Bakerton

This small rural Pennsylvania town is the primary setting throughout the novel. Located just over an hour from Pittsburgh, Bakerton was founded during an oil discovery and later thrived as a coal mining town. However, after the mines closed, hundred of residents were out of work with few other options. The town boasts a bar, a few restaurants, a Walmart, and a library, but has little else by way of commercial industry. When Deer Run Correctional Facility opened, decades after the mines closed, 500 hopeful residents applied for 65 positions. Other residents operate farms with varying levels of success. When Dark Elephant comes to town offering payments for land leases, many of the less successful farmers jump at this chance.

The Devlin Farm

The Devlin farm is 60 acres of hills, woods, and fallow fields off the Colonel Drake Highway, on the Number Nine Road. Previously, Rich Devlin’s grandfather Hank...