Martin, Lee. Break the Skin. New York: Crown Publishers, 2011.

Life is often tough and it’s often unfair, and for the main characters in Lee Martin’s Break the Skin, it’s both. This novel features two separate stories that ultimately overlap toward the end. At the center of one story, set in and around Mt. Gilead, Illinois is 19-year-old Laney Volk.  Laney has a beautiful singing voice that might have taken her places. Unfortunately, a lack of self-confidence coupled with some painful experiences in high school led her to drop out before earning her diploma and take a dead-in job at Wal-mart. In the other story, set in Denton, Texas, tattoo artist Betty “Baby” Ruiz is still hoping to find true love despite being well past thirty and not especially pretty, at least by contemporary standards. Connecting the two stories is Lester Stippe, who at first seems to be little more than an aimless drifter, but ultimately proves to be the most complex character of all.

Laney, Lester, and Baby are all essentially good people. However, it’s the personality flaws of these three characters that, in combination with events beyond their control, drive the plot. In Baby’s case, it’s her hunger for love that complicates her life. There’s also her brother Pablo who is on the run from both the police and a vicious hoodlum named Slam Dent, a former partner in crime who he double crossed. For her part, Laney has a kind heart but also a gullibility as well as a habit of opening her mouth when she should keep it shut. Her kind heart leads her to befriend Delilah Dade and Rose MacAdow, two older women who she meets at Wal-mart and with whom she lives for awhile in a trailer. Trouble arises when Delilah and Rose both set their eyes on the same man — a local rock musician named Russell “Tweet” Swain. Good-hearted Laney does her best to befriend both women, but is never able to quell the rising tension between the two women. Indeed, she gets caught up in the rivalry, and her gullibility plus Delilah’s innuendo lead her to believe that Rose is placing evil spells on her through the use of a voodoo-type poppet.

In the midst of all the drama with Rose and Delilah, Laney starts a relationship with Lester, who she meets  while he’s serving as a part-time “roadie” for Tweet’s band. Lester, too, gets swept into the Delilah-Rose feud over Tweet and eventually comes to agree with Delilah that Rose is casting harmful spells. That leads to a conspiracy among Laney, Lester, and Delilah that has life-changing consequences.

Lester also turns up in Denton in the second part of the story where he meets Baby near her tattoo parlor. Lost and uncertain of his identity, Lester accepts Baby’s explanation that the two of them are married.  So he goes home with her, believing he’s her husband Donnie. Over the next few months, Baby and Lester live essentially as husband and wife, with Lester helping out at Baby’s tattoo business. However, complications arise when Pablo arrives at Baby’s house, needing to avoid the police and come up with a large sum of cash to pay off Slam. Lester gets caught up in that predicament, too, just as Baby begins to seriously wonder just who he really is. Toward the end of the story, we learn how the Rose-Delilah conflict over Tweet resolved itself, and why Lester sometimes can’t remember who he is.

Lee Martin is a master at creating down-to-earth characters who you love in spite of (or even because of) their flaws. That’s certainly the case with Lester, Laney, and Baby, and with two supporting characters: teenage peeping Tom Poke Hambrick and Baby’s friendly-if-nosy neighbor Emma. Even the less-likable Rose and Delilah can generate sympathy if only because of what they’ve been through in the past. You find yourself rooting for these characters even as you suspect their weaknesses coupled with bad luck will ultimately be their undoing.

Martin’s writing is smooth, clear, and rich with imagery. He strengthens his story’s plausibility by making references to current events and popular rock and country-western songs. There are places where the story may give readers more detail than they need, but overall Break the Skin is a thoroughly readable and enjoyable book.