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Find Him
The new novel from acclaimed, award-winning author Jake Hinkson, about Lily, a preacher's daughter whose fiancé has gone missing. But when she embarks on a deadly search to find him, she uncovers a plot far more sinister than anything she or her church community imagined.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published April 26, 2022
9 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Jake Hinkson
20 books120 followersJake Hinkson, a native of the Arkansas Ozarks, is the author of HELL ON CHURCH STREET, THE POSTHUMOUS MAN, SAINT HOMICIDE, and THE BIG UGLY. His first two books are being translated into French by èditions Gallmeister and will be released in Europe in new hardcover editions in 2015. He lives in Chicago and blogs at http://thenighteditor.blogspot.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
March 16, 2023
While not the hard-hitting gut-punch noirs that I’ve come to love from the author, like The Posthumous Man, No Tomorrow, or his recent Dry County, this new Hinkson novel is still a solid thriller in the vein of The Big Ugly, and it also might be his most accessible book with arguably his most likable characters.
The strength here is in how enjoyable it is to follow our protagonist Lily Stevens, a devout and pregnant one-ness Pentecostal teenager who bravely steps outside of her sheltered life to go full amateur dick and track down her missing baby daddy. Even if you can’t relate to her background and religion, it’s hard not to get swept up by her determination and zeal. Allan is also another great character, a kind man with a fondness for Reba McEntire, and a sense of morality that he can’t shake, no matter how much it might get him in trouble. These two together make for a satisfying read and another great entry into Jake Hinkson’s bibliography!
The strength here is in how enjoyable it is to follow our protagonist Lily Stevens, a devout and pregnant one-ness Pentecostal teenager who bravely steps outside of her sheltered life to go full amateur dick and track down her missing baby daddy. Even if you can’t relate to her background and religion, it’s hard not to get swept up by her determination and zeal. Allan is also another great character, a kind man with a fondness for Reba McEntire, and a sense of morality that he can’t shake, no matter how much it might get him in trouble. These two together make for a satisfying read and another great entry into Jake Hinkson’s bibliography!
January 6, 2023
There’s much to praise about Jake Hinkson’s new crime novel.
It’s got a great plot with plenty of plausible twists. It’s got wonderfully complicated characters who constantly surprise you with their empathy and grace and strength as much as their pettiness and hypocrisy and weakness. It’s got a way of summing up a complex thought or emotion in a tweetable number of words, a quality that it give it a rare quotability (and I’m of the belief, borne of epic experience, that the more quotable a story is, the better the story is). And it’s got a first-rate sense of place in Little Rock, Arkansas and its nearby small towns, and an even better sense of regional character, in its perpetual collisions between Evangelical Christians and everybody who isn’t.
I could go on and on about all the great stuff in Hinkson’s novel (as I did at filibuster length about his previous novel, the nearly perfect DRY COUNTY). But one thing in particular jumps out at me. Almost alone among the Southern Noir, aka “grit lit” authors I’ve read — and I’ve read dozens — Jake Hinkson takes people of religious faith and practice seriously. Or, to be more precise, he takes seriously the fact that people of religious faith and practice take those things seriously.
He doesn’t treat Evangelical Christians as straw-man villains, or punching bags for cheap punchlines, or find hee-hawing hilarity in their hypocrisies and human failings. He’s not hijacking the manifestations of religious belief for plug-and-play Cormac McCarthy-esque pseudo-poetry. He’s not dabbing his story with snake-handling and speaking-in-tongues splats of color as if they were Hawaiian dances performed for Honolulu tourists. There’s no wink-and-nudge to a desired and even presumed audience of smarty-pants secular readers eager to see people of Evangelical faith depicted as insane, cruel, corrupt, silly or stupid by definition. He doesn’t see them as some unknowable and undesirable Other to be seen only from a great unbridgeable distance. He doesn’t treat his particular slice of the South as a region to be strip-mined for its cultural distinctiveness in order to capitalize on a publishing trend.
