New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. First edition - The author's first novel, set in a fictitous East Texas town dominated by the state penitentiary - the story of two boyfriends - Hadrian Coleman, a convicted murderer at age 15, and Sonny Hope, the prison director. "After 15 years, Hadrian kills yet again and then miraculously escapes confinement, he and Sonny start an entirely new sort of cat-and-mouse game: Sonny pardons him, Hadrian returns to Shepherdsville, and a chilling game of who-owes-what-to-whom ensues. Draper masterfully unveils the petty politics and small-town intrigue of a town dominated by a correctional facility. The book's greatest strength, however, is the fraught interplay between Hadrian and Sonny, who move as though caught in each other's orbit. It's Hadrian's story in the end, though, as he struggles to see if he's more than what Sonny has created--and more than he himself thought." (review by Ben Guterson) 326 pp.