The Current

by Tim Johnston

When two young women leave their college campus in the dead of winter for a 700-mile drive north to Minnesota, they suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives in the icy waters of the Black Root River, just miles from home. One girl’s survival, and the other’s death—murder, actually—stun the citizens of a small Minnesota town, thawing memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may yet live among them. One father is forced to relive his agony while another’s greatest desire—to bring a killer to justice—is revitalized . . . and the girl who survived the icy plunge cannot escape the sense that she is connected to that earlier unsolved case by more than a river. Soon enough she’s caught up in an investigation of her own that will unearth long-hidden secrets, and stoke the violence that has long simmered just below the surface of the town. Souls frozen in time, ghosts and demons, the accused and the guilty, all stir to life in this cold northern place where memories, like treachery, run just beneath the ice, and where a young woman can come home but still not be safe.

Brilliantly plotted, unrelentingly suspenseful, and beautifully realized, The Current is a gripping page-turner about how the past holds the key to the future as well as an unbreakable grip on the present.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Suspense, Audiobook, Book Club

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 22, 2019

About the author

Tim Johnston is the author of the novels THE CURRENT and DESCENT, the story collection IRISH GIRL, and the YA novel NEVER SO GREEN. A New York Times, USA Today, and Indie national bestseller, Descent has been published internationally and optioned for film. The stories of Irish Girl won an O. Henry Prize, the New Letters Award for Writers, and the Gival Press Short Story Award, while the collection itself won the 2009 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction. In 2005 the title story, “Irish Girl,” was included in the David Sedaris anthology of favorites, Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. Tim’s stories have also appeared in New England Review, New Letters, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, Double Take, Best Life Magazine, and Narrative Magazine, among others. Tim holds degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A carpenter for most of his adult life, he has also taught creative writing at The George Washington University and the University of Memphis. He is the recipient of the 2015 Iowa Author Award, and currently lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Reviews

[Paula K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Johnston has again written an outstanding literary suspense thriller!

Having been introduced to the author in 2016 with, Descent, I was highly anticipating getting my hands on his next book. The Current did not disappoint! A page turning, psychological crime thriller with many twists and turns, The Current, is a dark, emotional novel filled with tension and rage, guilt and revenge, but also compassion.

Two friends leave college to drive to Minnesota to visit Audrey’s father, retired sheriff Tom Sutter, as he is getting close to the end with cancer. A stop at a gas station in Iowa not far from the Minnesota border brings about an unfortunate event never expected. Hurrying to get back on the road again in the harsh, cold winter, their car goes off the side of the road and unexpectedly plungs into the Black Root River.

This book brings to life the atmosphere of small town living. Ten years ago a similar accident caused the death of a young girl, Holly, by drowning in the same river. Circumstances put a young man, Danny Young, under suspicion, but he was never convicted. Filled with likable characters, Johnston shows both sides to each individual. Their kindness, but also the hidden darkness inside all. I loved the storyline centering on Wyatt, a rescued dog of Danny’s, that plays on your heartstrings throughout the book.

This is a book about how people, whether they be family, neighbors, or friends, look at a person under suspicion ever if cleared, and which changes their life forever. This is about the strength of two young women under devastating circumstances.

Written with beautiful prose, Tim Johnston’s book is his second to be added to my favorite book list. With so many thrillers out there, The Current, stands above them.

Highly recommend.

5 out of 5 stars

Thanks to Algonquin Books, Andrew, and the talented Tim Johnston for sending this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date - January 22, 2019

[Nilufer Ozmekik · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating, perfectly written and definitely not a typical thriller book. It’s so much better. You have to give your full attention for catching jumps in time. The story telling was brilliant and characters are depicted so realistically. It may be a little shorter but I still enjoy every page of it.
There are some unresolved points at the end and that make me wonder if a new sequel may come.
I think I need to read more books of Tim Johnston. I’m glad to find a new thriller writer!!!

[MarilynW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Early in the book a vehicle is pushed into a river that is frozen on the surface but that has a raging current under the ice. The car contains two college girls, one who survives the river and one who doesn't. Ten years earlier another girl, the same age, died in this river, miles upstream, when someone threw her in the river after hitting her with a vehicle.

The writing in this book is different and it took a few chapters for me to get used to the way the book was written but once I got the rhythm of the words, the reading became easier for me. Still, there are times when I feel like way too many words are used in describing things, especially dreams and memories. For me, that's the only place I feel the book could be improved.

The characters and the dialogue are very well written and I cared about so many of the characters for that reason. There is so much emotion in the story and for good reason when a father's daughter is murdered and even though he thinks he knows who the murderer is, the person is never charged. Another father almost loses his daughter and he wants to punish the person who attacked her despite the fact that the father is dying. I really liked the twins Daniel and Marky and a highlight for me was the dog Wyatt, a dog who is loved by his human family as much as the humans love each other.

Published January 22, 2019.

[JanB · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Because it was only girls…in the river…it’s always been only girls.”
 
In a small town in Minnesota, in the depths of winter, a car with two girls goes in the river, but only one girl survives. The survivor claims they were pushed into the river. The crime is eerily similar to the death of a young girl in the river 10 years ago, a murder than was never solved. The recent death dredges up an unresolved past with long-buried griefs and suspicions. We see the poisonous effects of an unresolved murder on the residents of this small town. A murder that changed their lives forever.
 
This is a literary, character-driven mystery, not a suspenseful whodunit. I like deep dives into character’s psyches so this style worked for me. The mood is dark and grim, and the suspicions and heartaches in this town run deep. I came to care about the characters and felt their grief and sorrow as well as their desire for resolution and vengeance. Even Wyatt, the old dog who is grieving the loss of his master and is nearing the end of his life touched my heart.
 