Jake Hinkson recognizes that one can believe wholeheartedly in their Christian goodness, or at least the goodness of Christian belief, while doing bad things, or simply fallible things (and that, in fact, is what gives FIND HIM much of its gravity and go-power). Yes, sometimes they have sex with people they shouldn’t, or commit acts of mortal negligence and worse. But they always do so amid great internal struggle with their own demons and instincts. He treats these people, and their beliefs, with dignity and gravity and respect.
Lily Stevens, the heroine of FIND HIM, is mistreated by almost everyone within and within her Fundamenalist church when it’s learned that the high-schooler is pregnant by another boy from the church. Her parents are personally mortified and professionally insecure, given that her father is the church’s pastor, and her younger brother and some parishoners can’t quite hide the glee in their judgment of her. Beyond that, as a girl in the rural South, she’s treated as too delicate, too naïve, too stupid and too weak to think or act for herself. And then there’s Peter, the boy — the HIM of FIND HIM — who has disappeared, and all indications are that he ran off to avoid his responsibilities. Just another thing everybody blames her for.
Well, Lily isn’t stupid and she isn’t weak, and every line of inquiry she pursues in search of Peter — whom she wants to marry less out of love than to have someone to care for her and their child and fulfill his Christian responsibilities — seems to indicate that the narrative that people are selling her about Peter isn’t quite the truth, that it reflects a comfort within their own limited worldview.
But what’s interesting here is that the more Lily pushes her stubborn quest for answers into the secular world she’s been raised to recoil from, the more she leans into it, swelling belly-first — and the more her faith, challenged as it never has been before, stays intact. That’s because, through the tumultuous events of FIND HIM, she develops a wider window into the world and, through it, the wisdom to discern between faith and religion, between thoughtful values and mindless rituals. As, in their own way, do her parents, who are not the moral histrionics you’d expect to find in most Southern novels but caring, loving people of genuine belief in genuine struggle with the human structure that houses them. The same can be said of Peter, who, caught between a domineeringly devout mother and his own desires, makes a decision before he disappears — one that ,in the hands of most novelists, would be played as comedy, black or otherwise. Here, it is as sincere as it is shocking.
And Hinkson gives those struggles room to play out without treating the strugglers like deluded, destructive idiots. And the grace he extends his characters gives those characters room to extend grace to others, and those moments of grace give FIND HIM a rare power that transcends its plot in, I imagine, the same way a soul transcends its body upon arriving at moments of mortal, and moral, reckoning. As Allen, Lily’s long-estranged gay relative and newfound shotgun-rider — the product of an affair between a pastor and parishioner — puts it: “We’re all prejudiced. Just like we’re all selfish. The key is to try act better, not to act like you were born perfect. Can’t turn from your sin if you won’t admit you’re a sinner in the first place.”
It’s got a great plot with plenty of plausible twists. It’s got wonderfully complicated characters who constantly surprise you with their empathy and grace and strength as much as their pettiness and hypocrisy and weakness. It’s got a way of summing up a complex thought or emotion in a tweetable number of words, a quality that it give it a rare quotability (and I’m of the belief, borne of epic experience, that the more quotable a story is, the better the story is). And it’s got a first-rate sense of place in Little Rock, Arkansas and its nearby small towns, and an even better sense of regional character, in its perpetual collisions between Evangelical Christians and everybody who isn’t.
I could go on and on about all the great stuff in Hinkson’s novel (as I did at filibuster length about his previous novel, the nearly perfect DRY COUNTY). But one thing in particular jumps out at me. Almost alone among the Southern Noir, aka “grit lit” authors I’ve read — and I’ve read dozens — Jake Hinkson takes people of religious faith and practice seriously. Or, to be more precise, he takes seriously the fact that people of religious faith and practice take those things seriously.
He doesn’t treat Evangelical Christians as straw-man villains, or punching bags for cheap punchlines, or find hee-hawing hilarity in their hypocrisies and human failings. He’s not hijacking the manifestations of religious belief for plug-and-play Cormac McCarthy-esque pseudo-poetry. He’s not dabbing his story with snake-handling and speaking-in-tongues splats of color as if they were Hawaiian dances performed for Honolulu tourists. There’s no wink-and-nudge to a desired and even presumed audience of smarty-pants secular readers eager to see people of Evangelical faith depicted as insane, cruel, corrupt, silly or stupid by definition. He doesn’t see them as some unknowable and undesirable Other to be seen only from a great unbridgeable distance. He doesn’t treat his particular slice of the South as a region to be strip-mined for its cultural distinctiveness in order to capitalize on a publishing trend.
