Hadrian's Walls

Robert Draper strives to transcend the crime genre in this tale of homicide, guilt, and redemption in a corrupt Texas prison town. But he can't overcome his cliched plot in Hadrian's Walls: Boyhood friends from opposite sides of the tracks share a homicidal past and a love for the same soulless rich girl. Contrived and slack where it should be wrenching and taut, Draper's affected prose dissipates the initially promising voice of his ex-con narrator. A frustrating read that, despite its violent redneck milieu, doesn't pack a wallop. C-