The first half of the novel was a slow build-up with setting up the characters and the backstory. It required a fair bit of attention and concentration and it took me a while to figure out who was who and what had happened. But it was worth it. In the last half, everything came together beautifully and I found myself unable to tear myself away from the pages. 
 
I loved Johnston’s writing style. There is a strong sense of place and a depth to his prose and characters. The unrelenting cold of a Minnesota winter is nearly a character itself in this atmospheric tale and I felt chilled to the bone as I read. 
 
“Life was organic and that was one kind of energy, ashes to ashes, but there was also energy between living beings, currents that traveled between them outside of biology, and that energy could not be buried, and neither could it fade into nothing, because energy never just ended, it transformed and recycled and you felt it even if you didn’t believe in it. Souls. Spirits. Whatever you call it there was a current and you were always in it always and you couldn’t bury it.’
 
Highly recommended for fans of character-driven, literary mysteries who don’t mind an ending that is not tied up neatly in a bow. 

4.5 stars rounded up to 5 because of the gorgeous writing. I buddy read this with my good friend Marialyce and it led to some interesting discussions. Thanks Marialyce!

[Susanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars.

A Taut, Tension filled Thriller that kept me on my Toes!

When two girls go into the river, only one comes out, nineteen year-old Audrey Sutter.

Ten years ago another girl’s life was lost to that same river: Holly Burke - her death was suspicious and though there was a suspect, he was never charged. The Sheriff at the time was Tom Sutter, Audrey Sutter’s father, he has never forgiven himself for letting the killer go free. Now, his own life hangs in the balance. Gordon Burke re-lives his daughter’s death every single day and wants justice more than anything.

Audrey Sutter remembers the feel of breaking through the ice, the woosh of the river, the insane cold against her skin and the break of bones. Most of all she remembers her best friend Caroline. Knowing she can’t get her back, she dives into the past, for her best friend, her father - the Sheriff, Gordon Burke and most of all, for that girl who was lost to so many oh so long ago.

Full of intrigue, lies, secrets and suspense, “The Current” is a novel which I loved from start to finish. I highly recommend this mystery if you are looking for a novel to keep you enthralled throughout.

Published on Goodreads on 2.5.19

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life is about the intrusion of the unexpected.

Sun-filled, glorious days fill us with the ease of life and its gentle flow. But it is in the ravaged moments of night that brutal reality visits upon us. And with it comes the jagged scars that are deep, very very deep.

Two Iowa college girls take to the road heading north in the midst of an icy Minnesota winter. One girl has home as her destination. The other girl will have quite the unplanned destination. They stop nearly out of gas at a small town convenience store. A simple trip to the outside restroom will place them face-to-face with some hard-boned individuals from hell. They will soon find themselves on the banks of the Lower Black Root River facing consequences that they could never have imagined.

Tim Johnston presents a story that will evoke a whole range of escalating emotions. If you have read his previous book, Descent, you know where his talents lie. I simply had to give this one all the stars......the mighty 5-Star medal of honor. The storyline has a definitive ebb and flow like the aforementioned river. But it's his uncanny ability to hone his characters into believable, raw, achingly human individuals who tread the high roads of life as well as the dark, foreboding roads, too.

Johnston can take unspeakable grief and give it a face. Agony and vengeance find a voice here. And not all heartbreak in life finds its way to the surface. Real people hold onto it and clutch it because it truly belongs to them alone. Pay attention to each soul that weaves a pattern throughout this story. Savor the dialogue. Prepare yourself for Old Wyatt the cripped up rescue dog. We all serve our purpose in life whether of long or short duration. Tim Johnston gives us a hand on the shoulder to remind us of that truth.

I received a copy of The Current through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Algonquin Books and to the very talented Tim Johnston for the opportunity.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This wonderful novel is a slow-burning literary mystery focused less on the crime than on its repercussions for the relatives. Most all the characters were flawed in some way but also vulnerable and full of heart. I absolutely loved the small-town America feel of this novel.

The sense of place and the characters with their believable motives are beautifully written and poignant. Johnston took me to that wintery Minnesota town where he interconnects two tragedies 10 years apart and their impact on the lives of the three families at the book’s core. I enjoyed his style even though it could be confusing at the beginning while I sorted out the many characters and time frames.

This is a book about how a tragedy can divide and/or ultimately heal a family and their small community. The novel was wondrous! I loved it and I wish that this author wrote more stories.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Tim Johnston, and Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

In my first exploration of Tim Johnston’s work, the novel took a journey that may literally chill the reader to the bone. On their way back from college, two young women stop for gas in the middle of winter. A simple fill-up soon turns sour when one is assaulted by two men who prey on her solitude. After fending them off, the women rush to their vehicle and continue on their way, hoping the worst is behind them. Bright headlights soon creep up in the rearview mirror and the vehicle is bumped off the road, teetering on the edge of a body of water. In the moments before they lose consciousness, both women vow to get through this together. When Audrey Sutter wakes, she is in the hospital with significant injuries. Her friend was not so lucky, having perished before a passer-by called the authorities. Now, with her fractured memories (and bones), Audrey must relay what she knows to the sheriff, who tries to formulate a suspect list. Audrey’s father, Tom, is a former sheriff himself and will not stand idly by as he seeks to locate the perpetrators. However, this proves harder than it seems and leads go colder faster than the ice water in which his daughter was once submerged. With a cold case coming to the surface and the local sheriff choosing to run things at his own pace, those who sought to kill Audrey remain at large, but are they watching so that they can finish the job? Johnston weaves an interesting tale that seeks to control the reader’s experience like a strong-willed river current. With all the elements for a successful novel, I am not sure why this one missed the mark for me.

