The Hanging Tree

June 28, 2010
When the body of Gracie McBride is discovered hanging in a tree on the outskirts of Starvation Lake, Mich., journalist Gus Carpenter, Gracie's second cousin, isn't convinced it's suicide in Edgar-finalist Gruley's absorbing follow-up to Starvation Lake (2009). Even though he and Gracie had their differences—Gracie was always a wild child and left Starvation Lake 18 years earlier—Gus feels obliged to investigate her death, especially after he uncovers Gracie's ties to the plan for an expensive new hockey rink. Millionaire lawyer Laird Haskell has recently moved to town with his family, including teenage son Taylor, who looks like Starvation's most promising goalie since young Gus's days on the ice, and promises to fund a state-of-the-art facility. When Gus starts poking into Haskell's business dealings, he unearths unsavory links with Gracie's troubled life during her time away from Starvation. Gruley vividly evokes the frigid Michigan winters and the even chillier atmosphere of an insular community determined to keep its secrets.

July 15, 2010

Instead of emerging from the watery depths as they did in Gruley's notable first novel (Starvation Lake, 2009), dark secrets from the past bloom on a storied tree in the upper-Michigan midwinter.

Though she'd returned only recently after leaving Starvation Lake 18 years ago, Gracie McBride had deep roots in the little town. Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the twice-weekly Pine County Pilot, is her second cousin; his lover, sheriff's deputy Darlene Esper, is her oldest friend. When Gracie is found hanging from a tree along with dozens of shoes young couples have tied together and tossed into the branches, Gus and Darlene's lives are tangled with hers once more. Gus has been preoccupied with what his fellow citizens consider his vendetta against Laird Haskell, the wealthy plaintiff's attorney whose promise to build a spanking-new hockey rink for the town seems to have been stalled by insufficient funds. But he's swiftly engulfed in revelations of political chicanery, domestic irregularities and kinky sex that open unsavory motives for Gracie's suicide—or was it murder?—even as they send Gus once more back into the past he can't help sharing with his troubled town. His journey is long and winding, and by the time it's over, readers will have covered a great deal of territory.

Gus's second has it all—suspense, mystery, romance, detection, clear-eyed hometown nostalgia, professional dangers along with the other kind—even if it seems that not a single citizen of Starvation Lake has ever outgrown being a goalie, wingman or hockey mom. 

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August 1, 2010

Found hanging from a tree just outside of Starvation Lake, MI, Gracie McBride is assumed by local residents to have committed suicide. Her cousin, reporter Gus Carpenter, promises his mother to look into the motivation for Gracie's death. VERDICT In this follow-up to Gruley's acclaimed debut, Starvation Lake, the author tells more of Gus's story and reveals many secrets about the local people. Slow moving at times, with much detail about hockey and many flashbacks, this might appeal to readers who enjoy Joseph Heywood and Mary Logue.

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2010
Gruley, Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and Edgar Award nominee for his first novel, Starvation Lake (2009), returns to Starvation, a Michigan resort town whose best days are fading in the rear-view mirror. The detective is, again, Gus Carpenter, himself faded from his glory days as a reporter with the Detroit Times. Gus is back where he started but, worse, working on a small-town newspaper with a kid boss who sneers at traditional journalism. The action is triggered by a hangingan apparent suicide by a woman who left Starvation 20 years earlier, was back in town for six months, and then was found hanging from a tree limb. Gruley captures the hardscrabble life of a recession-rocked small town and the deep interrelationships of the inhabitants while delivering complex, intriguing characters caught up in trouble. His take on contemporary journalism is Evelyn Waughworthy. Another winner.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)