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Staff Pick
Consistently surprising, though always in a completely earned way, Grist Mill Road is a remarkable and unusual thriller that transcends its genre to become a darkly literary exploration of character and what it means to reckon with our pasts. Recommended By Jill O., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The first great literary thriller of 2018
26 years ago Hannah had her eye shot out. Now she wants justice. But is she blind to the truth?
Christopher J. Yates’s cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates’s new book does not disappoint. Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends—Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah—are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again—with even more devastating results.
Review
"The reader’s sympathies shift as each character brings a different perspective to the events that shaped them. Unexpected twists keep the tension high." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Dark, intense, and disturbing, Christopher Yates’s Grist Mill Road begins with a shock and keeps the suspense burning page after page. A thriller with imagination to spare. Highly recommended." Krysten Ritter, author of Bonfire
Review
"The plot is darkly, intricately layered, full of pitfalls and switchbacks, smart and funny and moving and merciless; the characters are all that and more." Tana French, author of the New York Times bestselling In the Woods and The Trespasser
About the Author
Christopher J. Yates was born and raised in Kent and studied law at Oxford University before working as a puzzle editor in London. He lives in New York City with his wife and dog. His first book, Black Chalk, was an NPR "Best of the Year" selection.
Christopher J. Yates on PowellsBooks.Blog
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