Sifting Through Static

By: Ben Tyler Elliott

1968: a girl vanishes near Denver, and he father dies mysteriously. In the aftermath, her estranged brothers learn that loss can come in many forms. Through a discord of interviews, undelivered letters, and transcripts of audio recordings, the survivors sift through the decades of resentment, bitterness, and betrayal that marred their family.

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Book Description

In the winter of 1968, a young woman named Harriet disappears outside of Denver. Soon after, her father dies mysteriously. The family's three remaining sons—Wayne, Roy, and Conrad—grow increasingly distant as the specters of murder, family, and suspicion loom. As the brothers grow older, they learn that loss comes in many forms—in absence and silence, and in death.

Decades later, Wayne's only child confronts the brothers, uncovering long-buried resentments that have plagued the family for generations. We encounter Conrad, an ex-Army alcoholic, the now sober but wheelchair-bound Roy, and an increasingly distant and reclusive Wayne—delirious with the belief that he can create his own history. Profoundly dark and tragically honest, the narrative arranges each brother's testimony into a fractured conversation—one that, were it real, could bring the brothers back together after a lifetime of estrangement.

Through a discord of interviews, undelivered letters, and transcripts of Wayne's compulsive audio recordings, the brothers sift through the layers of resentment, bitterness, and betrayal that marred their adolescence. Each distorted memory brings the narrative closer to the truths of Harriet's disappearance and her father's erratic demise. But memories decay quickly, and the brothers' recollections serve only to expose a darker beast feeding at the heart of the broken family—one shrouded in suspicion and governed by regret.

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