-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by B. R. Robb
Richard Hill's innocent belief that love between his black father and white mother created him, that he is proof of a good and purposeful God, ends at age eight when a neo-Nazi youth rapes his mother and murders her and his father. Richard survives, a witness to violence and, he believes, his own cowardice. On the strength of Richard's testimony, a white jury convicts Henry Clayton, a teen bearing swastika tattoos, and sentences him to death. His future in ruins, Richard soon perceives that the mix of his parents satisfies neither side.
Sixteen years after the murders, Richard receives a letter from the prosecutor's office. DNA evidence has exonerated Henry Clayton. Richard is the man who remains imprisoned, alone within his discredited nightmare. Henry Clayton soon arrives, dressed in the clothes of a preacher, claiming rebirth, extending his hand not only to return Richard to faith, but to use this faith to find the real killer. Even as Richard begins to take a step in a new direction, his youth and voices from his past reach out to oppose Clayton.
But how can a traumatized memory from so long ago defeat a perfect science? Its frightening insight into the best and worst of men and their institutions, thoughtful intrigue, and superb attack upon preconceptions make River Ghosts a mystery devoid of coincidences or tidy endings, that will grip readers from the stunning opening to its powerful last page.
"Robb depicts Henry's terror campaign and Richard's hunger for justice with steely eloquence." - Publishers Weekly.
"Starred Review. The pseudonymous Robb, an attorney, writes with the chilling clarity of Alice Sebold. Read it and weep." - Kirkus Reviews.
"The fulsomeness of fragments and staccato sentences, normally reserved for action sequences, lends the entire work an urgency that matches the main character's need for truth; a need that impels the work along like a gale wind against the back." - Foreword Magazine.
This information about River Ghosts 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.
Robb is the pseudonym of Bruce Steinberg who published his first novel, The Widow's Son, under his own name.
If you liked River Ghosts, try these:
by Ron Rash
Published 2021
From bestselling and award-winning writer Ron Rash ("One of the great American authors at work today."--the New York Times) comes a collection of ten searing stories and the return of the villainess who propelled Serena to national acclaim, in a long-awaited novella.
by Deb Olin Unferth
Published 2020
An unforgettably exuberant and potent novel by a writer at the height of her powers.
by Sloane Crosley
Published 2019
A brand-new collection of essays filled with hilarity, wit, and charm. The characteristic heart and punch-packing observations are back, but with a newfound coat of maturity. A thin coat. More of a blazer, really.
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
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.
