Nitro Mountain

Set in a bitterly benighted, mine-polluted corner of Virginia, Nitro Mountain follows a group of people bound together by alcohol, small-time crime, and music. There’s Leon, a hapless bass player who can embroil himself in trouble just by getting out of bed in the morning. And his would-be girlfriend, Jennifer, who’s living with Arnett, the town’s most dangerous thug – and hoping Leon will help her poison him. And there’s Arnett himself, a psychopath for the ages – albeit so charming and deranged, so strikingly authentic, that he arrests the listener’s attention and holds it fast. His mirror image, a singer-songwriter named Jones, has his own moral issues, though at least he’s trying to be a good man.
– Publisher’s summary