This is a very dark book with a deeply troubled protagonist who would not be out of place in a novel by Jim Thompson.Dexter McCray is a farmer with a very troubled past. His family has suffered horrible tragedy; he has committed acts of great violence; he has gone off his meds, and he has a serious drinking problem which occasionally causes him to black out and later fail to remember what he might have done while under the influence.Dexter has managed to get his tractor stuck near a grove of trees on his farm and in the wake of another alcoholic blackout, he attempts to free the tractor. He is stunned to find in the grove of trees the body of a young woman. Dexter recognizes her as a waitress from the café in town, but he cannot begin to imagine how she wound up dead in the grove.Dexter fears that he might have somehow killed the girl while he was under the influence. He decides that he dare not report the death for fear that he might be blamed for the death and arrested. He believes that his only course of action is to investigate the death himself.His decision has enormous ramifications, for Dexter more than anyone else, and in the course of his investigation, he receives assistance from a most unlikely source. To say any more would be to say too much, and Dexter McCray certainly will not be the most attractive character that any reader is likely to encounter this year. But he is one of the most compelling, and John Rector has woven around him a gripping story that plays out in very unexpected ways. This is by no means a traditional crime novel, but it certainly is an intriguing one that will appeal to large numbers of readers who like their fiction dark and their protagonists seriously disturbed. I found the premise of this book interesting and I actually still do. Unfortunately, the writing-style distracted me and kept me from really enjoying the book. It is written in first-person and I really don't think that worked well with the story.I also didn't like how the dialog moved. The characters would be conversing back and forth but in between the author would skip along. For example, the pharmacist asked Dex, "You say you stopped taking these pills how long ago?" and the author writes: I told him. I felt that the author should have just had Dex answer the question, showing us the dialog. It caused a break in the flow when this occurred. Also, it didn't let us know the answer to the question. A couple of weeks, a few months, a year?Despite all of the above, my BIGGEST problem with the book is that there are no character descriptions, other than Jessica and Ezra. I have no idea what Dex, Greg, Liz, etc. look like. Also, it took me a while to figure out how old they all were. I started off thinking they were around 45 to 50 years old, but towards the end of the book, I realized that they must be much younger because of the ages of Greg's children, but by that point it was too late to create a new picture in my head.Again, I really did like the idea of the story, I just think it could have been better executed. I don't regret reading it - especially for the price - but, I don't think I'll be picking up any others by this author.
Do You like book Paranoya (2000)?
Amazon "borrow". Weird book, but I liked it. Kept me guessing until the end.
—mini
I can imagine Bryan Cranston playing Dexter if this was a movie.
—poojapatel
Dark, haunting and a compelling read. Excellent!
—zzz
