A River of Crows-Midwest Book Review
I’m honored to share the first editorial review for A River of Crows, courtesy of D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer at Midwest Book Review:
A River of Crows demonstrates that the impact of a child’s disappearance never goes away. Also vanished is the family structure and support system that dissolves under the pressure of a mystery that affects everyone.
Sloan’s brother Ridge went fishing with their father and never returned. Her emotionally unpredictable Vietnam vet father, the suspect in his son’s disappearance, is arrested and charged with murder. Her mother, torn by these events, has fallen into madness.
Twenty years later, Sloan herself is in the middle of a divorce and still struggles with the question of what really happened to her brother. And her family.
Her decision to return to the scene of the possible crime, Crow’s Nest Creek, leads to a strange encounter with a crow. That together with the appearance of the body of another boy lead Sloan into a determination to uncover the truth. Even if it kills her.
Shanessa Gluhm crafts a thought-provoking story of revelation, family ties, discovery, and murder. She injects nuggets of wisdom into the tale from the start, spicing it with revelations about life, optimism, and adversity: “No marriage is unraveled by pulling a single thread. Just like no family is. Sloan understood that all too well.”
Living up to its initial promise, A River of Crows pulls on many disparate threads of experience and possibility that then take unusual turns. As the plot to destroy a family thickens, a cast of characters participate in events that lead to both an inevitable outcome and an unusual twist on predictability. This approach keeps readers thoroughly engrossed in the psychological dynamics of evolving possibilities.
When events move into a trial that tests love and survival abilities alike, Sloan finds the courage to not only discover what really happened, but revise her ideals of family, friends, and forgiveness.
Readers who choose A River of Crows for its mystery will find an unexpected draw and value in the emotional components which keep the plot action-packed and charged with transformation.
Libraries that choose A River of Crows for their collections will find it lends particularly well to book club discussions about family ties and how to rise and recover from the ashes of devastating loss.
