Pickard County Atlas

Starred review from November 9, 2020
In Thornton’s impressive debut, a hard-edged noir set in 1978 Nebraska, Pickard County deputy sheriff Harley Jensen has to deal with an unresolved case involving the missing body of a murdered child. In 1960, seven-year-old Dell Reddick startled farmhand Rollie Asher, a Korean War vet suffering from PTSD, who lashed out with a shovel, crushing the boy’s skull. Asher phoned the sheriff to report what he’d done, but neglected to say where he put the body before blowing out his brains. Despite Jensen’s dogged efforts at the time, the remains were never found, and the open wound shaped the subsequent lives of the boy’s family members. Whatever healing took place in the years since is threatened by Dell’s father’s decision in 1978 to finally erect a headstone for his son, even though he doesn’t know the body’s location. Jensen gets enmeshed in the lives of the Reddick family as he crosses paths repeatedly with Dell’s younger brother, Paul, who may be involved with drugs and arson, and becomes emotionally involved with the wife of Dell’s other brother, Rick. The gut punch of an ending is satisfyingly bleak and an appropriate match for the book’s downbeat tone. Thornton’s superior gift for evocative prose (“The glare blotted out all else. North-central Nebraska, the spot where sand met loam, rose and fell around him, cast black against the shadow of sky”) augurs well for her next work. Fans of Lou Berney will be pleased. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman.

November 15, 2020
Buried secrets and more recent betrayals prompt conflict in this slow-burning crime novel. Thornton's novel chronicles the interwoven lives of several small-town Nebraska residents as they grapple with past trauma. The year is 1978, but a death that occurred years earlier provides the novel with its inciting incident. "Dell Junior, the oldest of three Reddick boys, was seven when he was killed by a farmhand named Rollie Asher," Thornton writes. It's something that's led to plenty of trauma within the Reddick family, made even worse because the boy's body was never found. The novel opens with sheriff's deputy Harley Jensen encountering Dell Junior's brother Paul and observing that "the only thing young about Paul was the age on his license." Dell Senior decides to purchase a headstone for his long-dead son, but rather than provide closure to the family and the larger community, it exacerbates existing tensions. While this is a book in which illicit activity takes place with a law enforcement officer at its center, it's a particularly measured variety of crime fiction--more concerned with the state of its characters' souls than the legality (or lack thereof) of their actions. While it takes time to build momentum, the novel ultimately arrives at a heart-wrenching place. All the while, the characterization is helped by Thornton's lean, lyrical prose: "Time stopped again. A pathetic breeze, not cool, lifted the air. He was still in there, still with no light." The slow start can be frustrating, but the narrative payoff is eminently worthwhile. At its best, a gripping meditation on betrayals new and old.

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December 1, 2020

DEBUT Deputy Harley Jensen recognizes every house and piece of land in Pickard County, NE, as he patrols at night. He has a routine, disturbed only when he ventures back to the house where his mother killed herself with a shotgun. Occasionally, he runs into Paul Reddick, a lost soul since the day his older brother Dell Jr. was killed at the age of seven. Dell Jr.'s body was never found, and 18 years later, his father finally holds a service and places a stone. But it's too late for the Reddicks. Paul has always been a troublemaker and instigator, and Harley has watched him for years. It's rumored that Mrs. Reddick is crazy and doesn't leave the house. Paul's brother, Rick, is married to Pam, whom he loves, and has a daughter. But Pam feels trapped and tries to walk out until her mother warns her she's stuck until her daughter turns 18. In a story of misunderstandings and judgments, Harley and the Reddicks are on a collision course that will end in tragedy. VERDICT Thornton's debut rural noir is grim, with a foreboding atmosphere and a story that does not grow more hopeful. Fans of Laura McHugh's The Wolf Wants In may appreciate this dark book.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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