Wilderness by B.E. Jones

320 Pages

You can buy Wilderness...Here

You can find out more about Beverley Jones...Here

• The Blurb...

Shattered by the discovery of her husband's affair, Liv knows they need to leave the chaos of New York to save their marriage. Maybe the road trip they'd always planned, exploring America's national parks - just the two of them - would help heal the wounds.

But what Liv hasn't told her husband is that she has set him three challenges on their trip - three opportunities to prove he's really sorry.

If he fails? Well, it's dangerous out there in the wilderness; accidents happen all the time.

And if it's easy to die, then it's also easy to kill.

• Our Review...

This novel was previously known as "The Perfect Break"

Forgive me for comparing and contrasting this novel to (at the moment) more famous narratives. However, I think the three stories I compare Wilderness to, help to throw a little light on the book and especially on the character of Liv. Anyway as comparisons go Psycho, Dexter and The Talented Mr Ripley are pretty heady company.

A bold and intriguing book. What starts as a domestic thriller gradually morphs into an account of slightly off kilter personality. Is she our hero, anti-hero or just plain villain. Or possibly a subtle blend of all three.

The story follows a similar progression to Hitchcock's Psycho, in that in following a path from an everyday mundane  crime, in our case the crime was a love affair, we slowly discover a terrifying personality who dominates the story. In addition in Psycho, it is not the plot that we remember so much but more the character of Norman Bates. For Norman see Olivia. So, in large part this novel is a character study, and what a study it is. Liv is a multi-faceted and  deeply flawed character. We see the world through the prism of Liv's morality. 

Liv is a an unreilable narrator and is on the road to being a sociopath. The character reminded me of elements of The Talented Mr Ripley and Dexter. However Liv's main driver is not the yearning for financial security and belonging to the upper strata of society as is the case with a Tom Ripley. Or just straight out blood lust as with Dexter. Liv's driver is an overwhelming need to be loved and give love in return. It is her raison d'Etre. She strongly believes in the principles of honesty and integrity but will gladly toss them aside in pursuit of her ultimate goal, and pick them up again when her task is complete.  To her the ends absolutely justify the means.

The novel is written in the first person, it's probably the most first person book that I have ever read and it 100% suits the narrative. The other characters do not stand out as much as Liv. How could they when we see them through Liv's eyes and their lives are  just not as important as hers. They are bit part character actors in the story of her life and more importantly her love. While reading I was reminded of the inner monologues of Dexter Morgan who could justify his own actions through his warped view of the world. I found myself looking out at the world from the psyche of Liv, reading in a self aware female version of Dexter.

This book has been on my TBR for a long while now but I have held off as a Amazon Prime TV series of the Wilderness is soon to be aired. It will star Jenna Coleman of Doctor Who fame. She will play the part of Liv. And what a part it is. She is vulnerable, tough, loving, fierce and relentless. A part to kill for?

Fascinating read, psychologist's dream. Oh and I'm never going on holiday ever again. ever!

• Selected Quotes...

"I’d given up on being romanced and spoiled for so long, in exchange for something more genuine. Except it wasn’t, was it? When it all came crashing down. When I found out about the affair and realised I’d got neither gestures nor loyalty, romance nor fidelity. I’d thought it was an either- or deal. Turned out it was a neither- nor."

"But survival is a funny thing, a base instinct; I didn’t really want to plunge onto the pavement, a posthumous plea for pity, I just wanted to not feel that way any more, broken and beaten, lost and discarded. So, after a cold and frozen minute, I got down. I knew it didn’t have to be me whose life was snuffed out"

"Still, I realise now that people don’t often think of themselves as the villain of their own story. No matter how selfish or deluded they are. Will hadn’t when he’d cheated on me."

"the illusion of desirability is everything. She’d known that and used it, known that men rarely like you for who you are, instead turning a mirror to face them."

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Love You Gone by Louise Mullins (Click Here for our review)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

• About The Author..

Beverley Jones is a former journalist and police press officer, now a novelist and general book obsessive.

