BookBrowse Reviews Down River: Following his debut, The King of Lies, John Hart returns to Rowan County, where he drives his characters to the edge, explores the dark side of human nature, and questions the fundamental power of forgiveness

You'll probably find Down River in the mystery section of your local bookstore, but its descriptive writing makes it more than a whodunit. As Publisher Weekly says, "Down River should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature."

The first-person narrative immediately pulls the reader into Adam Chase's mind, setting the tone for what is to come, when, after returning home from a five-year absence, he says, "The river is my earliest memory. Everything that shaped me happened near that river".

Hart continuously and seamlessly weaves the reader through three layers of Adam's thoughts: his traumatic childhood memories, the town's reaction to his...