Having sampled no past work by the author, I am required to let my gut and first impressions steer me. Johnston utilised many of the needed elements to craft a decent novel, including a crime and assault to open the story. However, it would seem that there was a supersaturation of information that diluted much of the delivery. Audrey Sutter, who plays at least a partial protagonist character, proves to be somewhat likeable, though I did not feel a strong connection to her. She’s young and is forced to come to terms with much loss in short order. Still, I would have liked to feel as though her fate (and finding the person/people who tried to kill her) meant more to me. The same goes for many of the other characters who crossed the pages of the book, including the retired cop Tom Sutter. Instead, many of the names and their backstories blended together to form a giant wad of narrative goop. Johnston had some great ideas amidst the various tangential storylines, something that I think might better have been developed in a series. While the central crime does recur, there are so many people with insights on different plots that the reader is forced to parse through all the discussions and keep things straight. Johnston has a strong writing style and I applaud this, but I could not find a level of comfort to pull me through this piece. Best of luck for those seeking a story with lots to offer, but too much to digest.

Kudos, Mr. Johnston, for your efforts. Not my cup of tea, though the premise drew me in from the outset.

Love/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
http://pecheyponderings.wordpress.com/

A Book for All Seasons, a different sort of Book Challenge: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two best girlfriends were travelling by car from their Southern college to a small town in Minnesota. Caroline Price had generously volunteered to drive Audrey Sutter seven hundred miles to visit her father, Retired Sheriff Tom Sutter. Sheriff Sutter had inoperable lung cancer. A late night gas station stop in Iowa, near the Minnesota border, on a raw snowy night, turned deadly leaving Caroline missing and Audrey barely alive.

The gas station, approximately two deserted miles from the highway looked desolate. Two vehicles were parked near the ladies restroom, one being a two-tone truck. A bathroom pit stop...Audrey was accosted...Caroline pepper sprayed the young men...then...Audrey and Caroline stumbled to Caroline's RAV4 and attempted to drive away. As they approached an icy trestle bridge, the car was rear ended and plunged, nose first, into the Black Root River. Audrey woke up in the hospital, Caroline was presumed dead. Who would do such a thing?

Gordon Burke used to co-own Burke-Young Plumbing and Supply. A decade ago, his sixteen year old daughter, Holly was found dead in the Black Root River. A car accident...but...when still alive, she was pushed or had fallen into the river. Why did Danny Young skip work that day to go hunting? Danny seemed to be the prime suspect. No case...lack of witnesses or evidence. Immeasurable grief and loss. Sheriff Sutter never found Holly Burke's killer. Gordon Burke wondered, "What would he do for himself that he didn't do for me?' There is no longer Burke- Young Plumbing and Supply. Rachel Young, the onetime suspect's mother, is somewhat comforted by the presence of Danny's old dog, left behind by Danny. Waging an uphill battle, Audrey is determined to fight back in memory of Caroline and to jump start her stalled life journey.

"The Current" by Tim Johnston is an atmospheric, psychological, emotionally packed novel. The mysterious, unsolved drownings in Black Root River were difficult to fathom, culpability difficult to unmask. Author Johnston very successfully created numerous twists and turns to mislead and pique the reader's interest. Highly recommended!

Thank you Algonquin Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Current".

[Berit☀️✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

An atmospheric story alive with tension and emotion!

Tim Johnston has written a book that I not only Red but I felt. I felt the tension in my head, I felt the emotion in my heart, and I felt the cold in my bones. There was something so real and raw about this story. It is one of those books that will stick with you long after you turn the last page!

Audrey and Caroline are driving from their southern college to Audreys home in northern Minnesota. Audrey is going home to see her father who is fighting cancer. As they approach audrey’s hometown they make a choice that will change everything... A bathroom break, an assault, an icy road, a narrow bridge, and the girls plummet into the icy river. Two girls go in, one comes out alive, and the other one is missing... but this was no accident. This tragedy dredges up a similar tragedy that happened 10 years ago... a different girl, but the same River. Audrey’s father who was sheriff at the time, headed up the investigation, but is there a connection to this current tragedy? Audrey is devastated, not only dealing with the loss of her friend, but her father’s disease. Consumed with guilt and grief Audrey investigates the past in order to come to terms with the present.

This was a taut tense psychological crime thriller, that you will not be able to put down. I was riveted by every word in this book and drawn to every character. There is something so vulnerable about Audrey, yet she was so strong and smart, i really found myself rooting for her. The rest of the characters were equally compelling, there was something so true about each and every one of them. The mystery was brilliantly crafted full of twists and misdirection. I enjoyed every minute I spend with Audrey trying to figure out what happened 10 years ago, and if it was somehow related to her own tragedy.

An absorbing thriller full of guilt, grief, tension, miss direction, and emotion! Absolutely recommend!

🎧🎧🎧 this audiobook was narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christiensen and she did a stellar job! This is the first book I have listened to that she narrated and she really brought these characters to life.

Song Running Through My Mind

Time, time time, see what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities
I was so hard to please
Don't look around
The leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Hear the Salvation Army band
Down by the riverside's, there's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned
Carry your cup in your hand
And look around
Leaves are brown, now
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter
Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again
Look around
The grass is high
The fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life
Seasons change with the scenery
Weaving time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me
At any convenient time?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TxrwImC...

*** many thanks to Algonquin Books for my copy ***

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The nose of the car drops over the edge of the bank and the world pitches, and their own weight rolls forward through their bodies as at the top of a roller coaster just before the drop – the deep human fear of falling, the plunging heart, and there’s no stopping it and no getting out and nothing to do but hold on. And down they go, fast and easy in the snow, toboggan-smooth, hand in hand, their grips so tight, the grips of girls much younger, girls who will not be separated, their faces forward, watching the surface of the river, the black glistening ice as it rushes up toward them, larger and larger, until there’s nothing in the windshield but the ice, dark and wide as an ocean and they are going to it, they are going to strike it nose-first with the car and they can imagine that, the sudden ending of forward motion as the car meets the plane of the ice, but after that they cannot imagine, they have never been here before and there is no way to know what will happen next except to go through it…”
- Tim Johnston,The Current

On their way to Minnesota, two college girls end up in the Black Root River. One girl drowns. The other girl, Audrey Sutter, is pulled from the frigid, icy waters alive. How they ended up in the river is one mystery.