Bev was born in a small village in the South Wales valleys, north of Cardiff. She started her journalism career with Trinity Mirror newspapers, writing stories for The Rhondda Leader and The Western Mail, before becoming a broadcast journalist with BBC Wales Today TV news, based in Cardiff.

She has worked on all aspects of crime reporting (as well as community news and features) producing stories and content for newspapers and live TV.

Most recently Bev worked as a press officer for South Wales Police, dealing with the media and participating in criminal investigations, security operations and emergency planning.

Perhaps unsurprisingly she channels these experiences of 'true crime,' and her insight into the murkier side of human nature, into her dark, psychological thrillers set in and around South Wales.

Her latest novels, Where She Went, Halfway and Wilderness, are published by Little Brown under the name BE Jones. Wilderness has recently been optioned for a six part TV adaptation by Firebird Pictures. Her seventh novel, The Beach House, is due for release in June 2021 under the name Beverley Jones.

Chat with her on Goodreads.co.uk under B E Jones or Beverley Jones and on Twitter and Instagram @bevjoneswriting

Bev is represtented by The Ampersand Agency.

(from amazon.com)

I am Legend by Richard Matheson

 

176 Pages

You can buy I am Legend...Here

You can find out more about Richard Matheson...Here

This review is by...Owen Powell 

• The Blurb...

Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ... but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood.

By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn.

How long can one man survive like this?

• Our Review

The world has fallen. Lost long ago to a supernatural, nightmarish scourge that has all but devastated humanity, leaving in its wake one sole survivor. Robert Neville is the last human on Earth, fighting to live in the midst of a harrowing vampiric apocalypse. Every single night outside his house, blood-sucking creatures prowl in the darkness, clawing at his door, begging, screaming for Neville to come out. Neville, however, is a very cautious individual, a trait that has no doubt aided in his prolonged survival. The doors and windows are boarded, garlic cloves hang upon his walls, a mirror displays on the front door, and an assortment of wooden stakes lie at his disposal should he need them. Having survived liked this for so long now, Neville has grown accustomed to the vampires. He knows their tricks, their needs, what affects them and what doesn’t affect them. He knows, for example, that in the day, they retreat into abandoned buildings to seek shelter from the blistering sunlight. This is when the roles switch, and Neville becomes the hunter instead. 

Having never seen the movies, but also being very intrigued by the concept, I was very eager to read this book. It starts off strongly by showing rather than telling. We see how well Neville has adjusted to his role as the sole survivor by witnessing the practices that have kept him alive for so long. We experience the internal conflicts of a man devoid of all human interaction, subjected to hiding from and slaying vampires for the rest of his life. In fact, it seems that Neville’s greatest enemy is not the vampires themselves, but his own mind instead. He argues with and berates himself constantly, almost doubting every single thought he has. He drinks often to drown out the intrusive, internal-criticisms, as well as to forget the tragedies of his past. The writing is very eloquent, at times the narrative blends fluently into Neville’s own thoughts, giving the reader a better understanding of who he is and how he thinks. The exciting scenes are nail-bitingly enticing, I found myself fully immersed in the danger more than once. Unfortunately, I found these excellent scenes of tension to be few and far between.

For a book about the last man in a vampire apocalypse, it is somewhat uneventful. In fact, in this story, I can comfortably say that Robert Neville spends considerably more time THINKING about vampires rather than killing them or running from them. There is a large section in the middle of the book where he tries to learn more about how the vampires came to be, and for me this was kind of a slog to get through. It was kind of interesting but also not really. I felt such lost potential for some exciting vampire-filled escapades during these sections, but for a lot of this book, nothing REALLY happens. This isn’t to say that nothing happens at all, like I mentioned before there are some exciting scenes and a few plot twists, but most of this book I unfortunately found somewhat droning. 

Despite all this, I believe that I Am Legend is still worth a read. If not for the terrifying aspect of a vampire apocalypse, then to experience how the last man on earth tries desperately to hold his mind together. 

• Selected Quotes...

‘A man could get used to anything if he had to.’

