When I first started reading George Dawes Green’s new
novel, I thought it was going to bear a lot of resemblance to a
Coen brothers movie. You know what I’m talking about ---
either the type where some ambitious but bumbling would-be
criminals completely botch a scam, or the kind where those same
criminals discover their brutally violent sides when a crime goes
horribly wrong. Or the kind where both humor and brutality become
bizarrely intertwined. Now, although this last description might
sum up RAVENS on the surface, the book itself gains a kind of
psychological intensity and complexity that ushers it out of
slapstick and into far deeper, more compelling territory.

The novel takes place in the small town of Brunswick, Georgia,
where community college student Tara Boatwright’s mother,
Patsy, lives for the weekly Max-a-Million lottery jackpot drawing.
The weekly cycle of anticipation and crushing disappointment
inevitably drives Patsy into a drunken fit followed by a stupor.
But on this particular Wednesday night, Patsy’s dream comes
true, as she’s the proud possessor of the one and only
winning lottery ticket, with a cash prize of $318 million.

But the Boatwrights are about to find that their dream come true
unleashes a living nightmare, when disaffected computer technicians
Shaw McBride and Romeo Zderko (on their way from Ohio to Florida
for vacation) happen to stop at the very same convenience store
where Mitch Boatwright bought the winning lottery ticket --- and
overhear enough information to lead them right to the
Boatwrights’ front door. Shaw hatches a plan to get his hands
on half of the Boatwrights’ millions. He’ll weasel his
way into their family, pretending to be an old friend of
Mitch’s who went in on the ticket purchase with him.
Meanwhile, Romeo will endlessly circle the streets of tiny
Brunswick, under strict orders to kill key members of the
Boatwrights’ extended family if the Boatwrights call the
police or harm Shaw in any way.

When, during a press conference, Shaw expresses a desire to give
his multi-millions away, his completely fabricated story of
redemption and generosity garners him thousands of admirers and
pilgrims from around the country. Meanwhile, reluctant heavy Romeo
is torn between lifelong loyalty to Shaw and his growing sympathy
for residents of the small town. As Shaw insinuates himself ever
more deeply into the Boatwrights’ lives, his hold over them
--- and their responses to him --- become ever more twisted and
complex. And we start seeing how sudden wealth and celebrity begin
to change even the most unexpected players in this increasingly
tense drama.

This rapidly expanding range and psychological depth of RAVENS,
along with the undercurrents of religious faith and distortion,
take the novel from the territory of farce into something more
complex, more profound, and, ultimately, more terrifying. The
rapidly shifting glimpses into the characters’ points of view
--- their hopes, dreams, fears and preoccupations --- make the
violent conclusion both more shocking and horrifically
inevitable.

In the end, RAVENS is a fundamentally different novel from what
its opening chapters might lead you to believe. It’s a
portrait of a small town, of the bizarre changes inspired both by
great wealth and by a charismatic criminal, of a lifelong
friendship based on fear --- all of which combine to make RAVENS a
book that will stick with the reader long after the explosive final
pages.