There will be more.

When I read Tim Johnston’s Descent back in 2016, it blew me away. It was a surprisingly good hybrid thriller, part Iowa Writers’ Workshop, part James Patterson. The story it told, of the abduction of a young woman, is quite familiar, both in fiction and in real life. The way Johnston told it, though, was unique. He wrote beautifully, with an impeccable sense of place. And he wrote perceptively, with a keen eye for characterizations. He was interested in bigger things, and showed that in the sensitive way he examined how the loss of a loved one leaves an aching hole in one’s heart.

Johnston brings those same talents and sensitivities to bear on a story that, on first blush, also seems quite common.

The Current is a novel about a small town, and big secrets, and an old murder. All ground that has been tilled before. Yet Johnston makes it all seem incredibly fresh. It is as though a chef from a Michelin-starred restaurant walked into an Applebee’s and started preparing dinner.

The main character is Audrey, whose dying father happens to be the former sheriff of her small community. As she starts to investigate the events that led to her near-death experience, she stumbles upon clues that will reopen a decades-old murder that also ended with a girl in the Black Root River. Audrey is a complex protagonist, stubborn and inquisitive, filled in equal measure with courage and half-baked ideas. She follows on the heels of Descent’s Caitlin Courtland, a woman who has been victimized but refuses to be a victim. In that sense, The Current feels very of-the-moment. (Both Caitlin and Audrey are less violent though just-as-determined versions of the forty-years-later version of Laurie Strode in the updated Halloween).

Audrey, though, is only one of many figures who capture Johnston’s roving eye. The Current is told from a limited third-person perspective, shifting from Audrey to her father, the ex-Sheriff Sutter, to the dead girl’s father, Gordon Burke, and to the onetime suspect’s mother, Rachel. These people, and more, are finely wrought, drawn with indelible details. Johnston creates these men and women with incredible precision. In just a scene or two, often a quiet scene, he can make these people come alive. Johnston’s efficiency and ease in crafting his characters puts me in mind of Stewart O’Nan.

The Current is a genre thriller done with true literary flare. Johnston writes gorgeously, his prose leaping off the page. Always, though, the prose is in service to the story. The structure of his sentences, his choice of words, the cadences and rhythms, all add to the mood.

Speaking of mood, this novel has it. The Current is dark and grim and relentlessly focused on its themes of grief and loss, of past mistakes, and of the twists and currents of fate.

Along with the mood Johnston provides plenty of atmospherics. The descriptions of the river, the forests, the cold, are almost tactile.

Meltwater ran across the roads in streams and hissed under the tires and you could put the window down and smell the earth and you knew the winter wasn’t forever after all and the land would be green again, the river would flow again, and from the bridges you could see the slabs of ice jutting into the air, and if you pulled over and stood on the bank you could see the slabs moving and grinding against each other like icebergs, like ships, all in a tight puzzle-work of pieces and all of it moving together foot by foot downriver, cracking and popping and grinding as the river below swelled with the thaw and pushed and surged and would not be stopped.

Complimenting the wonderfully descriptive writing is Johnston’s stylized dialogue, the characters’ speech patterns imbued with a weariness of past sorrows that reminded me of Cormac McCarthy in No Country For Old Men.

There is, for example, a moment when Gordon Burke, father of the murdered Holly Burke, talks to Sheriff Sutter about the newest fatality of the Black Root River:

“That man down in Georgia,” Gordon said, “that girl’s father? Hell, he ain't even the same man anymore, Sheriff. He’s already some other man.”

The Current is suspenseful and well-plotted, meaning that your natural inclination is to read it as fast as you can. That’s probably the novel’s biggest downside. As the momentum hurries you along, you forget to stop and enjoy the craftsmanship. More pertinently, you might miss some of the clues strewn along the way. When I finished, I definitely had to flip back through the pages to make sure I caught everything.

The ending here is absolutely mesmerizing. There are two central riddles that require solving. One is the murder of Holly Burke. The other involves the death of Audrey’s friend. In stunning fashion, Johnston delivers two conclusions, one that is fit for the standard potboiler, while the other attempts to wrap its arms around the cosmos.

That’s super vague, I know, but I can’t say any more without ruining it. I will say, though, that the last page, the very last page, struck me with a force that stunned me, left me gaping, slack-jawed in bed. It tied things together in a way that I had not foreseen, with a power that is hard to describe.

I wish that I could tell you more about it. I wish that we could get together, crack open a bottle of Sutter Home chardonnay, pour some over ice, and have a half-buzzed book club discussion about it. Barring that, you will have to read this for yourselves, on your own.

And you should.

The Current is smart and sharp and deep and sad. It is easy to read, hard to forget, and thoroughly entertaining.

(I received an advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review).

[karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

TBD is TODAY! my review finally posted over at LA review of books!

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/t...

**************************************

reviewing for LA review of books, pub date TBD.

[Marialyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 so well written stars

Ten years ago a young girl went into the freezing cold river. She was murdered and a family, a father, and a small town reeled from the shock, a loss of life that sent currents through lives that were never to be the same again. The murderer was never found. Yes, there was a suspect, a young man, whose family was devastated and as the young man is let go, he runs away. He runs from a family, a twin brother, and a mother who loved him. He runs from a dog, whose devotion never wavers. He runs from a town that has already decided he is guilty and will never forgive him.

Now, ten years later two young women go into the lake and only one comes out alive. The tragedy brings back once again the hurt, the devastation, the sadness experienced by the people who were involved in the first tragedy. Is the same killer back? As this current murder brings up the former one, the people once again reflect and find themselves caught up in both tragedies. Will there be answers and will the murderer be caught and receive his just desserts?

