Beyond the Wild River

April 10, 2017
In 1893, a young woman finds love and danger along Ontario’s Nipigon River in Maine’s (The House Between Tides) thrilling historical adventure. Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre loves her father, Charles, a respected magistrate, and is all the more attached to him because she’s never known her mother. But in recent years Charles’s business ventures have kept him far from her side, and the close relationship they once enjoyed is but a memory. When he invites her to accompany him on a fishing trip along the raging Nipigon, she jumps at the chance, unaware that their guide will be James Douglas, her father’s former stable boy, who was involved in a murder five years previously. Old grudges, crimes, and murderous impulses soon come to the fore as a connection sparks between James and Evelyn. Meticulous research and descriptive passages of lush, beautiful landscapes frame Maine’s riveting portrait of a thoughtful young woman who yearns for more than is offered by her station and her gender, and the rough-and-tumble young man who is inexorably drawn to her.

Maine's latest novel creates a compelling listening experience of history, mystery, and atmosphere. The story moves from Charles Ballantyre's Scotland estate in 1888 to 1893, to a visit to the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and a fishing trip to Ontario's Nipigon River, setting the stage for long-delayed justice. With authentic accents, changing tones, and a good pace, Kristy Cox is successful at making each character unique and the plot easy to follow. She even makes the coincidence of Ballantyre; his daughter, Evelyn; and James and Dalton all coming together during the fishing trip seem plausible. The tension builds as events of the past are slowly revealed and their continuing repercussions dealt with. The case is made, and justice triumphs in a fascinating campfire scene in which the master fisherman finally reels in and lands the truth. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine