Dark Currents

Dark Currents

  • Downloads:9903
  • Type:Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date:2021-02-03 04:17:29
  • Update Date:2025-09-06
  • Status:finish
  • Author:Doug Burgess
  • ISBN:9781728223216
  • Environment:PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Summary

Notes From Your Bookseller

Dark Currents reminds us that our parents and grandparents had lives before we arrived on the scene。 The book's mystery is not only that of a dead body — but of all the lives that surrounded the body。 What do we remember? How do we see ourselves? How do others see us? It's these mysteries of life that make this novel an engaging read。

No one ever talks about what happens in Little Compton。。。

When David left home three years ago, he never looked back。 Now, the only connection to his tiny New England hometown is his grandmother Maggie, whose mind is unraveling as she slowly succumbs to dementia。 But when her best friend turns up dead and she may be the sole witness to the crime, David has no choice but to return to a place that never accepted his trans identity and only ever wanted him gone。

Maggie's testimony is shrouded in doubt—in between moments of lucidity she talks about things that never happened, about apparitions, disappearances, and murders。 But are they really only stories? After a man's death sets off a hauntingly familiar chain of events, it seems there's some truth to Maggie's words。

With a body count on the rise, David begrudgingly tunes back into the rural voices of the tight-knit community to seek out the truth。 And while David returns home a changed man, he finds that the ghosts of his past have waited for him。 He'll have to face them head-on before he can begin to unravel his grandmother's story and finally put to rest the mysteries of this little town, lost in the fog。

Even if no one talks about what happens in Little Compton, the dark currents beneath the silence create baffling crime puzzles for transgender sleuth David to unravel, and promise that the past is never sunk as deep as we think。

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Reviews

B&NJulesH

At times Dark Currents is as tough as a New England fall and winter。 It changes courses faster than a Northeaster。 At other points, the novel is quite touching and sensitive。 This is a mystery that will surprise you all the way until the last chapter。

Bandit

I’m delighted to be the first person to rate and review this book。 Actually, I’m kind of surprised to be, it’s a thriller from a proper publisher, in fact a reworking of an earlier shorter work and it’s really good, with a nice cover even。 I didn’t even expect it to be this good, hoped it would be, but you know how it is with trying new authors and thriller genre is way overpopulated now and all that。 Plus it featured a trans protagonist and oftentimes such things can steal focus, but here it w I’m delighted to be the first person to rate and review this book。 Actually, I’m kind of surprised to be, it’s a thriller from a proper publisher, in fact a reworking of an earlier shorter work and it’s really good, with a nice cover even。 I didn’t even expect it to be this good, hoped it would be, but you know how it is with trying new authors and thriller genre is way overpopulated now and all that。 Plus it featured a trans protagonist and oftentimes such things can steal focus, but here it was actually done right。 Which is to say it was an aspect of the narrative and an aspect of the protagonist, but not the entire thing nor even the main thing。 Because no one should be defined by any single thing about them, even if it’s an unusual or less conventional of a feature。 So yes, David is a trans man, he left his small Rhode Island town as a woman and came back transitioned, a fact that some of the locals are dealing with easier than others。 For the local sheriff who used to date David before, it’s all kinds of difficult。 For David’s grandma Maggie it’s an on and off process, like most things, since her mind began to unravel。 But her best lifelong friends, David’s aunts as he calls them, it’s totally fine, they are as accepting as can be。 In fact, they are as golden as golden girls can be。 Until one of them is found dead。 Possibly murdered。 David would have come back anyway, having gotten fired from his teaching position on discrimination basis, but it’s the urgent call from his grandma that speeds up the process。 Now he’s back as a caretaker and finds himself embroiled further and further in the investigation。 And then the body count goes up。 And winter surrounds the small peninsular insular community, like the grey waters of Narragansett bay。 It’s a proper New England mystery in that way。 It’s a proper mystery is many ways, actually。 There’s lots going on, plenty of players, variously entangled, both in past and present。 In fact, some of the novel’s best stories are set in the past and recorded by David, whose historical based vocation makes him in a way a perfect detective to solve these crimes。 And while the plot is excellently elaborate, what really sang for me were the characters, specifically the older ladies。 David’s nice, Billy’s nice, but nice only goes so far。 The ladies were fun, smart, tough, surprisingly able for their advanced years and very good at taking care of their own。 No quiet retirement for them, they’ve been operating a local salvaging service for decades。 Each of them a very different personality, but together they were the four musketeers of Narragansett bay…until they weren’t。 So I very much enjoyed them as characters, especially Connie。 Mystery wise, the novel presented an excellent number of the prerequisite plot turns and twists, right up until a gutpuncher in the very end。 There are even slight supernatural aspects to it or maybe ghosts are just too inextricable from the fabric of old New England。 Tone wise it varied, overall it’s fairly dramatic, it got pretty heavy at times, but then there were all these humorous times, mostly courtesy of Maggie’s dementia addled brain and there was even some romance thrown in。 Something for everyone。 And a great atmospheric location to frame it all。 It almost would have been/might have been cozy what with the small town and grandmotherly characters, but it was definitely (fortunately) too dark for that。 Plus technically not all ladies of a certain age are grandmotherly。 Some are positively piratical in their bones。 At any rate, I really enjoyed this book, from the story to the storytelling。 Recommended。 Thanks Netgalley。 。。。more