Jake Hinkson recognizes that one can believe wholeheartedly in their Christian goodness, or at least the goodness of Christian belief, while doing bad things, or simply fallible things (and that, in fact, is what gives FIND HIM much of its gravity and go-power). Yes, sometimes they have sex with people they shouldn’t, or commit acts of mortal negligence and worse. But they always do so amid great internal struggle with their own demons and instincts. He treats these people, and their beliefs, with dignity and gravity and respect.
Lily Stevens, the heroine of FIND HIM, is mistreated by almost everyone within and within her Fundamenalist church when it’s learned that the high-schooler is pregnant by another boy from the church. Her parents are personally mortified and professionally insecure, given that her father is the church’s pastor, and her younger brother and some parishoners can’t quite hide the glee in their judgment of her. Beyond that, as a girl in the rural South, she’s treated as too delicate, too naïve, too stupid and too weak to think or act for herself. And then there’s Peter, the boy — the HIM of FIND HIM — who has disappeared, and all indications are that he ran off to avoid his responsibilities. Just another thing everybody blames her for.
Well, Lily isn’t stupid and she isn’t weak, and every line of inquiry she pursues in search of Peter — whom she wants to marry less out of love than to have someone to care for her and their child and fulfill his Christian responsibilities — seems to indicate that the narrative that people are selling her about Peter isn’t quite the truth, that it reflects a comfort within their own limited worldview.
But what’s interesting here is that the more Lily pushes her stubborn quest for answers into the secular world she’s been raised to recoil from, the more she leans into it, swelling belly-first — and the more her faith, challenged as it never has been before, stays intact. That’s because, through the tumultuous events of FIND HIM, she develops a wider window into the world and, through it, the wisdom to discern between faith and religion, between thoughtful values and mindless rituals. As, in their own way, do her parents, who are not the moral histrionics you’d expect to find in most Southern novels but caring, loving people of genuine belief in genuine struggle with the human structure that houses them. The same can be said of Peter, who, caught between a domineeringly devout mother and his own desires, makes a decision before he disappears — one that ,in the hands of most novelists, would be played as comedy, black or otherwise. Here, it is as sincere as it is shocking.
And Hinkson gives those struggles room to play out without treating the strugglers like deluded, destructive idiots. And the grace he extends his characters gives those characters room to extend grace to others, and those moments of grace give FIND HIM a rare power that transcends its plot in, I imagine, the same way a soul transcends its body upon arriving at moments of mortal, and moral, reckoning. As Allen, Lily’s long-estranged gay relative and newfound shotgun-rider — the product of an affair between a pastor and parishioner — puts it: “We’re all prejudiced. Just like we’re all selfish. The key is to try act better, not to act like you were born perfect. Can’t turn from your sin if you won’t admit you’re a sinner in the first place.”
January 11, 2023
I found the craft of this novel to be exceptional, and I became invested in the characters and their fates. The ending is strangely unsatisfying, though.
January 25, 2023
This was an extremely well written story -- descriptive and sensitive and it gave me insight into the pentecostal sect, a subject I knew very little about. The characters were nicely developed particularly the spunky lead character of Lily and her gay uncle Allan. There was also humor in Allan's father's addiction to watching Fox and Friends. I was completely engrossed in this thriller although it was extremely violent in parts. A stunning achievement and I will be reading Jake Hinkson's books in the future.
February 11, 2023
Raw. “Can’t turn from the sin if you can’t admit you’re a sinner in the first place.”
