Fantastic read! Fairly sure this will be on many “best of” lists for 2021.
This book is a historical coming of age mystery that deals with family dysfunction and the horrors of war, especially for soldiers returning from war. In this story the war is the horrific Vietnam War. I wasn’t alive then but have seen many news stories and many movies over the years ( as well as being the child of Baby Boomers) detailing the time period and believe Mr Hart does an excellent job making you feel like you are in 1972. You can feel the anger, fear, indecision, and worries of Jason, Gibby, and the other characters. There were some parallels in the story and time period that correlate to our world and the current events of today.
Gibby French is the youngest of 3 sons, one of which died in Vietnam and the other returned a damaged man. This book is about Gibby growing up and realizing the world is a complicated place with a gruesome murder, Death Row, a biker gang, and more within its pages.
If you are a fan of John Hart’s previous novels or the literary mysteries of Tana French, William Kent Krueger or Louise Penny I highly recommend this novel.
The only complaint I had and once you get deeper into the story you realize why, is the beginning is a bit slow and takes a bit to get to the point of the story but by the end you realize the time spent on getting to know the characters sets up the rest of the book. I sped thru the last 100 pages to get to the end, which was very rewarding.
This book is a historical coming of age mystery that deals with family dysfunction and the horrors of war, especially for soldiers returning from war. In this story the war is the horrific Vietnam War. I wasn’t alive then but have seen many news stories and many movies over the years ( as well as being the child of Baby Boomers) detailing the time period and believe Mr Hart does an excellent job making you feel like you are in 1972. You can feel the anger, fear, indecision, and worries of Jason, Gibby, and the other characters. There were some parallels in the story and time period that correlate to our world and the current events of today.
Gibby French is the youngest of 3 sons, one of which died in Vietnam and the other returned a damaged man. This book is about Gibby growing up and realizing the world is a complicated place with a gruesome murder, Death Row, a biker gang, and more within its pages.
If you are a fan of John Hart’s previous novels or the literary mysteries of Tana French, William Kent Krueger or Louise Penny I highly recommend this novel.
The only complaint I had and once you get deeper into the story you realize why, is the beginning is a bit slow and takes a bit to get to the point of the story but by the end you realize the time spent on getting to know the characters sets up the rest of the book. I sped thru the last 100 pages to get to the end, which was very rewarding.