Amy Pease: Northwoods
This debut by Amy Pease takes on a lot. Her flawed hero, Eli North, is a vet with PTSD and a drinking problem. He’s lost the job he loved, and his wife has left him – plus he works on sufferance for his mother, the sheriff, at the understaffed sheriff’s department in tiny Shaky Lake, Wisconsin. His co-workers don’t think much of him but his mother is doing her very best to pull him forward. He defeats her efforts at almost every turn as addicts tend to do.
As the book opens, Eli ignores a call from work and when he does get to it, it’s a noise complaint. He finds an empty resort cabin with the music playing full blast. He turns it off, and, checking out the nearby dock, finds a boat tied up with a dead body inside. His first panicked thought is that it’s the body of his boy, Andy, but he sees the boy in the boat is too old – he’s a teen. It also becomes clear that the girl he was with is missing.