[Over the next few months, I’m going to be releasing my newest, stand-alone novel, SAVAGE CITY. In preparation for that, here’s me trying to resuscitate my blog YET AGAIN, with yet another incarnation. This must be, I dunno, the fourth or fifth time I’ve tried this blog thing, and before I give up entirely and admit that I’m not cut out for blogging, I’m going to take another shot at it. This time the plan is to post short entries, which I might be able to keep up with on a more regular basis than the longer pieces I had been doing. The new form starts with a recent review of the newest book from one of my pals, author Joan H. Young. Enjoy!]
Novelist John Gardner said one of the classic plots in literature is “a stranger comes to town.” In the latest entry in her Anastasia Raven series, Dead Mule Swamp Singer, author Joan H. Young takes that basic plot premise and spins it into her series’ most complex and enjoyable mystery.
Young deftly handles several plot threads—Anastasia’s friend Adele has a new beau, a shifty character full of hair and bling whom Anastasia instinctively mistrusts; Anastasia hears a mysterious voice singing from the nearby river accompanied by otherworldly strings, and decides to track down the source of the music; her canoe goes missing and the culprit must be found; a dead body turns up in suspicious proximity to Adele’s beau; and several other mysterious strangers hit town—and the reader is never at a loss for understanding what’s going on. Running through all the mystery and suspense are the people and places of Cherry Hill, as always drawn by Young with sympathy and grace.
For me, one of the big pleasures of the newest book is the precision of Young’s language as she guides us expertly through the Northwoods setting of the book. Young has a naturalist’s eye and a poet’s ear for the sights and sounds of the world she draws us into, as in this passage: “The sky to the west was turning pink and the light spread across the swamp, causing every puddle of open water to glow with the pink satin of early roses. The trees were leafed out, but not fully, so the reflections shimmered and winked as the light breeze stirred the nascent greenery in small gusts.” Lovely!
All in all, an engaging new book by a writer working at the top of her craft. Highly recommended.
Buy Dead Mule Swamp Singer here.
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