Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. YatesMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
August 18th 1982 - A horrendous crime is committed in a clearing among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of Swangum mountains, ninety miles north of New York City. What starts out as a innocent day of fun and laughter for Hannah,Matthew and Patrick (Patch) turns into a day of horror that results in Hannah losing her eye,Matthew going to jail and many lives being irreparably damaged because of one senseless act of violence.
2008 - Twenty six years later,the trio are trying to move on with their lives but are still haunted by the terrible events that happened in that clearing when they were younger. They say your past will always catch up with you so it's inevitable that the trio will meet up again and each of them with have to come to terms with their actions,guilt and culpability for what happened so years ago.
The book opens with Patrick recounting his memories of how he reacted when he discovered Matthew shooting Hannah with a BB gun,some background information about Patrick and a short account of events leading up to the shooting. The story continues in chapters that flip back and forth between 1982 and 2008 and is voiced mainly by Patrick but there is also some chapters that are voiced by Hannah and Matthew. In the chapters set in 1982 we learn about the trio's life before the shooting,we learn that Hannah's family are rich and her mother is an annoying drama queen. Patrick's father is an assistant District attorney and Matthew's father was a drunken,sadistic bully. We learn about their school days,how the boy's became friends and their adventures in the Swangum mountains. The author's descriptions of the stunning forest trails and landscape were so vivid,you could close your eyes and imagine running along the trails or sitting on a rock and watching the sunset. The author had also added references to the pop culture and tv shows of the early 80s that conjured up memories of my own teenage years. There was also references to the prejudice and bigotry of the time something that unfortunately is still a sad part of society today even though we like to pretend that we are living in enlightened and accepting times. In 2008 the trio are still haunted by what happened twenty six years ago especially Patrick and Hannah who are both harbouring secrets from that day. Patrick's behaviour is becoming more and more erratic and paranoid,he and Hannah are now married but to me there appeared to be a lot of tension whenever they were together and Hannah seemed to prefer being at work rather than going home. When Matthew contacts Patrick and offers to help him set up the restaurant that Patrick has been writing about on his blog,Patrick is convinced that Matthew is trying to get at Hannah through him so he devises a plan that culminates in a fatal confrontation back at the clearing that has haunted their lives for so many years. My favourite character was Detective Mike McCluskey who was a close friend of Hannah's. I felt a lot of empathy for both Hannah and Matthew in the chapters set in 1982. The beatings that Matthew received from his nasty father were heart breaking and Hannah's mother treated her the same way as I was treated by my own mother.
It is a well written story,the characters were vivid and realistic,you don't find out the truth about what happened in the clearing until towards the end of the book. The descriptions of the landscape around the small town where the trio lived as youngsters were stunning and breath taking. It's not a fast paced story but it is a riveting,mesmerising read that held my attention throughout the whole book.
AUTHOR BIO
Christopher J. Yates was born and raised in Kent and studied law at Oxford University before working as a puzzle editor in London. He now lives in New York City with his wife and dog.
SOCIAL MEDIA
GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/ChristopherJYates
TWITTER : https://mobile.twitter.com/CJ_Yates
PUBLICATION DATE : 9th August 2018
PUBLISHER : Headline
GENRE : Psychological Thriller
PURCHASE HERE....
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Grist-Mill-Road-Everyone-happened-ebook/dp/B07B9YF7RH/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1534623827&sr=1-1&keywords=grist+mill+road
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