Down River John Hart Thomas Dunne 2007 Isbn 9780312359317

John Hart returns with his second crime novel featuring Southern lawyer Adam Chase, who returns home to North Carolina after a five year absence to once again fight the scorn and abandonment of his family and to defend himself and solve multiple murders. Hart's books have recieved excellent critical priase, they have even been described as the mystery as literature. Hart's plotting, however, is borrowed from James Lee Burke and Ross MacDonald outtakes, that use family lies and deception to spur the narrative along. None of his characters can figure out the obvious, no one ever asks a direct or relevant question and there is so much contrived drama and emotion that the reader never gets the feeling that the characters act like real people.

In the past several years, St Martin has published many outstanding new authors. Crime writers such as Blake Crouch, Lono Waiwaiole, Duane Swiercznski, Steve Hockensmith, Michael Koryta, Gene Riehl, Zoe Sharp and J. D. Rhodes are all excellent but receive little or no help from the publisher, almost as if they don't care.

Hart has recieved huge backing from St Martin for Down River, he does have a fine, lyrical narrative, there is alot of potential here. This is the kind of crime novel that tries to hide it's genre and will probably appeal to readers who are poorly read in mysteries. But if Down River is modern literature then Michael Connelly, James Lee Burke, Bernard Cornwell, Minette Walters, James Ellroy, Dennis Lehane and the other top fiction authors working today will replace Tolstoy, Melville and Hemingway.

Richard