Winner of the 2012 Reader Views Literary Award for the West-Pacific region, and first runner-up in the Eric Hoffer Book Award for fiction, Black Crow White Lie tells the story of Carson Calley, a thirteen-year-old with the curious ability to heal people. He lives in a variety of Hollywood motels with his alcoholic, fortune-telling mother, Juliette Bravo. She tells him fabricated stories about his past life and his hero father, to keep the boy believing in his great gift-- so that he might rise above his true circumstances. Believing his mother, Carson does become a healer, with the people of Hollywood waiting in long lines to see him. He secretly saves the money he earns from healing in the hopes of visiting his war-hero father's grave in Washington, DC., but just before he leaves, one of Juliette's stories is finally exposed. As Carson wises up to his mother's lies, he is faced with rediscovering who he really is. With the help of some unlikely mentors-- Faris, a tattoo shop owner, and Casper, the albino at the head shop on Sunset Boulevard-- Carson sets out to find his own identity on the provocative and colorful streets of Hollywood.