‘Then he stood in the dark kitchen, eyes tightly shut, teeth clenched, hands clamped over his ears. Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone!’

‘Why not? His mind plodded on. Why go through all this complexity when a flung-open door and a few steps would end it all?’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

Cell by Stephen King

The Strain by Guillermo del Torro

• About The Author...

Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926, in Allendale, New Jersey. After his parents, Norwegian immigrants, Bertolf and Fanny divorced, his mother took him to Brooklyn, New York, where he attended school. After graduating high school at Brooklyn Technical High School, he spent time in the United States Army during World War II. When he returned home, Richard earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, in 1949. After finishing his degree, Richard settled in California. There he became a screenwriter, specializing in fantasy, horror, and science fiction.

One of the television shows he wrote for was "Twilight Zone". The iconic episode, "Nightmare at 2000 ft." was written by Richard. The opening and closing statements recited by Rod Sterling were his work, too. He also wrote Duel, which was the first movie made by Steven Spielberg.

After Richard became a novelist, many of his books were turned into movies, including "I Am Legend", which was made into a movie three times. "The Shrinking Man", "Hell House", "What Dreams May Come", and "A Stir of Echoes" were all books written by Richard that later became movies. Another of his books, "Bid Time Return", was made into the movie, "Somewhere in Turn".

In the 1950's and 1960's Richard was a member of a society of writers called the Southern California Sorcerers. Other members included Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan and Jerry Sohl. In 1973 Richard won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for a teleplay he wrote for the "Night Stalker". In 1984 was given the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, also the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Horror Writer's Association. In 2010 Richard was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

In 1952 Richard married Ruth Ann Woodson. Three of their four children, Richard Christian, and Chris and Ali followed in their father's footsteps and became writers. In 2013, Richard Matheson died quietly in his home, surrounded by friends and family. At his death, he was eighty-seven years old.

Stephen King dedicated his book, "Cell", to Richard Matheson. Listing him as his creative influence. George A. Romero said that his iconic movie, "Night of the Living Dead", was influenced by Richard's book, "I Am Legend". After reading "A Dress of White Silk" written by Richard, Anne Rice was influenced in writing her vampire and fantasy novels.

"Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories and gave me my first break when he wrote the short story and screenplay for Duel. His Twilight Zones were among my favorites, and he recently worked with us on "Real Steel". For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov" Steven Spielberg.

Richard Matheson was a well loved and well respected writer. A genius of science fiction and fantasy, his work has become some of the most influential of all the writers in his genres in history.

(from bookreports.info)

The Street Lawyer by John Grisham

 

370 Pages

You can buy The Street Lawyer...Here

You can follow John Grisham...Here

This review is by...Owen Powell 

• The Blurb...

Michael Brock is a man in the fast lane.

He's a rising star at Drake & Sweeney, a giant Washington law firm. No time to waste, no time to toss a few coins to beggars. No time for a conscience.

Until the day a man takes several lawyers hostage at his firm, shouting about an eviction. Police snipers shoot the hostage taker dead, but Brock feels compelled to investigate.

What he discovers is a shocking violation of the rights of the homeless on the city streets, with Drake & Sweeney up to its neck in it, and suddenly his conscience begins to stir. But to do the right thing, he might have to steal his own firm's secrets...

• Our Review...

The Street Lawyer is far more than just your typical legal thriller. At it’s core, this is a heartfelt story about poverty, morality and humanity. Following a traumatising encounter within his big, fancy law-firm, lawyer Michael Brock is forced to alter his perspective on… well, everything. As he pursues a mysterious case of improper eviction, Brock immerses himself into the world of D.C’s homeless populace, and witnesses first-hand the tribulations they face every day. Eventually, Brock’s morality outweighs his materialism and he pledges himself to aid the homeless in their abounding legal matters. In doing so, he leaves behind all of the great comforts of his old life - his job, his salary, even his wife! In this new life, Brock is determined to write some of the wrongs conducted by his old firm by helping those in need, instead of once helping those with greed. 

