The Outskirts Of Redemption

Clayton Trier is the author of The Outskirts of Redemption, his first novel, published by Defiance Press. Clayton was raised in southeast Texas, where this story takes place, and he is proud to call Texas his home. He is a successful businessman and entrepreneur, a previous winner of Houston’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” award. But writing has always been a passion.

His book is a touching and thought-provoking story set in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s. But it’s a timeless coming-of-age story that deals with a topic—a crisis—that’s highly relevant today: the confusion, grief and guilt that adolescent suicide inflicts on the impressionable young friends of the victim. Currently, according to CDC stats, an American between ages 10-24 dies by his/her own hand every 80 minutes. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for this age group.

The Outskirts of Redemption is the story of Buddy Torrence, a 21-year-old, recent college graduate recalling when he was 12 and the events surrounding his best friend’s suicide under unusual and mysterious circumstances. They were seventh-grade classmates at a newly integrated parochial school in Beaumont, Texas.

Buddy is haunted by guilt. He alone knows that he was responsible for his friend’s demise. It’s a chilling and stunning secret he dared not tell anyone back then—not his parents, not the beautiful young psychologist whom he becomes infatuated with, and certainly not the police and school authorities investigating this perplexing case. Nine years of brooding remorse later, he’s finally ready to reveal the truth and seek forgiveness.

Using Buddy’s youthful voice to tell this tragic story provides an interesting perspective. After nine years of holding this secret inside, his biting sarcasm, anxieties about relationships, and convoluted logic can be at times both comic and poignant. His story is told within the backdrop of the politics, social mores, and pop culture of America during the Sixties and Seventies. Today's readers, especially the ever-politically-correct, will roll their eyes and shake their heads as Buddy faces paradoxical quandaries involving racism and school integration in the South; changing sexual mores; cigarette smoking not only accepted, but fashionable; Communism and the Cold War; discrimination against women in the workplace; homophobia; and the Catholic Church’s harsh condemnation of suicide as a mortal sin.

Finally, The Outskirts of Redemption is a touching father/son story. Buddy’s father, a highly perceptive, hard-working man of few words, believes that being “a man” means holding your emotions in check like John Wayne would do. How he interacts with his young son during this emotionally-charged time could mean the difference in Buddy’s own survival.

Clayton is not just a successful author, but also enjoys taking time for family and friends as well as golf, reading and getting involved in charitable and community service projects. He is a devoted husband and father, a proud Texan, and a big fan of classic rock music having invested in and worked within the music business from 2005-09 when it was making the conversion to digital format.

Come along on this emotional ride into the Sixties and Seventies, a fascinating time filled with remarkable social changes, and see what secrets lie at The Outskirts of Redemption.