June 23, 2022
Dans une petite ville de l'Arkansas, ça jase fort sur les bancs de la petite communauté Pentecôtiste apostolique depuis que Lily, la fille du pasteur à peine âgée de 18 ans, est enceinte. Lily s'apprête à épouser Peter afin de régulariser les choses mais le futur père disparait. Obstinée comme personne, Lily se lance à sa recherche, fort heureusement accompagnée par Allan, collègue de Peter. Car Lily n'est pas la seule à courir après Peter ; un proxénète d'une rare cruauté le soupçonne de s'être envolé avec une ses gagne-pain...
De nombreux rebondissements rendent cette nouvelle aventure dans l'Amérique profonde et bigote haletante. Lily est une jeune fille à fort tempérament, qui ne lâche pas le morceau malgré les obstacles qui se dressent sur sa route, et on la voit mûrir et évoluer dans ses convictions en quelques jours. L'intrigue est plus complexe et étoffée que dans les précédents romans de Jake Hinkson, pour notre plus grand bonheur. Avec la grande Sophie Aslanides à la traduction : c'est efficace et impeccable !
De nombreux rebondissements rendent cette nouvelle aventure dans l'Amérique profonde et bigote haletante. Lily est une jeune fille à fort tempérament, qui ne lâche pas le morceau malgré les obstacles qui se dressent sur sa route, et on la voit mûrir et évoluer dans ses convictions en quelques jours. L'intrigue est plus complexe et étoffée que dans les précédents romans de Jake Hinkson, pour notre plus grand bonheur. Avec la grande Sophie Aslanides à la traduction : c'est efficace et impeccable !
April 11, 2023
Set in Conway, Arkansas, just a half hour's drive from Little Rock, the story opens with a pregnant teenager looking for her fiancé, who has gone missing just a few days before they were supposed to be married. She tries reporting his disappearance to the police, who just laugh and state the obvious conclusion, a conclusion shared by the man's mother. But Lily refused to give up, although as a member of a fundamentalist Pentecostal church who has never cut her hair or owned a cell phone, she's not at all prepared to go out into the world to look for him. But she finds an unlikely ally in one of Peter's co-workers, who may not fully agree that Peter didn't run off, but who sees the danger in letting Lily wander into dangerous places unwittingly. He's willing to be the one to drive her into Little Rock and to let her know what is going on around her.
"Annnnd you ruined it," Allan says, grimacing like he tastes something sour. "Look, Lily, I'm not here to be a stand-in for all the gays, ok? You ain't Kimmy, and I ain't Titus."
"What does that mean?"
"Do you even own a television?'
"No."
But for all the charm of a mismatched duo on a quest, this is not a novel looking to make anyone feel warm and happy. Peter and Allan were working in a motel where drug dealers and human traffickers were operating and Allan is fully aware of how dangerous these men are and of the bad things going on in the back annex. He knows that even asking around for Peter could get them both killed. But he's a man with a heart despite himself and he liked the seemingly straight-laced Peter, and he's got a clear idea of what could happen to a naive girl like Lily.
So this isn't a novel with a happy ending, but it's also not a hopeless one. What makes this book shine is the complex characters Hinkson has created here. No one is entirely good or bad, and there's a nuance to his portrayal of the members of Lily's church that is rare to find. Allan, an intelligent gay man stuck in a small Southern town caring for his FOX News-watching father, while filling his apartment with books and old movies, is a fantastic character. And Lily may know nothing about the world, but she does know that her child will need a father and she refuses to let her shame at what happened, and for which she is blamed far more than Peter, prevent her doing what she thinks is right.
This is the second book I've read by Hinkson and it won't be my last. It's good stuff.
"Annnnd you ruined it," Allan says, grimacing like he tastes something sour. "Look, Lily, I'm not here to be a stand-in for all the gays, ok? You ain't Kimmy, and I ain't Titus."
"What does that mean?"
"Do you even own a television?'
"No."
But for all the charm of a mismatched duo on a quest, this is not a novel looking to make anyone feel warm and happy. Peter and Allan were working in a motel where drug dealers and human traffickers were operating and Allan is fully aware of how dangerous these men are and of the bad things going on in the back annex. He knows that even asking around for Peter could get them both killed. But he's a man with a heart despite himself and he liked the seemingly straight-laced Peter, and he's got a clear idea of what could happen to a naive girl like Lily.