This was a an amazingly well written book, one that led the reader slowly, ever so slowly to its conclusion. We are given clues, but more importantly we are given characters that evoke sadness, compassion, and pity. We see lives ruined, families torn apart, grief and mourning for years the lives that were lost and yes, there was more than one life lost. The author makes you believe and think about loss, think about the repercussions that reverberate for a lifetime for those who lost a loved one and those who walk with an aura of suspicion surrounding them. There are no easy answers and just like in life itself, the author provides us with instances that make you think, make you wonder, and make you understand that life is not something tied up in a neat little package. Life is a series of hurt, of being buffeted, and agonized over the way in which life has treated you.

Kudos to you, Mr Johnston for writing what I consider as a thinking person's book. This book made me feel the hurt and pain, made me feel the cold of the lake and its environs, make me feel the current that ran not only through the lake but also through a town and its people.

This book managed to bring about some wonderful discussions between my book buddy, Jan and I, and isn't that what a prodigious book does? We heartily recommend this one.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well I find myself thinking of The Current and it is like a force of something powerful that reminds me of sitting in high school English reading something that is supposed to be profound about mankind or nature or life or maybe all three but all I was thinking about having to work later and how long could this book be would it ever end and how could so many words that were supposed to mean something be so tired?

The Current reads just like that word salad.

It is trying to be deep but it's so busy filling in every space with thoughts that aren't half as clever as the words it wraps them in that it forgets things like character development and plot.

The Current is a meandering ride to nowhere.

[DeAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "treacherous river current" stars to this one

I was utterly captivated by the writing in this book. The story was very compelling, and the suspense built throughout the book, but I wouldn’t characterize it as your typical thriller.

The book opens with two college friends on a road trip to Minnesota when things take a terrible turn. The rest of the book deals with the aftermath and the connections to a similar crime ten years ago. Small town life is explored, secrets unearthed, and old suspicious aroused. Themes of grief and unresolved tension fill the small town.

The characters are achingly real. The main character is Audrey, who has returned home full of guilt and facing an uncertain future. She is the daughter of the dying former sheriff who regrets never solving the case from ten years ago. There is the grieving father and the young man that everyone thinks committed the crime ten years ago, yet he was never charged. We can’t forget the beloved dog in the mix, too.

There are a few unresolved points at the end of the book, which makes me wonder about an interesting sequel in the future. Or, perhaps, like in real-life, some things are never resolved.
I highly recommend this one, I predict that it will be a favorite read of mine for 2019. This is a fantastic read! The writing is top-notch, the story is chilling, and I even had a dream about it!!

A few passages I liked:
He walked around to the driver’s side of the truck, the night so still and cold there was only the sound of his boots on the packed snow, the sound of his own breath, but then, under these sounds and far off, he heard a tinny jangling, a faint rattling that was the sound of a dog running somewhere and he turned back toward the yard, toward the fields beyond. But there was no dog, no dark shape moving fast over the white. There was only the snow and the farm light and the dark, unmoving shadows on the snow.

He pointed to the trees as they walked and seemed to give them their names: Jack pine. Black spruce. Balsam fir. Hemlock. White pine. He told her his old grandad was a logger from the old days and knew everything there was to know about trees. Signed up when he was fourteen and worked every job there was, you name it: Chokerman, chaser, high climber, Faller. Bucker. “Funny thing is, I do believe a tree was the most beautiful thing in the world to that old man. When he looked at one, he saw a hundred things all at once. Logging put clothes on his kids backs, food on their plates. That’s all there was to it.”

Early thoughts:
*update: Tim Johnston was funny and engaging in person, comparing the craft of writing to carpentry. Lucky for us, carpentry gives him time to think of the next book!
I finished this one just in time for my event today. I will write my review after gathering my thoughts and hearing what Tim Johnston has to say.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 5 rounded up.

Well, I did not like The Current by Tim Johnston as much as I liked his novel Descent, but it was still a captivating read that pulls at your heartstrings.

What it's about: 2 college students, Caroline Price and Audrey Sutter, are on a road trip from their college campus in Georgia to Minnesota so Audrey can see her dying father. It is the dead of winter, and Caroline's car ends up going into the river, with only one of them making it out alive. Years earlier another girl was pulled from the river, and Audrey's sheriff father never did arrest anyone for it. Could these deaths be related? One father is desperate to find out.

I wouldn't really call this book a thriller, but it is definitely a very emotional mystery. I ended up being hooked from the very beginning, and was very intrigued by the writing voice Johnston went with. Like I said at the beginning of my review, The Current is an emotional novel that makes you think about father/daughter bonds, and how far family will go to protect each other.

The different perspectives that Johnston chose to use made a small town in Minnesota seem even smaller, and also causes you to think about how crime effects a small town and the people in it. The Current is a thinker of a book that is a slow-burn mystery with lots of focus on the characters.

Final Thought: There is a lot of soul to the books that Johnston writes, and they always make me think about things that I normally wouldn't focus on in a mystery. [book:The Current|36387759 is a lot more than your standard mystery novel, and I would recommend to people that like lots of depth to their novels. Both character wise, and plot wise. Just keep in mind that a thriller it is not, but the mystery will surprise you, and the ending seemed to come out of nowhere for me.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Current is not only a well-plotted mystery and a thriller but also a literary masterpiece by Tim Johnston. The prose is beautiful and mesmerizing and atmospheric as the past and the present begin to merge in this suspenseful and beautifully written novel. This tale is intricately woven layer upon layer and metaphorically reminiscent of the layers of ice in The Black Root River spanning the states of Iowa and Minnesota where this story unfolds. When two young women leave their campus in the middle of winter to make a 700-mile journey to Minnesota, a series of events precedes the girls fighting for their lives in the Black Root River. But the haunting question is whether this incident may be related in some way to a similar episode occurring in much the same way ten years ago.

