With echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn, Skunktown tells the haunting story of twelve-year-old Lyman Polly, who comes of age in a small New England town during the turbulent summer of 1968. Now an old man on hospice care, Lyman recounts the story to his nurse, finally ready to unburden the " terrible secret" he has carried for more than fifty years. At its center is Maddy Skanks, a brilliant Black girl who opens his eyes to literature, jazz, and the realities of growing up Black in America-- and teaches him, most importantly, to trust his own heart. But in a town shaped by prejudice and fear, their friendship is tested when tragedy strikes. Lyman is quickly named a suspect, and in his desperate search for truth, he steps into a dangerous investigation that will define-- and haunt-- the rest of his life. A gripping coming-of-age mystery about race, memory, and the cost of silence.