Down River
by John Hart
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Book Reviews of Down River
Book Review: not quite a four star
Summary: 3 Stars
aha, the book was described as lyrical. maybe i should have been suspicious then. it IS lyrical, the writer is good at constructing descriptive sentences. however, the short choppy sentences make the characters indistinguishable from one another, at times this book felt rushed and the characters were never rounded out so it left me wondering if the previous book written by the author was the prequal. no matter. he is young enough to learn to write a good story (the whodoneit was an easy guess - in fact i had the whole story mapped out correctly in the beginning so there were no happy surprises). i like a good read as much as the next person, so will be patient for the authors future books.Book Review: Twisted Family
Summary: 3 Stars
I slowly read this book over a two-week period and my feelings are mixed after everything had been said and done. I would say I was definitely entertained by the twists of the plot and the general story idea. The deceit and love amongst a dysfunctional family and their good friends, each dealing with their own ghosts, sucked me in. My main issue was that I was having problems connecting to the characters. I was more connected to the Dolf, Grace, Yates drama than the Chase family drama. I would have liked to see the Chase family characters and their own drama developed more.
Overall a good read. I would recommend it for a vacation or a long beach/pool day.
Book Review: a fresh voice and solid mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
I really enjoyed John Hart's "Down Under." It is a mystery which captures people and place better than most. This is an engaging story about a small southern town and the family secrets and politics that are part of it. Oh, and it's about murder, too. And romance. The main character, Adam Chase, is returning to his home town many years after being acquitted for murder. Many still think he was guilty even before a new body is discovered. I cared about the present and the past of these characters. The writing is good, and the mystery really kept me guessing "who done it" throughout the novel. This felt less formulaic than most mysteries. I recommend it!Book Review: Good plot, too much angst
Summary: 4 Stars
This who-dun-it is told from the viewpoint of a friend of the victim. Years earlier, the protagonist was acquitted of an earlier murder but is still generally mistrusted around town, so is a suspect. He's part of a dysfunctional southern family in which various family members are no longer speaking to other family members. Their secrets have to be pried out. The plot is solid, the denouement surprising and believable, the writing flows. It's tiring to be treated to so much of the wrung-out emotions of the protagonist and others. Writers try to make their characters interesting by giving them personal Problems, but it can be overdone.
Book Review: Southern gothic meets hardboiled noir
Summary: 4 Stars
The Amazon blurbs -- plus prior reviews -- give a good synopsis of the story's setup, so I'll just give you my take on the book. DOWN RIVER is a good, solid mystery novel. Genre-wise, it's sort of a combination of first-person-narrative hardboiled noir with Southern gothic. Hart writes well, especially considering this is only his second novel, though he's not quite as good (yet) as giants of the genre such as James Lee Burke. However, I think we can expect great things from Hart and I look forward to reading more from him. Fans of moody, dark crime stories told in a literary style will probably enjoy this one.