Halloween will never be the same again . . .

It's Halloween night, 1963, in De Pere, Wisconsin, and all is not well. Evelyn Schmidt's life is almost at an end—she's been diagnosed with cancer and given only days to live. But she'll be damned if she'll go quietly, in the hospital or at home. She's heading for the Idle Hour to drink up a storm, whether her fellow drinkers want her there or not. Steve Omsted is only sixteen, but it seems to him his life might as well be over already. He's on academic probation, he's been kicked off the football team, and now his girlfriend has dropped him. He's looking for an easy target for his rage and has set up a nighttime ambush for his victim. Chuck Williams feels his life hasn't even started yet—but he can't wait any longer. Sure, he'll go trick-or-treating, but he won't be waxing windows with the other fifth-graders. He's going to hang out with the older kids and cause some real trouble.

As the evening unfolds, the paths of these and other characters in their town converge in a series of shocking events that will change the lives of everyone involved.In stark language and with bold, cinematic vision, John Dixon delivers a stunning portrait of a small town at war with itself.

”Recall(s) the work of fellow Midwesterner Sinclair Lewis in its stark portrayal of social hierarchies and the lengths to which people will go in order to fit in ... In this debut novel, adults are mean, but little boys are meaner." KIRKUS REVIEWS

Born in De Pere, Wisconsin, in 1952, John Dixon studied playwriting at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, where his first play, Too Stupid to Live, was first staged in 1982. A Map of the Dark, his debut novel, was published in 2005. John Dixon died in 2007, leaving behind a substantial body of unpublished literary and dramatic work. This reissue of his debut novel is the first in a planned series collecting his plays, short stories, and novels.