Descent

Starred review from October 13, 2014
In Johnston’s sorrowful and suspenseful first adult novel, a family is forced to face its worst nightmare when one of its members goes missing. Caitlin Courtland, an 18-year-old runner about to enter college on a track scholarship, is vacationing with her family in the Rockies when she fails to come back from an early morning run. Over the course of the next two years, the family fractures as no sign of Caitlin is ever found. Grant Courtland, Caitlin’s father, remains in the Rockies, while mother Angela tries to pick up the pieces back home in Wisconsin, where she eventually makes a failed attempt at suicide. Meanwhile, Caitlin’s younger brother, Sean, drives aimlessly around the country, getting in and out of trouble. Although it begins as one more variation on Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, a late-in-the-novel coincidence sends the narrative in a new direction and turns it into a survival story involving a character who, heretofore, has played a relatively minor part in the drama. Johnston (Irish Girl) has a poet’s eye for the majestic and forbidding nature of the Rockies, and a sociologist’s understanding of how people act under pressure. He also has a knack for creating characters that the reader will come to care about, no matter how flawed they are. Combining domestic drama with wilderness adventure, Johnston has created a hybrid novel that is as emotionally satisfying as it is viscerally exciting.

Xe Sands and R.C. Bray narrate alternating perspectives in this thriller. Sands adopts a smoky sound that parallels the fog surrounding the book's major characters: the mother, Angela, who loses herself when her daughter is kidnapped, and the daughter, Caitlin, who is kept in a continual sense of bewilderment by her abductor. Bray embodies Caitlin's brother, Sean, and her father, Grant. Grant has character inconsistencies, but Bray manages to downplay them in favor of the man's dogged determination to find his daughter. The multiple points of view may leave the listener unsatisfied, but the team effort of Sands and Bray makes for an atmospheric, suspenseful production. J.F. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

April 15, 2015

Sean Courtland is knocked from his mountain bike and severely injured while accompanying his sister Caitlin on a conditioning run in the Rockies. Caitlin vanishes without a trace. While Sean recovers, their parents, Grant and Angela, run through their savings searching for Caitlin and also run out of patience with each other. Two years later, with Grant in Colorado still searching and Angela back home in Wisconsin, Sean borrows his father's truck and sets off on his own. Featuring some interesting supporting characters and tense situations, Johnston's (Irish Girl) abduction thriller provokingly explores the mysteries of life, death, manhood, sexual exploitation, fate, and family relationships. R.C. Bray and Xe Sands give the book an excellent reading. VERDICT This audio is highly recommended for adult mystery fiction collections.--Cliff Glaviano, formerly with Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

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