This story starts off strong by throwing the reader right into a nail-biting scene of tension. For these first few pages, I felt compelled to read on, eager to find out the outcome. Unfortunately, this was probably the most exciting part of the story, but we’ll get to that later. The characters in this book are credible and easy to visualise. In my head I cast Bob Odenkirk as the protagonist, for no other reason than he plays a lawyer in the hit series Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. He was perfectly cast in those series as he is in this story too, if I do say so myself. 

However, if I were to pick one flaw within this book, it would be that nothing much exciting happens after those first few pages. This is a very slow-paced, grounded story that strives to be as realistic as it can be. However, I have the attention span of a small child and sometimes I found this book to be a bit of a slog to get through. There are a handful of interesting scenes throughout, but that’s about it, just like real life I suppose. I realise for some people the super realistic nature of these kinds of stories are something they would enjoy, and if that’s you then this is definitely the book for you. Everything else about it was great.

Overall this book does get a  recommendation from me. It’s well-written, heartfelt, thought-provoking and (if you’re into it) extremely realistic. Certainly one of the better books I’ve read so far.

This book is also very well-written, Grisham does not dwell on insignificant details, keeping the literature super simple and engaging to read, which I found to be quite refreshing. All-in-all this is a strong, thought-provoking story that I implore pretty much everyone to read at some point.

• Selected Quotes...

"Like every med student in the country, she had begun her studies vowing that money was not the attraction. She wanted to help humanity. Same for law students. We all lied."

‘We really need able bodies down here. The shelters and soup kitchens are packed, and we don’t have enough volunteers.’

‘I’m not sure I’m qualified.’

‘Can you spread peanut butter on bread?’

‘I think so.’

‘Then you’re qualified.’

"They would soon become my clients, and I would threaten and litigate with a vengeance until they had adequate housing. I couldn’t wait to sue somebody.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Devil's Advocate by Steve Cavanagh (see our review...Here)

The Reckoning by John Grisham (see our review...Here)

Post Mortem by Gary Bell QC (see our review...Here)

• About The Author...

John Grisham is the author of forty-seven consecutive #1 bestsellers, which have been translated into nearly fifty languages. His recent books include The Judge’s List, Sooley, and his third Jake Brigance novel, A Time for Mercy, which is being developed by HBO as a limited series.

Grisham is a two-time winner of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction and was honored with the Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction.

When he’s not writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and of Centurion Ministries, two national organizations dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. Much of his fiction explores deep-seated problems in our criminal justice system.

John lives on a farm in central Virginia.

(from jgrisham.com)

Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray

337 Pages

You can buy Two Storm Wood...Here

You can follow Philip Gray...Here

• The Blurb...

1919. On the desolate battlefields of northern France, the guns of the Great War are silent. Special battalions now face the dangerous task of gathering up the dead for mass burial.

Captain Mackenzie, a survivor of the war, cannot yet bring himself to go home. First he must see that his fallen comrades are recovered and laid to rest. His task is upended when a gruesome discovery is made beneath the ruins of a German strongpoint.

Amy Vanneck's fiancé is one soldier lost amongst many, but she cannot accept that his body may never be found. She heads to France, determined to discover what became of the man she loved.

It soon becomes clear that what Mackenzie has uncovered is a war crime of inhuman savagery. As the dark truth leaches out, both he and Amy are drawn into the hunt for a psychopath, one for whom the atrocity at Two Storm Wood is not an end, but a beginning.

• Our Review...

I chose this book to read after seeing it on Between The Covers on the BBC. It sounded like the cut of my gib, not least because, like most people, I had family that served in the Great War. Most notably at the 1st battle of Ypres, and Cambrai (at which my grandfather was severely injured.) When you have family involved in a setting for a novel it feels more significant and relevant to yourself. I believe the modern phrase is that you "have skin in the game." In addition my favourite autobiography is Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves (author of I, Claudius) which deals extensively with the horrors of The Great War.

