In "Outbound Train", Renea Winchester takes the reader on a journey into a small town, during a simpler time. But don't let that description let you get too complacent: hurtful things happened to innocent people 50 years ago, just as they do today. The wounds went just as deep then as they do now, left the same kind of scars, required the same kind of care, and carried the same hope of redemption, as similar events in modern life (or in bigger cities). In other words, "Outbound Train" has a particular setting, but the story is a universal and relatable one. Winchester's novel begins with a pretty difficult-to-read act of violence, then explores the c onsequences of that violence in the lives of the victim, Barbara, and her family members. Beyond that fateful night, and the enormous changes that it brought into the life of Barbara, the book describes a certain hopelessness that can set in to residents of the town of Bryson City, North Carolina. Perhaps ...