Missouri native Allen Eskens’ “stunning small-town mystery” (New York Times Book Review) is a necessary exploration of family, loyalty, and racial tension in America and “a coming-of-age book to rival some of the best, such as Ordinary Grace” (Library Journal, starred review). In a small Southern town where loyalty to family and to “your people” carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying … people” carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying those unspoken rules can be a deadly proposition. After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn’t being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him.
Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady’s life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins — a black family settling into a community where notions of “us” and “them” carry the weight of history — forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he’s taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who carries the wounds of a mysterious past that he holds close, the quiet boss who is fighting his own hidden battle.
But the biggest secret of all is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. Although Boady has never met the missing woman, he discovers that the threads of her life are woven into the deepest fabric of his world.
As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town — and he will be forced to choose sides.
Best Book of the Year: Florida Sun-Sentinel and Library Journal
Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award
Summer, 1976 in Jessup Missouri. Boady Sandem is 15 years old and lives with his mother in a small house on a dirt road. He hates small town life and is saving his money to leave as soon as he’s 16. He’s a hard worker and works several jobs to help out his mom but he always saves some money to add to his fund that will help him leave town. His dad died when he was five and his mom has been alone and depressed since then so Boady and his mom live in the same house but don’t really interact as a family. Their next door neighbor, Hoke, taught Broady how to fish and gave him good advice while he was growing up. Near the end of the school year, Broady is anxious for summer vacation so that he can start working several jobs that will make his escape fund grow even quicker. When a new black family moves in across the road, Boady becomes friends with Thomas, who is the same age. The rest of the town is aware that the new family is black and want to send a message to them that they are not welcome in their town. There is a small white SUPREMACY group in town that is leading the plan to get rid of the black family. Boady and Thomas get caught up in some of the things that are going on and as a result their lives are in danger. Boady begins to see the lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town — and he will be forced to choose sides.
This is a poignant coming of age novel for Boady. He feels that he isn’t prejudiced but when he starts to think about some of his basic beliefs, he realizes that he does see black people as different. He is basically a kind compassionate person and his growing friendship with Thomas and his family show him that there are no real differences between them. He was still a teenager and managed to get himself into some tough situations but it was very interesting to watch him grow and begin to understand the world around him. This was my first book by Allen Eskens and it’s time to read his older books.
All of Allen Eskens’ books have been five-star, but of the six he’s written so far, this one and the first, The Life We Bury, are my favorites. They are both coming-of-age stories that hit my sweet spot in crime fiction, right between strong suspense and literary. Think books like Ordinary Grace and Where the Crawdads Sing. As Eskens said to me about his first book, you could take out the mystery and still have a novel.
I just finished this audiobook. Just like Allen other books this one didn’t disappoint me. Now this book I really enjoyed because I am not from Jessup Missouri but I am from Kansas City Missouri. Allen mentions a diner Zesto in the book. And its actually a place now the one I know about was in Kansas City Missouri where my mom and aunts all worked. So it was kinda nice to read or listen to a book where I know what they author was describing. I do know that there is a diner Zesto in Jefferson City Missouri. The narrator does amazing job keeping me into the story. I will always read a Allen Esken books. I highly recommend this book and all his books. So I hope that he writes more books.
About book: This book is set in 1976 in a small town in Jessup Missouri. Where Boady is a young fifteen year old boy who lost his father. And its only his mother and him. Until a boy comes into town. And Boady learns somethings are not met to be said. So he learns with his new friend Thomas that some ways or words are not okay. These two boys find themselves into a middle of a mystery and murder. Again I highly recommend this book.
Nothing More Dangerous follows Boady Sandon through the summer of 1976, when he’s between his freshman and sophomore years of high school in Jessup, Missouri. When a local woman disappears, then a new family moves in across the street from his rural house, his notions of the world around him–of right and wrong, of what it means to be family, and of his future–completely change. I absolutely loved this book. The moment I finished, I wanted to start all over again. Highly recommended.
