Northwoods A novel

Review by Booklist Review

Set in a Midwestern resort town caught up in the opioid epidemic, Pease's propulsive debut follows a troubled cop as he investigates the murder of a teenage boy. Eli North's life is spiraling out of control. His untreated PTSD from a stint in Afghanistan has led to a drinking problem and the disintegration of his marriage. Once a talented investigator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Eli struggles to perform his job for the underfunded police department run by his indefatigable mother, Sheriff Maude North. When a boy is found dead of an overdose and the girl he was last seen with goes missing, the Norths push themselves to the limit to find answers. At the same time, a pharmaceutical salesman discovers the company he works for is hiding a dark secret about their miracle drug. Pease expertly builds tension as the book progresses, weaving together multiple perspectives to construct a complex mystery. Her gripping and atmospheric novel will keep readers invested until the last page.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Nurse practitioner Pease's outstanding debut centers on Eli North, a military veteran and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigator whose life was severely disrupted by his tour of duty in Afghanistan. North's physical and psychic wounds were compounded by the elimination of his Fish and Wildlife job and the dissolution of his marriage when he returned to the U.S., which drove him to heavy drinking. Before things got too bleak, North's mother, Marge, the sheriff of Sherman County, Wis., pulled North back from the brink and hired him as her deputy. When North responds to a noise complaint from a family staying in a lakeside cabin, he finds the body of young Ben Sharpe in a fishing boat tied to the dock. The mystery of the boy's death is complicated by Marge's cover-up of Ben's mother's drug use during the murder investigation and the subsequent disappearance of one of his friends, which leads to the FBI's involvement. North hopes that solving the case will help restore his self-esteem and confidence, but he faces a thicket of drug deals and small town secrets that threaten to take him down before he gets to the truth. Pease's sharp dialogue and well-rounded characters enrich the core mystery with an authentic representation of the everyday struggles of small-town Americans. Admirers of Eli Cranor will eagerly await more from this gifted writer. (Jan.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A bucolic resort town on a lake in northern Wisconsin is the setting for a grim tale of drug addiction and murder. Eli North, a former elite investigator with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service suffering from PTSD after a stint in Afghanistan that left him wounded, addicted to alcohol, and plagued by delusions and thoughts of suicide, is newly separated from his wife and barely getting by as a sheriff's deputy under the supervision of his mother, Marge, who has been sheriff in the town of Shaky Lake for decades. When he's called to investigate a noise disturbance at an empty cabin, discovering the body of an adolescent boy and learning that a teenage girl is also missing, he rallies enough to investigate with the aid of FBI agent Alyssa Mason. Eli, Marge, and Alyssa discover a complex plot involving a pricey local drug rehab center, a resort with financial problems, and a prescription drug company and its representatives. In her debut novel, Pease brings the community to vivid life, from the bar where the locals drink cheap beer to the palatial homes of the summer people from Chicago. Nearly everyone in this world has deep problems that they attempt to alleviate with one substance or another, from Marge's relatively benign attempts to deal with migraines to the debilitating drug addiction of the mother of the murdered boy. The bonds, for better or worse, between mothers and their children are crucial to the novel, and Pease illuminates their intricacies with a sharp eye. Eli, perpetually in danger of dropping off the edge of his life, is a particularly compelling character, but the others are also well developed and compassionately observed. While the author sometimes juggles more plot elements than the novel can comfortably handle, with the result that some storylines are inexplicably dropped, the depth of the setting and characters make for a rich reading experience. A powerful depiction of the repercussions of substance abuse in the rural Midwest. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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Chapter 1 1 Eli North stripped off his clothes and waded into the water. The lake muck cushioned his feet, and, when he was in up to his chest, he rested his plastic travel mug on the water's surface and let his feet drift upward. He had always been good at floating. The water had that mid-August feel, warm and slippery and heavy with microorganisms, and a flotilla of lily pads protected the tiny beach from water traffic. Not that anyone would be on the water at this time of night. He tried to focus on the stars, the weightless sensation of floating. Meditation, they called it. A way to set aside negative thoughts. He put the mug to his lips and sucked the whiskey through his teeth so it wouldn't spill into his nose. His lip was split, only partially healed, and the fiery liquor lanced the wound open again. Michelle had agreed to meet him after work, but she'd left before he had shown up, two hours late. It was a sad routine, making promises, breaking promises, and there was a part of him that had been relieved when she asked for a divorce in July. At least now they could both move on, her to something better, and him to a place where he didn't disappoint her all the time. He thought of Andy. Across the lake, somebody cranked up the radio. Etta James's voice slid over the water, a nice change from the usual shit-kickin' country coming from Dan Simons's cabin. Classy with a K was how Michelle had always described Dan. Eli took another sip of whiskey and winced at the pain on his lip, at the throb of the surrounding bruise. At last My love has come along My lonely days are over And life is like a song The music seemed custom-made for the setting, as if it was to be sung only on dark summer nights, against the rustle of cattails and the plinking call of chorus frogs. Maybe the vacationers wouldn't mind Etta James. Maybe they wouldn't call to complain. Maybe tonight he could just get drunk and float. He lay there, floating, for a long time, long enough to notice that the music was playing on repeat, which suited him just fine. Still, it came as no surprise when the scanner crackled from under the heap of clothes on the sand. People with lake houses weren't the type to let a noise disturbance go unreported. "Eli, you there?" He ignored the dispatch, vaguely wondered why he had bothered to bring the scanner to the beach in the first place, then breathed deeply and tilted his head backward until the water nearly covered his face. He relaxed his grip on the travel mug and let his arms and legs go limp in the soft, tepid water. The sound of the music was muffled now by the water over his ears, as if it was coming from another room, as if he had stepped away from a party. When the memories began to lap at the edges of his mind, he was ready for them, and pushed them away. "Eli?" The bark of the scanner broke his concentration and he floundered. Lake water poured into his nose and he choked, then scrambled to right himself. He coughed and sputtered and had just caught his breath when he noticed something pale bobbing among the lily pads several yards away, nearly concealed by the thick vegetation and heavy darkness. He swam toward the object, but the waves from his forward motion pushed whatever it was deeper into the lily pads with each stroke. He stilled, treaded water just enough to stay afloat until the waves subsided, then ducked his head under the water and swam toward where the object had disappeared into the thick plants. Three kicks and he surfaced. His travel mug, still nearly full. Bobbing against a lily pad. He grasped the handle of the mug and was surprised to find that his hand was shaking, that his heart was hammering in his chest in a way that had nothing to do with the distance he had swum. What had he expected to find, floating in the darkness? With a twist of his hips, he turned and began to swim back to shore, holding his drink out of the water. He stumbled on the sand, caught himself, got up again. When he reached his pile of belongings, he eased the lid off the mug and tipped the rest of the contents into his mouth. He stood still for a long moment, the back of his hand pressed to his lips, then bent over to grab the scanner. Excerpted from Northwoods: A Novel by Amy Pease All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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