Aftermaths

Walter Harris had been employed by the same large insurance company in the same auditorium-style office since working in the mailroom before his high school graduation. Walter brought his lunch every day in a brown paper bag: two sandwiches he himself prepared, along with an apple. He ate it in his cubicle and kept bottled water there to avoid trips to the water fountain. He left his cubicle only to deliver or obtain the paperwork essential to his task of the moment.

By any account, Walter Harris seemed an unremarkable man — his own opinion was that “he was generally ignored and overlooked by the general and particular population.” So when he opened fire on the congregation of the church, many assumed it to be a random act of violence, perpetuated by someone who was either crazy or evil — few really knew Walter Harris.

In his novel, author Robert McComb (Musings) creates a fascinating tale of lives intertwined and torn apart by the single act of a lonely, often misunderstood, man. There’s Elizabeth, “casually befriended but little noticed;” Sally, who became a widow due to Walter’s shooting rampage; Sam and Mary, a young couple whose marriage is tested after the shootings; Josh, Walter’s much more successful older brother; Harriet and Chastity, Walter’s wife and stepdaughter; George, an ex-military man with a kind heart; and, of course, Walter himself.

McComb’s evocative descriptions and easily recognizable, often piteous, characters make his novel a book that is at once compelling and heartrending. His skillful storytelling and his clever interconnection of disparate characters will immediately engage you and draw you into Walter Harris’s dismal and dysfunctional world.