after the sudden death of her mother joss ryckman finds herself running away from everythingthe life she did not choose of managing the family bakery in brooklyn the troubled relationship with her sometimes violent father and her conflicts with wyatt a lover who always wants more but when she flees to the country farm of her childhood in upstate new york will she finally find the truth of dark events in her familys past or will all that she has held at bay for twenty years come crashing down as joss comes to terms with her loss she is forced to confront memories of a childhood steeped in both joy and sorrow as the past seeps in through the rich farmland and the landscape of the treacherous churning stony kill piecing together the broken past and her familys dysfunction the dark secrets of a family submerged in a history of violence and regret begin to take shape and the reality of two brutal killings can no longer be denied joss must make her own choices and ultimately let gorich with beautiful language and immersed in powerful descriptions of josss feelings stony kill tells a powerful story of the heartbreak and suffering from violent acts of a dysfunctional family and ultimately her hope and choice of a better life