This book is especially relevant given everything going on right now in our world. I had meant to read it last year, but just got to it and now I’m glad I waited. I think I have a new appreciation for the conflict and struggle depicted. I love Allen Eskens writing style and can’t wait for the next book he writes…
A master storyteller, Allen Eskens ranks high with other crime and suspense authors. Rather than muck up a story with tons of irrelevant details, he paints a picture of racism in Missouri with a dash of coming of age and detective work by a the central character, Boady. As the tale unravels, momentum builds and with it illumination of details. Characters are well developed but not overdone, pacing is perfect and the climax fitting. I plan to read others by this author, rest assured!
Impactful, atmospheric, and hauntingly realistic!
In this latest novel by Eskens, Nothing More Dangerous, he transports us to Jessup, Missouri, a small, midwestern town that suddenly finds itself turned upside down when an unsolved case of embezzlement, a missing, young, African-American employee, depressing economics, and a strong underlying racist mentality tests and unearths all the hidden, longstanding alliances, relationships, and friendships within it.
The prose is gritty and descriptive. The characters are vulnerable, raw, and impulsive. And the plot is an immersive journey of life, loss, poverty, coming-of-age, familial drama, friendship, courage, morality, loyalty, community, self-preservation, racism, and violence.
Overall, Nothing More Dangerous is a sincere, pensive, ominous tale that not only highlights the ugliness and weakness of group mentality and the ease with which it allows one to behave with ignorance, intolerance, and even participate in the most unforgivable of crimes, but also reminds us that kindness and compassion is the base of humanity that should ultimately transcend skin colour and socioeconomic status.
I don’t often cry at movies or while reading books, but I did with this one!! Also stayed up until 2:00 a.m., I had to finish it!
This is the third book that I’ve read by Mr. Eskens and every one has been a 5*, I wish I could give it more. This book gets everything right, the plot, the mystery, the character development, the quick and smooth flow of the prose, just WOW !! I felt so many emotions while reading this book. At times I laughed, cried, felt afraid, felt ashamed at how evil and prejudiced some people can be, the pain that they can inflict on others, verbally and physically. Wonderfully, to balance the evil there was the incredible kindness and caring of people, young and older, who do everything to help others. I don’t want to let go of these characters, I feel like they have found a place in my heart.
15 year old Broady is a very inquisitive, kind and caring young teen but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t get himself in lots of dangerous, dubious adventures. He has just finished his freshman year at a Christian high school which he is definitely not happy about. His mother, widowed for about ten years, is quite strict with Broady and when he was caught stealing and smoking cigarettes in 8th grade she wanted him in a private school. Problem is, at this school he doesn’t fit in anywhere. He handles it pretty well and spends lots of time reading, exploring in the woods, fishing, swimming and talking with his next door neighbor, Hoke, a retired lawyer who spends long afternoons on his porch. These two have a great relationship and it eases Broady’s heart a little since his father died.
New neighbors on Broady’s small neighborhood street is big news. When it turns out that the dad is the next manager at the local company, Ryke Manufacturing, and an African American things start to happen, first slowly and then very quickly spiral out of control. The bright light in all of this is the wonderful friendship that blossoms between Broady and Thomas Elgin, the new neighbor boy, same age as Broady.
We begin to be introduced to an array of amazing characters. Broady’s mother who has been quiet and quite withdrawn seems to come out of her loneliness when Jenny Elgin engages her in talks and teas.
The sheriff, Vaughan, is a tough one to figure out, is he really a good guy? Bad guy? Somewhere in between?
There had been a big story in town a few months previously about a young black woman, Ms. Lida Poe, who supposedly embezzled money from the company and no one has seen her since. The general belief is that she has fled the country, has she?
The really frightening group of guys are a part of the CORPS, a secret white supremacist group, they include boys named Jarvis, Bob and Brad. There are not at all happy with the new African American manager of Ryke and the demotion of their father.
I don’t want to give away any more of the plot so I will stop with this quote from Hoke when trying to explain the racial prejudices in town “In a perfect world, ignorant notions should die a quick death. A thing like racism, if it can’t find a kindred spirit…it’s like a dog barking at a stone. But if you can find just one other person who thinks like you . ..well even the most irrational belief can grow roots. Small minded people feed off each other and before you know it, you have mobs, and you have burning crosses, and lynchings” .
If you haven’t read this author I highly recommend that you pick up this book. It has already published so it can also make a great holiday gift 🙂 Obviously I loved this book!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher Mulholland Books, through NetGalley.