In his fifth novel, Cheap Ticket to Heaven, Smith opens up the prison gates and looses on the world a pair of natural-born killers that would have made Bonnie and Clyde proud. Jack and Clare are robbers, killers, and lovers. Intelligent and not unregenerate, but very deadly, they cut a bloody swath through the Midwest and South, all the while in search of some higher truths - running existential errands - they can live by and die for. What they find at the end of their journey is a vision of surpassing beauty, and subtle proof that not every criminal must follow the well-trod path to hell.

Log in to favorite or list