ex-husband Carl? How did that happen?" By the time she explains it, we've pretty much pieced together the clues and figured it out ourselves.Second, the book is both dark and funny, yet the humor is not dark.My only minor criticism is that I believe the fatal car accident was not necessary.The conflicts and resolutions that follow could have easily taken place without it.The accident gives this otherwise subtle, believable story a slight melodramatic edge.

Great author!Definitely worth a read.
I got this book because I was at a reading of Ethan Hawke's Ash Wednesday and he recommended the author.However, after I got it I let it sit on my shelf for six months.When I finally did pick it up I found myself disliking it and decided I would read the obligatory 50 pages and then discard it.On page 50 it grabbed my attention and held it, more or less consistently, throughout.Lisa Reardon is a very talented writer.She has little gems of phrasing that twinkle up at you, and she writes with emotion in ways I have not experienced before.I really connected with some of the parts of this story, and enjoyed the characters.I definitely recommend this book and am looking forward to reading her other novel, Billy Dead.

Compelling
Blameless is the story of Mary Culpeper, a bus driver living in a small town in Michigan.Mary is a strong woman - she lives alone, plays softball, and enjoys nights out at her favorite bar.However, as the book begins, she feels as though she is losing her strength.Mary is awaiting a murder trial.She is not the defendant, but the witness for the prosecution, expected to tell how she found the body of a small child on her bus route.Her distress at the impending trial is disturbing her sleep, and causing her to do things very out-of-character, such as beginning an affair with a married man.

Ultimately, this is a book about Mary's search for truth.She must face up to the truth about what happened to the murdered girl, her family's past, and the importance of relationships to her.This search for truth is, in the end very compelling, and an important read for anyone looking for similar things in their life.

Unlike the others, I was very disappointed.
Though Billy Dead was one of the best works of fiction I have ever read, Reardon's sincerity is lost in her latest.

She is trying altogether too hard.

I found myself, sadly, desiring to skip entire paragraphs and when I did, I missed nothing. Then I did the unthinkable. About 80 pages in I skipped to the last two chapters just to get it over with.

Much like overacting, she is over exerting herself as she tries to develop believable, empathy evoking characters.

Had I never read Billy Dead, I would not read her again. But knowing the talent of which she is capable, I await her next work, with hopes that she relaxes and tells me a story that compels me to read every word.

a magical book!
This is a beautifully written and seductively compelling book. Author Reardon is a truly extraordinary storyteller and she weaves her words beautifully. The dialogue is moving and the narrative text which supports the dialogue is mesmerizing. The story is good. Mary's indoctrinated tendencies to turn a blind eye to the truth are beautifully explored in this compelling and delicious novel. ... Read more