Dry Bones in the Valley - Hardcover

Tom Bouman’s first book, Dry Bones in the Valley, won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in Pennsylvania.

This novel is so precise, so delicate, that I feared turning its pages too quickly may cause the beautiful language to float off the page. But don t be fooled by its precision; this is a tough, edgy thriller that asks hard questions about the destruction of our environment, our local communities, and our families. No smoke is being blown here: readers of smart literary thrillers are going to love this novel. All that to say this: I wish like hell that my name were on the cover of Dry Bones in the Valley. --Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home"

A tough, edgy thriller that asks hard questions about the destruction of our environment, our local communities, and our families. Readers of smart literary thrillers are going to love this novel. I wish like hell that my name were on the cover. --Wiley Cash, New York Times best-selling author of A Land More Kind Than Home"

Tom Bouman is a remarkable new voice in contemporary fiction. Dry Bones in the Valley is a tightly crafted piece of rural noir that seems pulled from the earth itself, a profound look at the dark corners of rural America. Readers of Daniel Woodrell and Donald Ray Pollock will find much to love. --Steve Weddle, author of Country Hardball"

It's a mystery, yes, but it's also a love story between a man and the land and people he knows like the back of his hand. Dry Bones in the Valley is a gorgeous, lived-in novel, and Bouman's turns of phrase are chest-clutching in their beauty. --Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way"

So smooth it's as if it was written on spring water. Shadowy, swift, impossible to put down. I was enraptured. Any justice and this writer will soon be a major star. --Joe R. Lansdale, author of Deadman s Road"

Officer Henry Farrell is a shy man, but in his own ways just as ornery and tough as the cast of rugged characters who inhabit his Pennsylvania woods, where the mysteries are as old as love and grief. A rural cop with a keen intelligence and a wounded heart, Henry s the right man to unearth the secrets of Dry Bones in the Valley. Tom Bouman s debut novel is one you won t want to miss. --Ed Falco, author of The Family Corleone"

[An] outstanding debut Henry s growth from a grief-stricken widower to a lawman with an inner resolve fuels the brisk plot, as does an evocative look at a changing landscape. "

It''''s a mystery, yes, but it''''s also a love story between a man and the land and people he knows like the back of his hand. Dry Bones in the Valley is a gorgeous, lived-in novel, and Bouman''''s turns of phrase are chest-clutching in their beauty. --Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way"

So smooth it''''s as if it was written on spring water. Shadowy, swift, impossible to put down. I was enraptured. Any justice and this writer will soon be a major star. --Joe R. Lansdale, author of Deadman s Road"

Bouman s debut shows rural noir at its finest: a poetically written mystery about a man struggling with his inner demons and an area of great natural beauty few had heard of before the natural gas boom. "