Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates
The story begins in 1982 as young Hannah is tied to a tree by Matthew who proceeds to shoot her 37 times with a BB gun, the last one through her eye. Matthews best friend Patrick “Patch” watches in horror, frozen and unable or unwilling to act. Leaving her for dead, the friends head back home when Patch has a change of heart and rushes back to Hannah. Hannah lives, Matthew confesses and goes to jail, and Patrick lives with his own guilt.
Twenty-six years later, we find Patch and Hannah married after running into each other a few years earlier in New York. Hannah is a successful crime reporter who still suffers night terrors. Patch discovers that Hannah is unaware of his witnessing of and inaction during the shooting. He has lost his job at the bank and spends his time writing a food blog and dreaming of opening a restaurant. When Matthew unexpectedly reappears in their lives, events begin to spiral until they lead to an ending that makes you wonder if it was avoidable or inevitable.
The narrative bounces back and forth both between 1982 and 2008 as well as between narrators. Although the main events are known, the perspective each main character brings to them shines more light on the motivation and the personal tragedies of each character. Patrick is tortured by his inaction and the secret that lies over his marriage. Hannah is good at her job, but has agreed to write a book about her own tragedy which is proving more difficult than she expected. Matthew has tried to create a new life for himself, but he cannot forget the past even as he mitigates his own role in events in his own mind.
Yates does a fantastic job of shifting between perspectives, each time changing the way you perceive events. The “what” is never the question, but the “why” will torture you almost as much as it does the characters. Hannah is the most sympathetic character, but Patch and Matthew each have complicated motivations which make it impossible to fully sympathize with them, but also allows you to see events through their eyes. The three characters move towards a conclusion that will fill you both with anticipation and dread. The conclusion is part melancholy and part cathartic. This is a book that will stay with you for a long time. Wonderfully written. Highly recommended.
The audiobook is narrated by Dan Bittner, Saskia Maarleveld, Graham Halstead and Will Damron as the three main characters and narrator. They each do an outstanding job bringing to life the characters with great inflection and pacing. They help to convey not only the action but the mental state of the characters.
I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher.
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