So this isn't a novel with a happy ending, but it's also not a hopeless one. What makes this book shine is the complex characters Hinkson has created here. No one is entirely good or bad, and there's a nuance to his portrayal of the members of Lily's church that is rare to find. Allan, an intelligent gay man stuck in a small Southern town caring for his FOX News-watching father, while filling his apartment with books and old movies, is a fantastic character. And Lily may know nothing about the world, but she does know that her child will need a father and she refuses to let her shame at what happened, and for which she is blamed far more than Peter, prevent her doing what she thinks is right.
This is the second book I've read by Hinkson and it won't be my last. It's good stuff.
October 8, 2025
Die 18-Jährige Lily Stevens will den Sheriff sprechen und ihren Verlobten Peter vermisst melden. Sie muss sich sagen lassen, dass es in Conway/Arkansas nur einen Polizei-Chief gibt. Lily ist schwanger von Peter und – anders als Chief Reid und die Mitglieder der strenggläubigen Pfingstgemeinde - überzeugt, dass er sie und das gemeinsame Kind nicht allein lassen würde. Sie wird Peter suchen, um seinen Ruf wiederherzustellen, und Gott wird das hinnehmen müssen. Auch wenn Lily gelernt hat, dass alles außerhalb der Gemeinde sündig ist, von Büchern, Farbigen, über die nächste Stadt Little Rock bis zu weltlichen Universitäten, geht sie entschlossen ans Werk. Ihre Anzeige hat die kleine Gemeinde aufgewühlt; ihr Vater David wird sich einer Abstimmung stellen müssen, ob er als Prediger noch tragbar ist, nachdem er seine Tochter nicht mit harter Hand im Zaum halten konnte. Dass Lily und Peter ein Kind erwarten, bringt die tratschsüchtige, pharisäerhafte Seite der Gemeinde zum Vorschein, zu deren Opfer überraschend Peters Kollege Allan wird.
Peter galt, zumindest in den Augen seines streng religiösen Umfelds, als unzuverlässiger Zeitgenosse, mit der Kirchengemeinde über Kreuz, arbeitete er nach abgebrochenem Studium im Hotel Corinthian Inn. Sein älterer Kollege Allan reagiert ungewöhnlich zögernd auf Lilys Nachforschungen, so dass man darüber grübeln könnte, ob es andere Gründe für Peters Verschwinden geben könnte als Konflikte um Lilys Schwangerschaft. Die junge Schwangere ist überzeugt davon, dass es unwichtig ist, ob Peter sie liebt. Er würde das Richtige tun - zurückkehren, sie heiraten und damit alle Probleme aus der Welt schaffen.
Der Prolog lässt bereits ahnen, dass es in Conway hart zur Sache gehen wird. Zuvor liefert Lily sich eine äußerst gefährliche Schnitzeljagd mit Menschen, die krumme Geschäfte zu verbergen haben.
Fazit
In schlichtem journalistischem Präsens vermittelt Jake Hinkson die überraschende Entwicklung einer überaus behüteten Predigertochter, die noch nie allein ihren Heimatort verlassen hat und bisher gehorsam lange Röcke und lange Haare trug.
Peter galt, zumindest in den Augen seines streng religiösen Umfelds, als unzuverlässiger Zeitgenosse, mit der Kirchengemeinde über Kreuz, arbeitete er nach abgebrochenem Studium im Hotel Corinthian Inn. Sein älterer Kollege Allan reagiert ungewöhnlich zögernd auf Lilys Nachforschungen, so dass man darüber grübeln könnte, ob es andere Gründe für Peters Verschwinden geben könnte als Konflikte um Lilys Schwangerschaft. Die junge Schwangere ist überzeugt davon, dass es unwichtig ist, ob Peter sie liebt. Er würde das Richtige tun - zurückkehren, sie heiraten und damit alle Probleme aus der Welt schaffen.
Der Prolog lässt bereits ahnen, dass es in Conway hart zur Sache gehen wird. Zuvor liefert Lily sich eine äußerst gefährliche Schnitzeljagd mit Menschen, die krumme Geschäfte zu verbergen haben.
