The Storm King

Starred review from December 18, 2017
Duffy follows his debut, House of Echoes, with a stunning literary thriller, which combines accomplished wordsmithing with startling twists. Nate McHale is a husband, father, and pediatric surgeon in New York City, but he was once the Storm King of Greystone Lake in upstate New York, the leader of a band of vengeful vandals. Under cover of bad weather, Nate and his high school friends balanced “the equations of pain” by committing acts
of retribution for attacks and sleights against them. Nate’s high school girlfriend, Lucy Bennett, disappeared just after graduation. Now Lucy’s body has recently been found, and Nate is returning to Greystone Lake for the first time in 14 years for her funeral. He must tame the “menagerie of suffering in the cages of soul” in order to fight his way through the layers of secrets, past and present, as a hurricane rages and a new wave of vandalism even more vicious than his own strikes the town. Duffy weaves Lucy’s murder and town folklore into a tapestry of storm, pain, fire, and, eventually, redemption. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Weed Literary.

Listeners, batten down the hatches! Literal and metaphorical storms rage through this riveting audiobook. When a body is found in the woods of Greystone Lake, Nate McHale returns to his hometown for the funeral--and for answers. But he's barely off the bus before his tumultuous past catches up with him and his old high school friends. Narrator Jon Lindstrom's clipped, precise delivery heightens the story's noirish elements. From the harrowing opening passages to the last gut-churning twist, Lindstrom cultivates an almost oppressive sense of foreboding. His narration remains strong through the many narrative strands, characters of all ages, and even when reading from the diary of a teenage girl. It's a versatile, pitch-perfect performance of an audiobook that thriller fans won't want to miss. A.T.N. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine