Slattery’s mother, we learn, was a mulatto slave and his father a white plantation owner. Ben Slattery is light enough to pass, but—at least in his own mind—his skin is darker than those around him. He begins the story as a fairly well-adjusted professional killer, convinced his ill-treatment by his father and other white folks justifies his murderous career. But as the inner self he has constructed begins to unravel, he realizes that excuse doesn’t hold water, and examines himself in a new and unpleasant light. He can be granted amnesty for his crimes, but never for his sins, and starts looking for some measure of redemption.