The most bloody war in history is over and Amy, our protagonist, has gone to the now silent but none-the-less still horrific killing fields of France to find the body of her fiance and bring him home to rest. Amy is riddled with guilt about why Edward (a pacifist) signed up in the first place and that is why she feels compelled to break out of the patriarchal norms of polite society and get so deeply involved in the search. It is only when she enters shattered battlegrounds she realises things are not what they seem and something is wrong, very wrong.

There are two main attributes to this book. The first part is the intriguing mysteries. Who committed the atrocity at Two Storm Wood? (an old dugout in an abandoned trench.) What happened to Amy's fiance Edward? Will she be able to find his body and return it to England so that he may rest in peace?

The second attribute is the other star of the narrative, which is of course the setting. Both are really well done. A twisty plot with characters you want to find out more about. A growing sense of impending doom slowly develops throughout the book. It all adds to an engaging novel.

For me the highlight was the prose that captured the both the physical environment of a post apocalyptic landscape and the prevailing socio-political situations of the era and how they impact on peoples lives (see selected quotes)

Absolute belter of a book. Good to read around around Armistice Day, perhaps in conjunction with our other picks (see below.)

• Selected Quotes...

"They looked Amy up and down as she passed, as if trying to assess her value or her price". 

"Never had the privilege of commanding Captain Haslam– though I understand he was an outstanding officer.’ An outstanding officer. The phrase was a standard ingredient of military condolence. Dead officers were all outstanding. Mediocrity was the preserve of survivors."

"He read out loud: ‘Some have power by right of birth, which is no right, but deference and cowardice make it so. Others buy their way to power...... ‘Few are those whose spirit has been forged by war: chieftains, who gather men to their banners as naturally as the swarm to the hive. In time of war they are feared more than the enemy by those who rule us.’

‘Still, the prospect of life among civilians is almost as daunting. Once war has opened a man’s eyes, he can never close them again, no matter how hard he tries.’

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Goodbye To All That by Robert Graves

All Quiet On The Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque ( Click Here for our review.)

The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West

• About The Author...

Philip studied modern history at Cambridge University, and went on to work as a journalist in Madrid, Rome and Lisbon. He has tutored in crime writing at City University in London and serves as a director at an award-winning documentary film company, specialising in science and history. He lives in London.

Gray, under the pseudonym of Patrick Lynch, is the coauthor of six thrillers that have sold over a million copies worldwide. He published, as Philip Sington, Zoia's Gold, The Einstein Girl, and The Valley of Unknowing.

Philip's grandfather was a captain in the Lancashire Fusiliers and fought through the First World War. Years after his death, Philip came across a trench maps and military documents that his grandfather had kept, and in which he had recorded the events that befell his unit. Based on this information, Philip was inspired to write his thriller Two Storm Wood.

(from bookbrowse.com)

Bloody January by Alan Parks

337 Pages

You Can Buy Bloody January...Here

You Can Follow Alan Parks...Here

• The Blurb...

When a teenage boy shoots a young woman dead in the middle of a busy Glasgow street and then commits suicide, Detective Harry McCoy is sure of one thing. It wasn't a random act of violence.

With his new partner in tow, McCoy uses his underworld network to lead the investigation but soon runs up against a secret society led by Glasgow's wealthiest family, the Dunlops.

McCoy's boss doesn't want him to investigate. The Dunlops seem untouchable. But McCoy has other ideas . . .

In a helter-skelter tale – winding from moneyed elite to hipster music groupies to the brutal gangs of the urban wasteland – Bloody January brings to life the dark underbelly of 1970s Glasgow and introduces a dark and electrifying new voice in Scottish noir.

• My Review...

I selected this book after seeing Alan Parks on the Scottish Bookclub TV show and thinking what a character. Would like to have a few pints with the rough and ready raconteur.

Bloody January is a grim and gritty police thriller set in the urban wastelands of Glasgow in the 1970s. Think of a cross between Get Carter and Tagget. 

The prose is pared down and straight forward as befits both the tale and the background of the unforgiving and unloving city. Hard boiled just doesn't cover it.

