Blackbird

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

A dark, biting literary debut for fans of Caroline Kepnes following the unlikely bond between two sociopaths—and the destruction left in their wake. When I was eight years old, I was abducted from a fast food restaurant by a man who took me, in all likelihood, because of a small splotch of mayonnaise on his hamburger. And so I believe in neither free will nor predetermination. I believe in condiments. A cold-blooded killer-for-hire, Edison North drifts across America from city to city, crime scene to crime scene, leaving behind a world in flames. But during a random bloodbath at a fast food restaurant, Edison meets Christian, a young girl who mirrors his own vacant stare and stink of other. Though it's been a long time since he felt anything resembling a human connection, something about this desperately lonely child calls to him. Edison feels certain she deserves better. And while he is not convinced that he can give her that, he can make her stronger. So begin the chronicles of Edison North—and his protégé.As Edison begins Christian's strange apprenticeship, Christian looks back upon her fractured upbringing and the training that made her into the killer she's become. What follows is a brilliant—and ultimately tender—character study of two outsiders whose improbably forged bond unleashes a new facet of the human experience between them—and a jagged slash of violence on the world around them.