In my continuing series on the authors whose books I will always buy, this month’s featured auto buy author is Lisa Reardon. There is very little updated info about Reardon on the internet and that’s because she pretty much dropped off the face of the map in 2010 when she was incarcerated for the assault with the intent to commit murder of her father. Her sentence was four – seventeen years. There is very little information to be had about Reardon, but here is another account of the events surrounding this incident. I believe she only served a couple of years of that time and once she was released she sort of disappeared from the spotlight. As far as I know, she only wrote three novels and I have read all three. If by some miracle she wrote something else, I would hand over my money in a nanosecond.

I read Reardon’s novel Billy Dead at least 20 years ago and it is a book that has lodged itself in my heart for many years. My read of it predates this blog, but I reposted the NY Times review of it here.

“People lose people. I don’t know why we’re all so damned careless. Folks lose their kids, men lose their women, even friends get lost if you don’t keep an eye out.”

No question, Billy Dead is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am a fan of gritty fiction and in Reardon’s capable hands, the story of siblings Ray, Jean, and Billy is a gut punch of a book. The dysfunction is a deep, dark ell in this book and so is the abuse, but then so is the love. I think I really do need to read it again. I definitely became a fan of Reardon.

Next I read The Mercy Killers.

“It’s hard to think how different their lives would have been if it weren’t for the mess they got themselves into, if it weren’t for that war, if they hadn’t all been so young and stupid and scared.”

In my review of this book I said “Lisa Reardon writes about characters who live in a world vastly different from my own. They are broken-down people whose lives are messy – filled with violence and alcohol and drugs and hopelessness.”

Although I wouldn’t have thought that I would like The Mercy Killers based on its synopsis, I did like it.

Then I read Blameless.

I said: “Blameless is a quiet novel where nothing much happens. Mary is often her own worst enemy, but as her story is pulled back layer by layer and you come to understand all the ways life has kicked her in the teeth, you just want something, anything, good to happen for her. Reardon has a particular gift when it comes to writing broken characters and I really enjoyed my time with Mary, even though, like her previous novels, the story is pretty grim.”

“Oh my God,” she cried. “Oh my God,” with heaving, gasping, snot-filled sobs.

“It’s all right, Sharon.” I pulled y visor down low over my face. People up and down the beach were looking at us. “It has a happy ending.”

Across the board, Reardon’s novels are compelling, dark, potentially triggering and definitely ‘go there’ in ways that might make many readers uncomfortable. But they are also really well-written, heart-wrenching, and compelling. Therefore, although I suspect I will never have the opportunity to buy another book by her, Lisa Reardon is an auto buy author.