Fazit
In schlichtem journalistischem Präsens vermittelt Jake Hinkson die überraschende Entwicklung einer überaus behüteten Predigertochter, die noch nie allein ihren Heimatort verlassen hat und bisher gehorsam lange Röcke und lange Haare trug.
March 16, 2023
'Find Him' is a competent entry in the 'hillbilly noir' genre. The writing is bare bones, the characters well-drawn, and the rough edges of the mid-south part of the country (which I'm pretty familiar with) are accurately portrayed. The part that an unfamiliar religion plays in the story was slightly overdone but interesting nonetheless.
The protagonist, Lily Stevens, is the knocked-up 18 year old daughter of a Pentecostal pastor and his wife living in scenic Conway, Arkansas. The father of Lily's unborn child, Peter, absconds a couple days before his planned wedding to Lily, leaving her, as you can imagine, distraught. So distraught that she spends the entire novel looking for him. The fact that Lily became pregnant out of wedlock was a severe blow to her family, particularly her preacher-father, and the wedding was supposed to erase at least some of the shame. Although she has led what sounded like the most sheltered life on the planet, Lily leverages a family connection to make some progress on finding Peter's whereabouts. In the process she manages to get on the wrong side of a couple local violent criminals who also happen to be looking for him. As her search proceeds, her unborn child continues to grow and she and her relative discover some really ugly stuff her 'baby daddy' may be involved in.
The religion aspect added an interesting layer to the story. Virtually every one of the non-criminals in Find Him are Pentecostal (their version is called Oneness) and a lot of their decisions and subsequent actions are informed by their beliefs. The relative who helped her happened to be an uncle she didn't know she had until a parishioner revealed a long-concealed scandal. Again, the references to Pentecostal beliefs were an unexpectedly interesting story detail.
All-in-all, Find Him is a solid story about life in a small southern town that has a lot of things under its surface.
The protagonist, Lily Stevens, is the knocked-up 18 year old daughter of a Pentecostal pastor and his wife living in scenic Conway, Arkansas. The father of Lily's unborn child, Peter, absconds a couple days before his planned wedding to Lily, leaving her, as you can imagine, distraught. So distraught that she spends the entire novel looking for him. The fact that Lily became pregnant out of wedlock was a severe blow to her family, particularly her preacher-father, and the wedding was supposed to erase at least some of the shame. Although she has led what sounded like the most sheltered life on the planet, Lily leverages a family connection to make some progress on finding Peter's whereabouts. In the process she manages to get on the wrong side of a couple local violent criminals who also happen to be looking for him. As her search proceeds, her unborn child continues to grow and she and her relative discover some really ugly stuff her 'baby daddy' may be involved in.
The religion aspect added an interesting layer to the story. Virtually every one of the non-criminals in Find Him are Pentecostal (their version is called Oneness) and a lot of their decisions and subsequent actions are informed by their beliefs. The relative who helped her happened to be an uncle she didn't know she had until a parishioner revealed a long-concealed scandal. Again, the references to Pentecostal beliefs were an unexpectedly interesting story detail.
All-in-all, Find Him is a solid story about life in a small southern town that has a lot of things under its surface.
January 26, 2023
I was annoyed with the language in this book and yet I got caught up with the story of a Oneness Pentecostal young girl trying to find her runaway fiance. Not that she was so sure she still loved him but because she wanted him to do the right thing and be a father to their soon-to-be-born baby. Lily Stevens, at only age 18, is a strong-willed, determined young girl despite the shame of being pregnant out-of-wedlock, especially as she is the daughter of the preacher for their Oneness Pentecostal church in Arkansas. (Fascinating detail about this religious group.) Lily discovers much about herself and her strengths as she works to track him down despite everyone else, including both families, their congregation, and the police. They believe Peter has just run away to avoid getting married but she is positive that is not so. In her search to find him, she uncovers truths about Peter that is unexpected, meets another woman pregnant by him, learns details of a scandal in her own family, and discovers an uncle who has been shunned by her family all their life (he's maybe my favorite character). It is ironic that the language in the book was so off-putting to me, considering half the characters are devout members in the religious Oneness community who strive for righteous behaviors, language, and attitudes emulating God. The search for Peter and the shocking revelations kept me reading even though I often found the language distasteful. Despite the evil and hypocrisy and hopelessness that is revealed, the balance of realistic family relationships and love give hope for a better world.
