Dig Two Graves

October 12, 2015
A heart-tugging child-in-peril plot drives this thoughtful crime novel from Powers (Capote in Kansas: A Ghost Story). Ethan “Hercules” Holt won an Olympic decathlon medal in his early 20s amid a steroid doping scandal involving a teammate. Now 39, Ethan is a classics professor at Canaan College, “just south of the Vermont border,” and a single father raising a 13-year-old daughter, Skip, after his wife’s death in a car accident. Following a father-daughter argument, Skip is kidnapped and Ethan receives rhyming notes that detail actions he must perform to get her back, each of which evokes the mythological 12 labors of Hercules, as well as his events in the Olympic decathlon. The kidnapper’s knowledge of Ethan’s past is eerily
complete, and Ethan realizes he faces
a foe out to revenge a wrong he can’t remember committing. Powers nicely depicts the pathos of Ethan’s situation, though the central motif of the “labors” becomes fairly muddled as the story progresses to a twist-filled resolution. Agent: Jennifer Lyons, Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency.

December 1, 2015

In 2000 at the Sydney Summer Olympics, Ethan Holt won the decathlon. Now in his 30s, he has returned to his alma mater to teach the classics and raise his daughter, Skip, after his wife's death. But his life is painfully interrupted when Skip is kidnapped. Ethan has to work with Det. Aretha Mizell, who has her own secrets, as they decipher the bizarre ransom notes written as tricky, rhyming clues. It turns out the kidnapper is tasking Ethan with the modern equivalent of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. Can a former Olympian with a troubled past accomplish them? The plot unfolds in alternating chapters, as Ethan figures out each rhyme and Skip tries to survive her ordeal. VERDICT Powers (The History of Swimming; Capote in Kansas) has crafted an unusually lyrical mystery. Each character is sharply and precisely drawn; the language is carefully polished. The denouement brings to mind the works of Scott Turow or John Lescroat.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2015
Ethan Holt overcomes an abusive childhood and becomes an Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, earning the nickname Hercules from the admiring press. Many years later he is teaching at his college alma mater and struggling to raise his teenage daughter, Skip, after his wife dies in a car accident. Then Skip is kidnapped, and Holt's life careens out of control, especially as the kidnapper has proffered a rhyming list of challenges to be completed in order for Holt to get Skip back. Eventually Holt realizes that he is being asked to perform an updated version of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, suggesting that the kidnapper knows way too much about him, his family, and his childhood. The usual suspense-building kidnapping plot elements are in play here, but they are executed well, and, while there are no real surprises until the very end, the story keeps the reader engaged. This should appeal to readers who enjoy Harlan Coben's or Linwood Barclay's suburban thrillers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)