STARVATION LAKE:
A Gus Carpenter Mystery (first in series)
By Bryan Gruley
Touchstone, 2009 ($14.00)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-6362-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-6362-4
Reviewed by Katherine Petersen
The town of Starvation remembers Gus Carpenter for his inability to stop the winning goal in a state championship hockey game. But he’s most affected by the rebuff of Coach Jack Blackburn who brought the team to its height but also served as a spokesperson for the town itself. After graduation, Gus fled Starvation, a town on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and his loser status, for a reporter position at the Detroit Times. But trouble follows Gus wherever he goes, and he finds himself embroiled in an investigative story where his ethics are put on the line and he is forced to resign. So he returns to Starvation Lake as the associate editor of the town’s newspaper, the Pine County Pilot. During his time away, Blackburn died during a snowmobiling accident on one of the nearby lakes.
Gus stumbles across a story that could change his views of Starvation Lake and its inhabitants including himself. Gus senses there is much more to the story when Jack’s snowmobile washes up on the shore of a different lake with a bullet hole in it. Gus determines to find out what really happened. But Gus finds out he may not have known the man at all as he interviews the townspeople, explores newspaper archives and searches his soul for answers.
Bryan Gruley’s debut novel, and the first in his mystery series starring Gus Carpenter, gives us a wonderfully flawed hero and a well-articulated supporting cast. Gruley clearly knows small-town life well as the town of Starvation plays as important a role as Gus himself. Smart readers will see the twist coming, and patient readers will forgive the lag in the middle of the book, filled with too much back-story and overly detailed hockey games. While many of the stories prompt interest and have relevance, they appear to be strung together to almost put off continuing the action. This central slowdown stands out so much against the fast-moving and clever plot handling in both beginning and end of the novel. Gruley definitely has talent, and readers will appreciate his descriptions, dialogue and well-drawn characters. I look forward to reacquainting myself with Gus and other Starvation residents in his next installment.
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