"The nose of the car drops over the edge of the bank and world pitches, and their own weight rolls forward through their bodies as at the top of a roller coaster just before the drop--the deep human fear of falling, the plunging heart, and there's no stopping it and no getting out and nothing to do but hold on. And down they go, fast and easy in the snow, toboggan-smooth, hand in hand, their grips so tight, the grips of girls much younger, girls who will not be separated, their faces forward, watching the surface of the river, the black glistening ice as it rushes up toward them, larger and larger, until there's nothing in the windshield but the ice, dark and wide as an ocean and they are going to it, they are going to strike it nose-first with the car and they can imagine that, the sudden ending of forward motion as the car meets the plane of ice, but after that they cannot imagine, they have never been here before and there is no way to know what will happen next except to go through it, and this is the most terrifying thing. . . ."

Although one is tempted to keep turning the pages, slow down and savor the beauty of the writing, at times poetic, in this slowly evolving mystery as we are pulled deeper and deeper into the grief and secrets of a small town. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim Johnston several years ago at an author's day sponsored by a local bookstore. I am now looking forward to reading Descent very soon and anything else that he has written.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one begins with two girls, Caroline and Audrey, who are going on a road trip to Audrey's home to see her dying father. They are assaulted at a gas station and subsequently their car is pushed slowly into an icy river. Caroline dies and Audrey survives. This tragic events brings back the memories of another young girl, Holly Burke, who also went into the river and died in a similar way. Audrey's father happens to be the Sheriff from that crime ten years earlier, and his inability to solve the crime has haunted him for a decade. Audrey plants herself right in the middle of the investigation to see how her incident may be connected to Holly's ten years earlier. She befriends Holly's father and i really enjoy his character.

I've seen this one described as more literary than mystery, and I find that to be very true! I absolutely loved the small town setting and the chilling circumstances surrounding these crimes, literally! Everything was so cold and icy all the time. This one was a little slower than I expected, but I think that's because I thought it was going to be a thriller. It's very character driven, and definitely shines light on relationships and how a crime can impact an innocent person and their family.

Initially, the only downside for me was that I had a little bit of a hard time keeping up with which decade we were in and who we were talking about, but I got over that pretty quickly. It was really really well written! Chapter by chapter these details of past and present and character connections were beautifully woven together. The only reason I took a star away was because I didn't love the ending. It wasn't really wrapped up and I was left with questions. Some people love that, but not so much for me!

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audrey Sutter and Caroline Price drive 700 miles to Minnesota from their southern college in order for Audrey to be with her Dad who is dying of lung cancer. They stop at a dodgy gas station, and encounter two ‘good-old-boys’ that want to toy with them. Fast thinking allows them to escape, but they end up driving too fast and slipping on the icy road next to the frozen Black Root River. And then a vehicle comes up behind them and nudges their RAV4 onto the ice.

The ice breaks and the current takes the girls away—one dies and one lives. But more than that, the frozen shards of ice pierce the small town’s memory of another death that happened ten years previously. The murder of teenager Holly Burke still haunts the community. Gordon Burke, Holly’s father, seems paralyzed with grief. Danny Young was accused of the crime, but lack of evidence kept him from being charged. No matter, he lives his life like a doomed man in exile. His twin brother and mother hope that he will eventually return home. In the meantime they care for his beloved dog Wyatt. And Audrey’s dad? He was the sheriff that conducted the initial investigation and replays the cold case repeatedly in his mind trying to find answers.

Johnston imbues this story with heavy atmospherics—the brittle cold of Minnesota, the smells of the river, and even the taste of oily, grease-encrusted fingers. But his forte is developing characters that are believable as they ache with unspeakable grief. This is an emotionally packed novel where secrets seek to pull them under and drown them. The predator is counting on those secrets being kept. Audrey Sutter is breaking that ‘ice’ with all of her questions. Could that put her in danger? You bet.

Not all of Johnston’s story is temporal. Audrey meets ghosts in the river when she falls through the ice. Marky, Danny Young’s twin, has knowledge of his brother through dreams. Johnston even adds a spiritual conclusion to his temporal one. Highly recommend this ‘literary’ murder/mystery.

[Britany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Johnston's previous novel Descent earlier this year, and I hadn't thought about adding this one to my list, except I just kept hearing about how awesome it was. I finally added it and found it on the library bookmobile so it felt like kismet to pick it up.

I was immediately gripped by the book. It shifted perspectives almost too quickly, but this device added to the pageturning effect it had on me. Two college girls are driving to Minnesota to see one of the girl's ailing father's when they lose control and swerve off the road. They stop just before heading into the river when they see headlights behind them. They immediately breathe a sigh of relief thinking that help is coming, when the car pushes them into the frozen river. (This isn't spoilery, it's on the jacket flap) but if this doesn't make you pick it up, what does??

I was hooked and loved the way Johnston makes you keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. He left many of these chapters with surprising statements which is my bookish kryptonite. The characters felt so real- they were all unique and perfectly drawn to the reader. In this small Minnesota town, you feel the cold that permeates the relationships mixed in with heartache and loneliness. The town comes together multiple times and it really warms some of the ice that builds up as your reading. Towards the end the writing dragged a little bit, and felt a little heavy handed in places, but overall I really enjoyed this one.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two college friends are in a tragic accident when their vehicle goes in the river. One is found alive, but the other is killed. The police investigate to determine if it was an accident or intentional. The accident reminds locals of a similar case from ten years earlier, when a young woman was killed at the river and the case was never solved.

Two different mysteries combine in this intriguing and slow-burning novel. One mystery concerns the current car accident involving two young women. They had an unsettling encounter at a convenience store, and there is a question of whether their car going into the river was accidental or if someone was intentionally trying to harm the girls. The other mystery involves an old, unsolved murder case. The current case brings back old memories, and a link between the cases. The surviving girl’s father was sheriff when the earlier murder occurred. He and a few others have been haunted by the unsolved case. Various connections from the past come into play, and secrets are revealed to old unanswered questions.