The gangsters rob, cheat, steal beat people up, and so do the Police. The only difference is the Police they lie about it. The gangsters and police know each other well and are in a symbiotic relationship. Especially our prostitute visiting, drug taking protagonist Harry McCoy. His best mate is Stevie Collins the biggest wrong un in Glasgow. Is Harry mining Stevie for information or has Stevie got Harry in his pocket?

The writer does a good job of evoking the squalor and toughness of life in early 1970s Glasgow in both the human characters and the character of the city itself.

Then as now, and probably forever, the rich are the most corrupt of all but never seem to suffer any consequences for their actions. Harry rails against this and decides that just this one time that is not going happen. They wont get away with it. He knows he has a huge battle on his hands battling the underworld and his bosses and that's before he can confront the immensely wealthy and powerful Dunlop family.

Enjoyable gritty 70s period police novel.

• Selected Quotes...

He only had two speeds, Murray. Shouting, which meant he was annoyed, and talking quietly, which meant he was about to get annoyed.

bookshops, pubs full of hairy students and lecturers talking about Marxism and the struggle of the working classes. Might have talked more sense if they’d ever met a member of the working classes, but that wasn’t going to happen up here. They couldn’t afford the price of the drink.

The internal walls of the factory had been knocked down, making a room the size of a couple of tennis courts. There were wee fires burning, groups of people round them, couple of dogs wandering about. He heard laughing behind him, turned as a woman emerged from the darkness. She was nude, fat body pale in the flickering light. She was wiping a towel between her legs with one hand, swigging cider from a bottle with the other. She approached the line of elderly men ranged along the back wall, nodded at one and he got up and followed her back into the darkness.

He made a run for it, got in the unmarked Viva and slammed the door. He started the engine up and the radio came on. ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’ suddenly filling the steamed- up car. He swore, turned the dial, Rod Stewart, ‘Maggie May’. Much better.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin

Laidlaw by William McIlvanney

• About the Author...

First thing I remember is zooming round our concrete back yard on my plastic trike then a bluebottle landed on my arm. Cue hysteria. Things continued much in this vein for a good few years.

I went to The University of Glasgow and studied Moral Philosophy. Unsurprisingly I remember very little of it. After that I was unemployed for a year or so and watched the entire contents of our local video shop. Two films a day for two pounds.

Then I started working in a music management company for a while.I wasn’t very good at it. Then I was asked to go and work at London Records which I did. There I commissioned music videos and artwork and photography. Then London sort of became Warners and I did the same thing there. I worked with some very good artists. New Order. The Streets. All Saints. Enya.

I started writing a book about social housing in post-war Glasgow which somehow became a crime novel set in 1973. That was Bloody January. I put it in a drawer for a while and went off to shoot cast interviews and b-roll on a film called Che directed by Steven Soderberg. I wasn’t very good at that either but it meant I went to Mexico and Spain and Cuba.

When I came back my friend John Niven, now a successful novelist and no longer a partner in crime at London Records, suggested I wrote a novel. I told him I had and I gave him Bloody January. He gave it to his agent who didn’t like it. That was the end of that I thought but he gave it to his friend Sarah Pinborough who liked it and gave it to another agent who also liked it. They suggested I go and see Canongate. I liked them and they liked me so I signed a deal.

Bloody January got published and did quite well so I wrote February’s Son and then Bobby March Will Live Forever. They also got published in various other countries translated into things like Blutiger Januar and Il Figlio Di Febbraio.

I also write things for TV and film, none of which ever seem to get made. So I now spend most of my time thinking up various horrible scenarios in the early seventies. I also walk a lot. That is the story of my life.

(from alanparks.co.uk)

Polar by T.R. Pearson

 

256 pages

You can buy Polar...Here

You can find out more about T.R. Pearson...Here

• The Blurb...

In their search for a missing toddler, Deputy Ray Tatum and his sometime girlfriend, Kit Carson, deal with an array of small-town foibles, follies, and characters in a story that stretches from Virginia to Antarctica. By the author of Blue Ridge

• My Review

Read this book after seeing recommended by the actor Peter Davidson of Doctor Who and All Creatures Great And Small fame on the TV show Between The Covers.

