Book excerpt: Leroy Chester grows up in a small Oklahoma town knowing his mama is sad. She is all he has in the world, and he just wants her to be happy. When he turns eighteen, he embarks on a three-month journey from train to train with the hope of finding the only man she has ever loved. But when he fails and returns home, his mother is nowhere to be found. Two days later, he finds his mothers lifeless body next to the chicken coop, the victim of murder. Left distraught and without answers as to who killed his mama, Leroy drowns his troubles in whiskey. But it is not long before he determines it is Al Jenkins, his mothers ex-boyfriend, who murdered her. After he kills Jenkins in a fit of rage, he flees on the trainonly to meet up with his mothers great love, John. Before he knows it, Leroy ends Johns life too. Now on the run, Leroy lays low until fate leads him to what he hopes is a new beginning in Arkansas. The Man on the Train is the story of one mans journey from childhood into adulthood as he attempts to put a tragic, violent past behind him and start anew.