This story follows siblings Bowman and Summer. Both raised by their father and two uncles on a remote ranch in Colorado, the two have gone their separate ways and haven't seen each other in years. But now, both in their 30s, they receive information that their grandfather left them a secret inheritance. One that, unbeknownst to them at the time, would bring new danger to their family ranch that they spent so long keeping safe.
I think the most stand-out element of this book for me was the prose. This is my first read from McLaughlin, but after skimming through some reviews of his other works, it seems like this writing style is one of his signatures. It had a more literary quality than I normally prefer in my thriller plots, but he found a good balance of when to really lean into that and when to leave it out. A lot of the more literary (dare I say even flowery) sections were surrounding a particular character who really leans into the more mystical or magical way of the natural world. It doesn't go far enough for this to feel like a fantasy but rather stays more grounded in reality and explores the ways humans can be more connected and attuned to nature. I think it is a good thing that this book is being marketed as a general fiction with a thriller plot because these more literary sections do drag down the pacing of that thriller plot but I think overall they really make this story stand out from similar works.
The pacing was also fantastic and really built up well over the course of the book. I loved the way we are just dropped into this isolated setting without any real introduction and the book just goes from there. We don't get into the thriller-y elements until around the 40% mark but once that plot kicks in, we are pretty much full throttle until the end. McLaughlin does a great job at increasing the tension bit by bit so that it is a gradual tightening as you read. The pacing in the last 25% was really fast and I wish it would have been brought down just a bit. I ended up having to re-read passages with the reveals because the connections and explanations were just coming a little too fast for my brain to process them. We do get a few wrap-up chapters after all the action to tie up any ends and flesh out a little bit of the fall out of the events.
There is a dual timeline element and while I normally love a dual timeline, in this case I felt like it was maybe used too much. I think if the past timeline chapters were shorter or overall we spent less time in that timeline, I don't think it would have detracted from the story. We get a good amount of a character mentioning a certain event off-hand in the present time and then seeing that event play out in the past but there often was such a long delay between that by the time we see the event in the past I wasn't really intrigued anymore. Most of the past timeline also focused on the interpersonal details and character development that, while interesting and well written, didn't quite hold my interest as well as the more thriller-y plot that was happening in the present. This is really going to come down to reader preference, because I can see readers who do enjoy more literary fiction to not be as bothered by these past timeline chapters.
The character dynamics are really great and it is interesting how relatively little backstory we get throughout the story. It feels like we don't have a lot of concrete details about these characters but their interpersonal dynamics really speak volumes. The POV in the story bounces around a fair bit so we get some inner thoughts of some of the characters which helped me not feel too disconnected given the minimal information. I do wish we could have seen more of these characters interacting with other people because of their unconventional upbringing and education. I found a good amount of this story focused on the relationship between Summer and Bowman and while I don't have a brother, I did feel like their sibling dynamic was authentic. I think McLaughlin finds that perfect balance of siblings being infuriated at each other one minute but then best friends the next.
Overall, this was a really fun read. The prose was more literary than I was expecting, but I loved the way that contrasted with a very action movie-esque plot. The characters were interesting and their relationships were dynamic. I enjoyed the dual timeline element but wished it was used just a tad less overall.
Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC
Expected publication date is April 4, 2023
