In the tradition of Tobias Wolff, James Ellroy and Mary Karr, a stunning memoir of a mother-son relationship that is also the searing, unflinching account of a murder and its aftermath.

In Tombstone, Arizona, September 2001, Debbie St. Germain is found dead in her trailer, apparently murdered by her fifth husband. For her twenty-year-old son, Justin, the tragedy marks the line that separates his world into before and after.

Long after his mother's death is solved, Justin still sleeps with a loaded rifle under his bed. Ultimately, he sets out into the desert landscape of his childhood in an attempt to make sense of the unfathomable. Justin's journey takes him back to the ghost town of Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, to the trailers he and Debbie shared, to the string of stepfathers who were a constant presence in his life. He confronts people from his past and delves into the police records in an attempt to make sense of his mother's life and death. All the while he tries to be the type of man she would have wanted him to be.

Brutally honest and beautifully written, Son of a Gun is a brave, unexpected and unforgettable memoir.

"Justin St. Germain's spectacular memoir... amplified from a tale of personal loss and grief into a parable for our time and nation... Violence is America's fetish and it's St. Germain's bête noire... If the brilliance of Son of a Gun lies in its restraint, its importance lies in the generosity of the author's insights" - New York Times

"An easy, quick read...but only because it's impossible to put down... Son of a Gun is a raw, compelling read that stays with you beyond the last page." - GQ

"Intelligent and compassionate at every step, Justin St. Germain stares down his troubled Tombstone boyhood, from shooting capguns in the shadow of the OK Corral to piecing together his murdered mother's final moments. A searing story bravely told." - author of 'Battleborn'