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STARVATION LAKE
by Brian Gruley
Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, March 2009
370 pages
$14.00
ISBN: 1416563628


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Gus Carpenter is back in Starvation Lake, and he's not thrilled to be there. He left as soon as he possibly could after high school, after being the goalie that lost his team the state championship. In one of those life stories so many of us can relate to, he became a newspaperman by accident, and found out he was pretty good at it. For reasons that unfold over the course of the book, he is in a lot of trouble for a story he wrote. So he's run back home because there really isn't anyplace else to go.

Starvation Lake hasn't changed much since he left. The guys he played hockey with are still there, and he's playing hockey with them again. The old rivalries are still there. The fallout from his high school romance is still there. His coach is gone, long gone, but the memories are all still there. It's not a bad place for him to be, but it's not totally comfortable.

It gets much less comfortable when Coach's snowmobile turns up in a different lake from the one it sank in. As the new editor of the local paper, it's Gus's job to write about this. His newest reporter asks a lot of questions, his boss doesn't want to stir things up, and Gus can't seem to make either of them happy with the way he's handling things.

STARVATION LAKE is beautifully written. The prose is all any reader can ask for. One basic premise was difficult for me, as a reader, to understand, and I think (excuse me for being not politically correct here) it's a guy thing. Gus has spend most of his adult life living in the shadow of letting his team down, costing them the title, being (as Charlie Brown would say) the goat. I don't get that mind set. If his team had been performing really well - one goal wouldn't have mattered. It's just a game. Get over it. Every guy I've talked to totally gets Gus's mentality, every woman says they comprehend the mindset but think it's kind of nuts. So factor that into any equation you may be making about this book. There is a lot about hockey in STARVATION LAKE; Gruley obviously knows his stuff. Not knowing much about hockey won't ruin this book for most readers, although some skimming of detailed game descriptions might not be a bad idea.

STARVATION LAKE is Gruley's first book, and it's damn good. It is also the first in a series, which is good. Fans of Steve Hamilton and Kent Kreuger would be well advised to get their hands on STARVATION LAKE. Gruley is a writer to watch.

Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, March 2009

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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