February 20, 2023
Dans une petite ville très conservatrice du fin fond des États-Unis, une jeune femme enceinte est sur le point de se marier. Alors, son compagnon se volatilise et reste introuvable. Même si toute la ville est persuadée qu'il a fui ses responsabilités, Lily est quant à elle sûre que quelque chose lui est arrivé...
C'est encore une fois avec les éditions Gallmeister un récit très qualitatif ! Ce n'est pas qu'un simple thriller avec disparition, mais une réelle réflexion de l'auteur, menée sur des sujets très actuels : la précarité, la religion, les discriminations, le proxénétisme mais surtout les rumeurs et clichés en tous genres. L'auteur interroge les moeurs bien trop établies dans notre société et nous offre réellement de quoi réfléchir.
Lily m'a beaucoup touché tant ce qui lui arrive m'a attristé. Elle n'est clairement pas prête pour vivre tout cela et ça m'a bouleversé. Je me suis aussi beaucoup attaché à d'autres personnages et j'en ai évidemment cordialement détesté quelques-uns.
En définitive, "Rattrape-le" est un très bon roman policier, mené d'une main de maître par un auteur talentueux !
C'est encore une fois avec les éditions Gallmeister un récit très qualitatif ! Ce n'est pas qu'un simple thriller avec disparition, mais une réelle réflexion de l'auteur, menée sur des sujets très actuels : la précarité, la religion, les discriminations, le proxénétisme mais surtout les rumeurs et clichés en tous genres. L'auteur interroge les moeurs bien trop établies dans notre société et nous offre réellement de quoi réfléchir.
Lily m'a beaucoup touché tant ce qui lui arrive m'a attristé. Elle n'est clairement pas prête pour vivre tout cela et ça m'a bouleversé. Je me suis aussi beaucoup attaché à d'autres personnages et j'en ai évidemment cordialement détesté quelques-uns.
En définitive, "Rattrape-le" est un très bon roman policier, mené d'une main de maître par un auteur talentueux !
January 17, 2023
I randomly picked this book up from the library based on title and cover (I know, I know). But I don't do that often - I'm usually going in looking for a very specific pick and so was pleasantly surprised with this one.
The characters are great - the main girl in the book comes from an uber-religious sect of the Pentecostal religion and she is currently pregnant and the father of her baby is nowhere to be found.
This is always tragic but particularly tragic in this case with her being the preacher's daughter and all the judgment that brings. We meet a cast of characters - most of them - not so great. By not so great, I mean, evil, bad men and whatever the baby daddy has gotten himself into is not looking so great.
I appreciate that the author wasn't going to wrap this up nicely for anyone. If you're looking for a feel-good story, this isn't it. Some of the reviews have compared this book to the TV show Mare of Eastown, and I wouldn't disagree (although this ending is not as shocking, or satisfying).
The characters are great - the main girl in the book comes from an uber-religious sect of the Pentecostal religion and she is currently pregnant and the father of her baby is nowhere to be found.
This is always tragic but particularly tragic in this case with her being the preacher's daughter and all the judgment that brings. We meet a cast of characters - most of them - not so great. By not so great, I mean, evil, bad men and whatever the baby daddy has gotten himself into is not looking so great.
I appreciate that the author wasn't going to wrap this up nicely for anyone. If you're looking for a feel-good story, this isn't it. Some of the reviews have compared this book to the TV show Mare of Eastown, and I wouldn't disagree (although this ending is not as shocking, or satisfying).
December 27, 2022
What is it about the deep south and Pentecostal families that intrigues me so much? All of Hinkson's books that I have read are set in the same post-fall garden of Eden! All involve sins of the flesh, but most lack the salvation that might be anticipated from such a holier than thou subset of humanity.
