Road to Nowhere

Paul Robertson has written an oddly absorbing novel about the local politics of road construction in a rural Carolina county. The story focuses on the six members of the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors, all essentially good people who are caught up in a whirlwind of self-interest and genuine evil. Narrator Henry Strozier does an excellent job of bringing each character to life. He has an actor's skill in capturing accents and all manner of vocal nuances without slipping into caricature. He preserves the dignity of his characters even as their follies are revealed. Although murders take place as the road controversy goes on, the story is primarily a novel of a people and a place and the democratic process. D.L.G. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

February 25, 2008
In his savvy sophomore suspense novel, former indie bookseller Robertson (The Heir
) uses multiple points of view to set up a seemingly innocuous story line—the proposal to build a road—that will keep readers glued. Octogenarian Joe Esterhouse has served enough decades on the Jefferson County, NC., Board to smell a rat, and something disturbs him about a proposal to bring Gold River Highway over the mountain into tiny Wardsville. Board members are dying and nothing is what it seems on the surface. Self-interest threatens to override the common good, and what is truth and what is perceived to be truth become nebulous. Robertson creates some of the most engaging characters and relationships encountered in faith fiction: Joe is a genuine sage, and other characters are no less captivating. Although the rapid-fire point of view changes are reminiscent of a novice stick-shift driver (and threaten whiplashlike confusion early on), once readers get the rhythm they will be compelled along. This top-notch offering features genuine humor, clever writing, a surprise ending and a strong portrayal of evil's power that doesn't succumb to clichéd violence. It deserves a wide audience.