Sunday, December 06, 2009

Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley


Protagonist: Gus Carpenter
Setting: Starvation Lake, Michigan
Rating: 4.5

In this debut novel, journalist Gus Carpenter returns to his hometown in northern Michigan, having been fired from a large Detroit newspaper. Now he's working for a small daily that fills the pages with light-hearted features. That's until police find a snowmobile that belonged to the town's legendary hockey coach in Starvation Lake, miles from where he disappeared years ago. Suddenly, Gus and rookie reporter Joanie are on to a big story. Warning: There's a lot of hockey in this novel -- Gus is forever remembered by townspeople as the goalie who lost the team their state ice-hockey championship and he still plays in an adult league. The amount of hockey detail does bog the book down sometimes. Still, there's a very good mystery here, great characters and wonderful descriptions of the snowy small town of Starvation Lake. This is a stellar debut and I look forward to more from Gruley.

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