Fateful Mornings

April 10, 2017
Officer Henry Farrell, the affable lone lawman of rural Wild Thyme Township, Pa., has a flair for stirring up trouble, as shown in Edgar-winner Bouman’s atmospheric sequel to 2014’s Dry Bones in the Valley. When waiflike heroin addict Penny Pellings disappears near Maiden’s Grove Lake, Henry’s gut tells him that the most obvious suspect—Penny’s alcoholic partner Kevin O’Keeffe—didn’t abduct her. Soon after drug dealer Charles Michael Heffernan’s corpse surfaces in the Susquehanna River, undercover sleuthing in nearby Binghamton, N.Y., nearly lands Henry behind bars himself, and a car crash springs Heffernan’s kidnapped companion, Vicki Jelinski, from the vehicle’s trunk. As Henry continues to push for information from a plethora of local dirtbags at increasing personal risk, life continues to unspool for the young widower in this scenic but economically depressed patch: playing his fiddle with friends, hunting, moonlighting construction, occasionally hooking up. With time, too, answers gradually emerge. But they prove less compelling than the novel’s poetic, pitch-perfect sense of place. Agent: Neil Olson, Donadio & Olson.

May 1, 2017
Some crime fiction engages readers with its breakneck pace, but Bouman proceeds at a meander in this sequel to his Edgar-winning debut, Dry Bones in the Valley (2014). Henry Farrell is the law by himself in Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, near the New York border, an area generally plagued only with drug use and burglaries. Then local carpenter Kevin O'Keeffe admits that he doesn't remember whether he shot a man the night before, when he was drunk, but he does know that he didn't kill his live-in girlfriend, Penny Pellings, who disappeared at the same time. Farrell keeps searching for Pellings, along with helping build a luxury barn, playing the fiddle with friends, and working with other county and state officials on an increasing number of murders. Still, Farrell has time to appreciate the lovingly described land around him, as he ends an affair with a woman unhappy in her marriage and begins a new relationship, all the while remembering his wife, Polly, who died too young. This change of pace from adrenaline-fueled thrillers offers a relaxing, character-driven reading experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

December 1, 2016

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller and the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, as well as LibraryReads honors and a John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, Bouman's Dry Bones in the Valley featured rural Pennsylvania police officer Henry Farrell. Here, when hard-living carpenter Gordy O'Baire is suspected in the disappearance of girlfriend Penny, Henry's investigation leads him to scummy drug dealers and big-deal involvement with the FBI.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2017

When troubled local carpenter Kevin O'Keefe reports that his girlfriend Penny is missing and that he may have shot someone, Officer Henry Farrell is pulled into an extensive investigation involving a multistate vice ring and a shadowy, murderous hit man. Over many fateful mornings long-held secrets are unraveled, and political, cultural, and environmental realities continue to impact the Rust Belt town of Wild Thyme, PA. Meanwhile, widowed Henry's long-ended affair with married Shelly Bray threatens to derail his personal and professional life as he begins a relationship with Miss Julie Meagher. VERDICT In this follow-up to the Edgar Award-winning Dry Bones in the Valley, character and sense of place remain paramount. Bouman's evocative language draws readers into Henry's world, appealing to fans of rural noir/grit lit and Julia Keller, Wiley Cash, and John W. Billheimer. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/16.]--ACT

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.