I love a good slow-burn mystery, but this one was a little too drawn out for me. The ending was great though. This is definitely not a book that is easy to guess what’s going to happen. Recommended for fans of character-driven mysteries. Atmospheric, dark, and mysterious.

[Tooter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars!

[Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cadaverously cryogenic, criminal suspense novel, deftly structured. One might have difficulty catching the flow for the first 100 pages as the book switches between 6/7 characters because the shifts happen mainly from ruminations of one character to those of another. The first half contains sparse dialogue. I suspect most readers have or will hit high gear by a third of the way through. Once I got there, I found it hard to put the novel aside, for the comfort of sleep or otherwise.

Grade A 4.4 star sustenance for a twice-to-thrice-yearly need for a bloody good crime read.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars which could have been a full 4 stars with a good edit. But rounded down for the length, not only of the whole novel, but of description that repeats and multi, multi overlaps of pivotal events and opinions by taking the route of continually switching both time periods and "eyes". That only works to a top notch degree when you have less characters than this novel and far fewer locale place switches and movement description copy.

But the plot was excellent. Nearly 5 star and absolutely not one of those "outlier" and "it could never happen this way" in 1000 years kind of dysfunction fare. This one was one that felt actual- and not all that uncommon when police forces and town's composites themselves have such "in-knowledge" to one another and are NOT of "lost in the crowd" sizes.

Minnesota was more than fine. And the original two girls characterized 4 star plus.

Most of the male prime characters were well set too- you knew them. So the plot was essentially also a strong personality study all around too. Which is 4 star, at least.

But my prime enjoyment problem was in the writing for style of sentence structures. This author knows how to write a long, long, long gerund heavy (playing, planning, fishing, running, climbing, going, thinking, moving) run-on sentence to intuit a feeling of breathless tension (like running so hard you have no time to take a breath kind of speed) which reflects a stream of consciousness marathon. And that's one of my pet peeves in all of print. Always has been too as long as I can remember loving words. Others seem to ADORE it. Faulkner paragraph length sentences which hold so much description that? Well, it's me I'm sure, but I don't and can't hold the cognition of the entire all the way to the end for it to give me any other sense but irritation.

So many of these starting chapters to each Part (book is divided into Parts)- I found myself rereading two or three times before I could at all context the "he" or the "they" or the "water" or that particular "ice" to where and what and how and who. And then would "catch up" to the right characters or place not less than 2 pages later. Readers may like that feature. I just don't.

Yes, I know that is part of an unreliable narrator or "void" prone to knowing mystery or who-dun-it fare. But it's form, done as this one was to such length and convolutions over more than 10 years of time? It just took the buzz out of the story for me, almost completely. It did for Danny and Marky especially. Overlong descriptions of feelings and effusive kinds of "panting of suffering" or "obsessive imagination hysterics" always do that for me. They become separate melodramas beyond a sensibility that makes any practical application or sense to the story line itself, IMHO.

There were a few scenes in here that were absolutely well done. Especially the gas station, hand over the mouth, backscratcher "attack" one.

From the ending I surmise that there will be a sequel.

If you are caught up in Audrey's story, you will want to read it.

[Barbara K · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I hadn’t read Descent, I might have given up on this book early on. Not because of poor writing or plotting, but because I found it incredibly sad. Not only is there the sadness that results from two girls being trapped in a car in an icy river, but also, probably even more so, the residual sadness from an a similar event 10 years prior.

I will admit to a tendency to avoid books where the plot is either built around a misunderstanding that leads to years of emotional pain (Atonement comes to mind) or where a principal character becomes the victim of destructive forces that allow him/her no escape (I had to stop reading The Fixer for that reason.)

But since I knew Johnston to be a talented author with a gift for creating well-plotted literary thrillers where the relationships among the characters are of primary importance, I persevered. And once the focus turned to the unraveling of the mysteries, old and new, the ache in my heart subsided as the potential for a redemptive solution appeared. Although the resolutions very much reflected how things would be likely to unfold in the real world, there was also a magical realism quality to the perceptions and actions of one of the characters. This was an intriguing combination with the matter of fact quality to Johnston’s overall writing style for this book.

Because I listened to the audio version, I don’t know how the sentences and paragraphs appeared on the page, or how they would come across to a reader. For me they were hypnotic, with a flow that mimicked the river’s current that is so much a part of the book. Long interior monologues strung together with “ands” and “buts”, using language that reflected Johnston’s plainspoken, small town characters. I had to smile when an older woman called the man she was speaking to a “dumb cluck”, a phrase I haven’t heard since my mother passed away 20 years ago.

There is a masculine inevitability about the men in this book, fully realized plumbers and mechanics and local lawmen. If you’ve ever lived in a small town, you will know these guys. But much of the plot is driven by the ways in which this maleness can provoke some among them to assert a physical authority over women. Whether the women succumb or they don’t, the outcomes are problematic.

This is an excellent book, though not quite as good as Descent, which ranks as one of my favorite reads of recent years. Shout out to the narrator, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, who read with a quiet insistence well suited to the story and effectively portrayed both male and female voices.

[Fiona Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tim Johnston has written an excellent novel, the kind of book that's timely without being repetitive, and horrifying without being repellent.

The Current is the kind of book that sucks you in and holds you in place until it's finished with you - I read it in one sitting - and it's not until you realise you haven't moved in hours that you notice the grip it's taken on you. It's the kind of fiction that feels like a snapshot of reality; characters and places so real and so perfectly written that you'll remember them as people, rather than part of a book you read once.

