Reviewed By: Carl Brookins - RAM
Salt River
Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
James Sallis
Class/Genre: Mystery
Series: Turner # 3
Walker Books, January 2008, 160 Pages, Hard Cover, $21.95
Once again this most excellent writer has produced a slender, compelling, moody, and intense piece of crime fiction. Continuing his powerful way with words, author James Sallis has added to the Tennessee landscape with a third novel featuring John Turner, ex almost everything who has left the big city and, he hopes, its troubles and violence.
Unfortunately, violent trouble seems to always be close by. In spite of his reluctance, his growing bond with the local sheriff leads him back into a life of low-key rural law enforcement. And then the woman he is becoming close is accidentally murdered. Her musical partner takes to the road and is now back, two years later, still carrying Val's banjo and another tale of possible murder.
The sheriff's son abruptly reappears in town in what may be a stolen car. Unfortunately he can't explain the circumstances because he dies soon after crashing the car. Out of these separate parts a gradual coming together of the various segments in a terrible and inevitable way, leads to misery, death and at least some resolution.
Sallis's novels explore the disruptive interior and exterior landscape of the psyche, and the human condition, in ways that leave the reader in an uneasy relationship with the novel. He raises moody and difficult questions about life in general and our intimate relationships with each other in thoughtful and penetrating ways that require contemplation long after the book is closed. One always looks forward to the next book in Sallis's journey through the mind.
Carl Brookins - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Carl Brookins - RAM
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