The protagonist is having an out of wedlock baby... to a man who has seemingly disappeared. The novel is about her search for him, but along the way she finds out all kinds of things she really does not want to know.
This book is about the characters, the story seems a little thin. Speaking of characters, I especially like the tall balky gay desk clerk that turns out to be a half brother of the protag's mother (I think that right!)
It must be that gaze to the other side of the tracks that captures my attention! Although not my favorite Hinkson, it is well worth the read and the ride.
The protagonist is having an out of wedlock baby... to a man who has seemingly disappeared. The novel is about her search for him, but along the way she finds out all kinds of things she really does not want to know.
This book is about the characters, the story seems a little thin. Speaking of characters, I especially like the tall balky gay desk clerk that turns out to be a half brother of the protag's mother (I think that right!)
It must be that gaze to the other side of the tracks that captures my attention! Although not my favorite Hinkson, it is well worth the read and the ride.
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May 30, 2023I'm not usually big on mysteries, and the small-town protagonist who finds her/himself coming up against the rotting underbelly of the larger world is certainly nothing new. But Jake Hinkson is great at taking an old premise and changing up the details. The story doesn't fall into the trap of some of the cliches I thought it would and the sense of place is excellent. The two main characters, Lily Stevens and Allan Woodson are a likable, "odd couple" duo. While I still found my eyes rolling at a few details, (why does it seem that protagonists in many mysteries or thrillers open their mouths and reveal all their cards at pivotal moments within volatile situations?) overall, I enjoyed my time in this setting, with these characters.
September 24, 2023
Find Him is ahead of its peers in the Southern Gothic Noir sub genre. The tale of a pregnant seventeen year old Pentecostal youth determined to find out what happened to her missing boyfriend. This is now the second or third book I’ve read this year about the underbelly of Arkansas. The secret to a good modern noir? A scary and human villain. Eli Buck fills that roll beautifully in this one.
December 28, 2023
The writing isn’t great and it feels very inauthentic. Someone has watched Breaking Bad or a similarly gritty show and decided to write a book.
But it’s a compelling story with plenty of suspense, twists, and shocking violence. And I like the relationship between Allan and Lily.
Good storytelling overall, but flawed, to say the least.
But it’s a compelling story with plenty of suspense, twists, and shocking violence. And I like the relationship between Allan and Lily.
Good storytelling overall, but flawed, to say the least.
September 12, 2024
Reading this hot on the heels of Dry County was probably a bad idea. Dry County packed a massive punch towards its climax, whereas this lacks the gut punch ending of that book, it does have a more linear story.
Lily is a flawed protagonist though, which a really enjoyed, I spend a lot of the time thinking “that was a stupid decision Lily!!”
Lily is a flawed protagonist though, which a really enjoyed, I spend a lot of the time thinking “that was a stupid decision Lily!!”
November 14, 2022
Amazing just amazing. Great story. If I could only get my hands on The Big Ugly and St. Homicide. Would be great if those could be brought back into print.
December 5, 2022
It was okay. Super religion based, which I wasn’t expecting so much of. There was a decent little twist at the end.
December 21, 2022
Interesting insight into the Pentecostals. Very intense ending; almost as if the author was cramming all violence into one chapter in a hurry to finish but still a decent read.
January 26, 2023
3.75*
February 22, 2023
Hinkson never disappoints, 4 + stars
February 27, 2023
Once you get over the fact that a third grader could have wrote this, after your eyes roll out of your head from the Pentecostal situation, it’s just ok. A little bit of a twist ending.
February 27, 2023
This was pretty good surprise ending. Good view of a legalistic church.
March 3, 2023
Enjoyed - hinkson has good flow - pace is ok story and characters are ok but his flow is excellent
March 4, 2023
The writing wasn't the best, but maybe that's on purpose given the setting. Definitely didn't see the ending coming.
March 12, 2023
Couldn’t it put it down!!!!!
March 17, 2023
The general idea of this book is very good but it moved very slow for me, I skipped through a couple pages because I just couldn’t keep my attention on it
April 11, 2023
I hated every single dumb character.
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