At the heart of the book are two incidents, separated from each other by a decade. But the unresolved past never did like to lie quietly, and when two college girls have an accident that sends their car into a frozen river, it's not only the ice that breaks but the silence that held a community in stasis for so long.

Though I usually find myself suspicious of books with so many glowing reviews, this one really lives up to the hype. This one will be with me for some time.

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Readers counting on a fast-paced, plot-driven linear mystery that sprints to a neatly tied and blood-soaked bow will be sorely disappointed. However, if you like your crime dramas literary and lush, with contoured characters, atmospheric prose, and penetrating themes, then you’ve come to the right book.

Ten years ago, in a small Minnesota town, nineteen-year-old Holly Burke was found dead in the cold current of the Black Root River. The now retired sheriff, Tom Sutter, failed to close the case due to insufficient evidence on his main suspect, Danny Young, which angered Holly’s father, Gordon, and left him resentful on top of his depression.

Now, in the dead of winter, Sutter’s daughter, Audrey, and her friend, Caroline, are driving from a southern college to Audrey’s house, when the car they are in is forcibly propelled into the same icy river, this time across the border in Iowa. Audrey survives, but not without survivor’s guilt, PTSD, and a broken arm, among other injuries. While her terminally ill father stands by (but gets involved), his former deputy, Moran, is now the Iowan sheriff investigating this case, legally requiring Tom to take a back seat and relinquish control of solving the crime. But of course he just can’t easily do that

This new case that eerily parallels the previous one inflames icy memories in a community weighted with unresolved grief, never quite thawed. It affects three different families and reconnects them in powerful and unexpected ways. Both Gordon and now Tom are shot through with guilt due to their failure to protect their daughters from danger, albeit ten years apart. Danny Young was compelled to leave town a decade ago and abandon his twin brother, Marky, who has special needs. Their mother, Rachel, had a personal and professional bond with Gordon that was permanently severed when Holly died. Danny’s inconclusive guilt and indeterminate innocence preys on all involved.

As Audrey gets her strength back, she refuses to stand passively by, and her grit and guts to participate in finding the perpetrator(s) generate stunning, personal intersections that cross red lines and drive the plot. Themes of grief, guilt, secrets, and lies pervade the text and threaten to undo a community, or hopefully heal those in need. Between the ennui of stalled conflicts, the provocation of awakened animosities, and a courageous collaboration of the seemingly mismatched, a current is forged as strong as the Black Root River itself and rallies a new resolve. But don’t ask for all your questions to be answered succinctly.

As Johnston demonstrated in DESCENT, he is a master of the elegiac and the atmospheric, the haunting and the harrowing, spectacles and subtleties. As a reader, you’ll sink your teeth into his prose. He leaves a lot to chew on in his melancholy and emboldened narrative. There’s just the right bits of levity, too, in the sharp wit and dialogue. This is a book to savor, to be patient with in its languid current.

“On and on under the ice, in the strange light, your fingertips slipping along the underside of the ice and the girls coming and going like the curious creatures they are, the moon following, and it’s two minutes or it’s two hours or it’s ten years…ten years and ten thousand years all the same thing to the world and only one creature in all its history ever keeping track, ever thinking of such a thing as time—ever desiring it or fearing it or losing it, and that was why you’d come home in the first place, because you were running out of time…”

[Proustitute (on hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because it was only girls… In the river. It’s always been only girls.


The Current is not your ordinary mystery/thriller; in fact, I would strongly discourage those who enter its icy, frozen Minnesotan (and Iowan) world to read it solely for the mystery, or else dissuade altogether those looking for a fast-paced thriller.



What Johnston has written instead are immensely literary and exceedingly woeful, harrowing character studies of those who are trapped in present and past traumas—all of which collide when one college girl is assaulted on the way home to visit her dying father, the town’s ex-sheriff, and she and her friend go into the icy river. The opening chapter depicting this scene is claustrophobic and written so close-to-the bone that it’s hard not to keep reading when the book then splits into different characters—often simply beginning chapters with pronouns, so that it takes the reader a few pages to disengage from what came before and orient his or her way toward what’s taking place now, and with whom.

Johnston’s true skill here is his prose: this is masterfully written, almost with echoes of McCarthy, Robinson, Sam Michel, Schutt, Faulkner, and others, yet all the while in Johnston’s own undeniable voice. The prose is what carries one through the bleak world of The Current, and Johnston’s versatility is centerstage when moving between past and present, showing how interrelated they are for people stuck in their own individual traumas. I was very often awed by some passages’ abilities to evoke, to suggest, to reveal the deep winter in which the story takes place as it mirrors so acutely the characters’ dark interior worlds:


Did it fade with time, with age? Or did the thing you fought inside yourself just grow bigger, hungrier, until it took you over?

If this book doesn’t leave you feeling frozen, like you’ve been stuck in an ice-cold river in a Minnesotan storm, I would be shocked, floored. And if this book doesn’t leave you moved in terms of how it questions generational trauma, isolation, and sexual assault, then the tremendous empathy Johnston’s book holds up to the light of humanity is but a mirror for whatever demons you harbor inside you.

[Judith E · Rating 3 out of 5]

A character driven, atmospheric (icy, cold, Minnesota snow) murder mystery of girls falling through the ice and drowning in a river.

The girls, the suspects, and families are fully exposed and sub plots are in abundance. There are sparse and well done narratives, but I had to push myself to the end due to the repetitive descriptions of the icy, cold landscape and the protagonist’s inner thoughts.

At the end, questions remain and I suspect there will be a follow up book.

3.75 stars.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good atmospheric mystery. Set during winter, two college women take a road trip to Minnesota to visit family, but when they stop at a gas station, they're attacked. One of the women ends up dead, and the one who survived discovers the attack may be connected to a murder from a decade ago.

I love a good mystery, and this was well-written and engaging. I enjoyed it so much I plan to read Tim Johnston's previous novel, "Descent."