October 24, 2016
Smith’s terrific new novel opens with a brutal 1985 attack on a family in a small South Dakota town, then flashes back to 1950 when the husband (a WWII pilot) and his wife first left New York City with their two small children for a new life in Rapid City, Iowa. Cal and Betsy Kusek, invited west by a fellow veteran and sponsored by his parents, appreciate the hospitality, but the virulent fear of communism—just being a Democrat raises suspicion—among the locals shocks them. Although he’s an attorney, Cal builds a ranch while Betsy helps the local doctor as a visiting nurse. She worries, though, that her flirtation with the Communist Party will hinder Cal’s burgeoning political career. Smith illuminates the force of McCarthyism-generated fear in the Midwest and effectively personalizes it through the persecution the Kusak family endures for their liberal beliefs. The author also skillfully ties together the two time periods, avoiding melodrama. Agent: Molly Friedrich, Friedrich Literary Agency.
April 24, 2017
Smith’s standalone, inspired by the real-life mass murder of a family in 1980s Seattle, follows the fateful adventures of fictional WWII hero Cal Kusek and his wife Betsy, who, unhappy in 1950 Manhattan, seek greener pastures for their children, Jo and Lance, on a ranch in Rapid City, South Dakota. Though a very blue family in very red state, they manage to find happiness until Cal, a lawyer as well as a rancher, is urged to run for the U.S. Senate. His opponent, Thaddeus Hayes, is a deceptively friendly, fear-spreading loudmouth liar who tries to turn the town and the state against Cal and Betsy. His careless use of the word “traitor” tips over the first in a long line of dominoes that eventually leads to the 1985 spree killing that bookends the novel. Reader McClain, a Daytime Emmy Award–winning actress, initially establishes a solemn mood, with the adult Jo returning to her hometown after the murders. When the plot hops back to the ’50s, with the Kuseks meeting their new friends and neighbors, some with distinctive rural accents, McClain switches to a more upbeat tone, and she expresses more extreme emotion during the family’s highs and lows. McClain provides the faux good ole boy Hayes and another key antagonist, a sociopath slacker with the memorable moniker Honeybee Jones, with voices that ring with villainy. A Knopf hardcover.