Curious book this one. On the surface, the plot is a simple one. A old redneck semi-pervert undergoes a sort of mental breakdown and develops a gift for prophesy that is an enigma to decipher. The local plod, laconic Ray Tatum, thinks that the backwoods nostradamus is dropping hints about a little girl that went missing a few years ago. And, well that's it. Our Gary Cooper/ James Stewart type hero doesn't go from clue to clue methodically unravelling a dastardly plot.

This book is more an examination of rust belt America and all the good and bad involved in it. It put the locals often comic lifestyles and attitudes up to a satirical mirror. 

What the author does have is a style all of his own. He does use two methods I found annoying. Instead of using the phrase " a man named Jones" he uses "a Jones" or "that Jones"  He uses this on numerous occasions for numerous people. Secondly he uses the word "evermore" in dialogue to mean anymore or forever. I would hazard a guess that these are colloquialisms from the area that he is writing about.

The storyline often wanders off on detours but never for too long before rejoining the narrative thread. Many of these sojourns are pointless but nonetheless often chuckle inducing. As I was reading along, due to the idiosyncratic writing I could not help myself. I just had to read in the style of the narrator voice over in the Dukes of Hazzard. Read the selected quotes and you'll see what I mean. It is very...American.

An interesting book but more for the unusual writing style rather than the story arc.

The style is laid back, verbose, socio-politically informed and darkly comic.

Glad I read it but don't know if I would be tempted to read another in the series.

• Selected Quotes

"Even as a younger woman, that Bolick was prone to be peevish and ill, but here in her golden years she has settled into accomplished sour displeasure which she sustains with an admirable rigor and impeccable thoroughness."

"That Gullick was merely a type that Ray had seen too awful much of by then— a citizen in the sorry latter- day American vein. He was staunchly opinionated and pretty exhaustively misinformed, got all of his news off the television where they’d rather be first than right and don’t so much own up to mistakes anymore as rework and improve them until, in any given moment, almost anything might be true."

"We’ve few black people about in the uplands, no people much of any dusky hue. There’s a black fellow out by Afton who finishes cement and a little nut- colored woman up by the salvage yard in a trailerhome. Mostly because we don’t know how else to go about it, we tend to talk to them like they’re simple, or at least not the sorts of people we like to think ourselves to be."

"Then, of course, there was his dog as well, an ancient mongrel named Monroe. She was sullen and unfriendly, greasy, matted and vaporish in a grand and foully intrusive sort of way. She broke treacherous wind, that is to say, with a kind of ceremony. She would still herself and hunker and tauten, and there would come upon her features an expression of devout concentration as if she were running the figures to reconcile the national debt in her head."

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Raylan by Elmore Lenoard

• About The Author...

Thomas Reid Pearson is an American writer born in 1956 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Pearson was a student at North Carolina State University, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. in English. He went on to teach at Peace College in Raleigh, North Carolina. He started work on a Ph.D. in Pennsylvania but soon returned to North Carolina, where he worked as a carpenter and a housepainter while he began writing his first two novels, A Short History of a Small Place and Off for the Sweet Hereafter. Neither was published until 1985, when he moved to New York City, where both books were issued by Linden Press.

His novels are set in the South, in the imaginary small town of Neely, near Winston–Salem, or, in his recent novels, in the Appalachian areas of Virginia, where he now lives. His writing captures a uniquely Southern social order, outlook, and voice and has been compared to the work of Mark Twain and William Faulkner.

Perhaps most notable in Pearson’s style is his writing as if he were capturing a back-porch discussion of events, which leads to long sentences and paragraphs. His vivid humor is woven throughout his writing.

A Short History of a Small Place, Off for the Sweet Hereafter, The Last of How It Was, Cry Me a River, Polar and Blue Ridge were New York Times Notable Books.

Pearson also collaborated with John Grisham on early drafts of the screenplays for The Rainmaker (1997) and Runaway Jury (1998), films based on two of Grisham’s novels.

Pearson is married and lives in Virginia.