Members, remember to participate in our free book programs by Saturday!

Book Summary and Reviews of Distant Sons by Tim Johnston

Distant Sons by Tim Johnston

Distant Sons

by Tim Johnston

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Readers' Rating:
  • Published:
  • Oct 2023, 400 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

New York Times bestselling author of Descent and The Current Tim Johnston returns with an absorbing new crime novel set in a small Wisconsin town haunted by the unsolved disappearance of three boys in the 1970s.

What if?

What if Sean Courtland's old Chevy truck had broken down somewhere else? What if he'd never met Denise Givens, a waitress at a local tavern, and gotten into a bar fight defending her honor? Or offered a ride and a job to Dan Young, another young man like Sean, burdened by secrets and just drifting through town?

Instead, over the course of just a few short weeks, Sean and Dan form a deep friendship as they get drawn into the lives of the people they meet—from Denise and her father, to Marion Devereaux, who needs some work done on his house, to Corinne Viegas, a savvy detective with top-notch instincts—all haunted in different ways by the disappearance of three young boys decades ago, in the 1970s. And as these characters converge, an irreversible chain of events is set in motion that culminates in shattering violence, and the revelation of long-buried truths.

Evocative and gritty, Distant Sons is another immersive, gripping suspense novel by Johnston about how the most random intersection of lives can have consequences both devastating and beautiful.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Johnston writes with such care, understanding, even love for the flawed humans in his story that it's almost too much. Readers may wish to look away from the damage these characters inevitably do to themselves and each other, but if we persist, we will bear witness to their moments of pain and tragedy. The reward: We are treated to occasions of such care that it's almost redemptive. A slow-burn novel that quietly elevates the fragile codes of honorable men." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"This disturbing but ultimately redeeming story may remind detective-fiction aficionados of Thomas H. Cook's Mortal Memory. Like Cook, Johnston writes with care for what words mean and how they hit. An exceptional novel." —Library Journal

"Distant Sons is a mystery about a serial killer, yes, but it's also not that at all: It's a heartbreaking story about family, failure, and the fallout from violence. Tim Johnston has crafted a riveting novel that takes us into struggling blue collar America, and locates the hope hidden inside devastating loss. A beautiful book." —Janelle Brown, bestselling author of Pretty Things

"Tim Johnston has once again raised the bar for the literary thriller. Distant Sons is elegant and edgy, refined and complex. It excavates the truth from the darkest recesses of the past and shines a light towards the possibility of a redemptive future." —Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women and Sing Her Down

"Tim Johnston returns in dazzling form with Distant Sons, an intricate, haunting novel sure to resonate with fans of Dennis Lehane, Peter Heller, and James Lee Burke. Johnston's plot is tense and his pacing swift, but he's after bigger game here, with questions of identity, intentions, and legacies merging in a tale that will linger long after it is finished. He's also one of the finest prose stylists in the game, stacking polished sentences with a master's touch. Don't miss this one." —Michael Koryta, New York Times bestselling author of An Honest Man

This information about Distant Sons was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Techeditor

Loan this book but don't give it away
I've read two other novels by Tim Johnston and liked them both, but this one, DISTANT SONS, is his best. It kept me up reading long past my bedtime, and when I sat down to eat, this book came with me. There's a lot going on here, the best kind of mystery, with more than one mystery.

The main character in DISTANT SONS is 26-year-old Sean Courtland, who was the teenage son in Johnston's book DESCENT. He is now a wandering carpenter and has found work where he stopped accidentally. Courtland has contracted for a job in the home of Marion Devereaux, long suspected by some of murdering three boys 40-some years ago. Devereux also has an uncle, now gone, no one knows where.

Another mystery comes with Dan Young, a 29-year-old man who Courtland meets and who ends up working on Devereaux's job with him. Young is from Minnesota and has no vehicle or phone.

As a result of Courtland's experience with his sister in DESCENT, he now sometimes defends women who are victims of men. This is how he meets Denise Givins, a waitress. He gets in a fight with a man who is hassling Givens. And that man doesn't go away; more trouble awaits.

Johnston is not only a great storyteller; he's also a wonderful writer. He's so good you'll even want to read his descriptive paragraphs, the parts you might skip in another book. For example, Johnston doesn't just say, "It was a nice day." He describes the day, simply but beautifully.

This book is a keeper. Loan it but don't give it away.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Tim Johnston Author Biography

Photo: Dave Boerger

Tim Johnston is the author of the novels Distant Sons, Descent, The Current, the story collection Irish Girl, and the Young Adult novel Never So Green. A New York Times, USA Today, and Indie national bestseller, Descent has been published internationally and optioned for film. Also optioned for film, The Current won the Midland Authors 2020 Adult Fiction Award. The stories of Irish Girl won an O. Henry Prize, the New Letters Award for Writers, and the Gival Press Short Story Award, while the collection itself won the 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. Tim's stories have appeared in New England Review, New Letters, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Double Take, Best Life Magazine, and Narrative Magazine, among others. After earning degrees from the University of Iowa and...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Tim Johnston's Website

Other books by Tim Johnston at BookBrowse
  • Descent jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more thrillers...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Rental House
    Rental House
    by Weike Wang
    For many of us, vacations offer an escape from the everyday — a chance to explore new places, ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Frozen River
    by Ariel Lawhon
    "I cannot say why it is so important that I make this daily record. Perhaps because I have been ...
  • Book Jacket: Everything We Never Had
    Everything We Never Had
    by Randy Ribay
    Francisco Maghabol has recently arrived in California from the Philippines, eager to earn money to ...
  • Book Jacket: The Demon of Unrest
    The Demon of Unrest
    by Erik Larson
    In the aftermath of the 1860 presidential election, the divided United States began to collapse as ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Berry Pickers
by Amanda Peters
A four-year-old Mi'kmaq girl disappears, leaving a mystery unsolved for fifty years.
Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

The only completely consistent people are the dead

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.