Ah! Two posts in a row! Today I'm part of the Random Things tour for Michael Farris Smith's latest, Lay Your Armour Down.
Keal and Burden have been hired for a job. Sent to a church in a small Mississippi town and told to pick up something—they'd know it when they saw it.
Cara calls this small town home, for now. She's taken it upon herself to check in regularly on her elderly neighbor. But today the woman is worse: raccoons in her kitchen, scratched up feet and legs, and rolls of cash from who knows where. And this is how she crosses paths with Keal and Burden.
With a quiet young girl in tow, the three adults come together in a way only chance or fate can manipulate.
I've a confession: I haven't read Michael Farris Smith before. But this one was included in the Pandi pack (a subscription box from Pandi Press), so I jumped at the chance to be on the tour.
The writing really is trimmed of all unnecessary aspects. It's tight and spare but conveys so much both in the words and between the lines. It's an artful approach, similar to watching a quiet film where the actors convey much of the story through purposeful looks and expression. Lay Your Armour Down is that, in prose.
Three people at very different stages of their lives but all rudderless and looking for...something. Keal is drawn into the job by Burdean, who's hired by a sinister and nameless man. Details are scarce, making the scene they arrive to even more shocking.
It's clear throughout that these characters are brought together by a seemingly random series of events. Right place—or wrong place, etc. And while the reader may quickly have theories about where the story is headed, I promise it's not so straightforward.
I quite enjoyed this pared down but densely told story. It might seem simple, but what the author has accomplished in getting a story like this across with probably half the number of words any other author would use is a sign of true talent! Desperation and loneliness bleed through the pages along with an underlying sense of hope. Of relying on life or fate or what have you to get you where you need to be when you need to be there. This is Southern gothic of the highest order and I'm doing my best not to include spoilers :)
If you're looking for a thought provoking read perfect for sipping iced tea and rocking on your porch, this is it!
Lay Your Armour Down is out now in both the UK and the US!