Pickard County Atlas

In a dusty town in Nebraska’s rugged sandhills, sheriff’s deputy Harley Jensen patrols the streets at night, on the lookout for something to take his mind off the past, which weighs him down like an anvil. And he’s not the only one—Pickard County is full of restless souls looking for change.

Pam bristles against her role as wife and mother, hemmed in by the tragic history of the Reddick family, which is still coping, decades later, with the murder of one of its own. Her husband, Rick, bows beneath the pressures of raising a family while struggling with the wreckage of his youth. And then there’s Paul, the youngest Reddick, town miscreant and flint to Harley’s steel—and in this stark, Shakespearean drama, it’s just a matter of time until their conflict throws the spark that will burn Pickard County to the ground. Unfolding over six tense days, Chris Harding Thornton’s Pickard County Atlas sets Harley and the Reddicks on a collision course, propelling them toward an incendiary moment that will either redeem or end them.

About the Author

Chris Harding Thornton, a seventh-generation Nebraskan, holds an MFA from the University of Washington and a PhD from the University of Nebraska, where she has taught courses in literature and writing. Her other professions have included quality assurance overseer at a condom factory, jar-lid screwer at a plastics plant, closer at Burger King, record store clerk, all-ages club manager, and PR writer. Pickard County Atlas is her first novel.