Snow falls softly over a desolate playground. A fourteen-year-old boy lays face down in front of a swing-set as his life drains out of the gaping wound in his head. Behind him stands his best friend, a warm gun in his trembling hand. When children commit horrible crimes, who bears responsibility? And what does it do to us all when we allow ourselves to view children as monsters? At the center of this gut-wrenching story are the lost children: those we fail to catch before they fall between the cracks – whether due to negligence, poverty, or social alienation. The single mothers, the grocer in the town square, the local cop – no one is left untouched in a society where the escalating violence is taking over struggling fringe communities.
