Book #1 in the Matt Lanier seriesSTRAIGHT RIVER, the prequel to the award-winning thriller CASTLE DANGER, is a mystery-thriller set during the emotional and financial aftermath of the Great Recession. After his estranged father dies in a farming accident, professional musician Matt Lanier returns to his hometown of Straight River, Minnesota. While he’s settling his father’s estate, an old family … his father’s estate, an old family friend and neighbor asks Matt for help. Her husband’s recent death was ruled a suicide. She insists it wasn’t. If she can’t disprove that ruling, she’ll lose her farm.
The local authorities are uncooperative, so Matt turns to his ex-wife and a young computer prodigy for assistance. As he gets closer to the truth, Matt suspects both deaths are connected to a violent conspiracy with national implications. When the conspirators intensify their efforts to silence him, Matt must decide if it’s worth risking more lives–including his–to protect his friend and hundreds of other farmers from financial catastrophe.more
I was gripped by STRAIGHT RIVER: a Matt Lanier Novel by Chris Norbury. This well-told story has a compelling and brilliant plot line. Engaging and twisty (there were several places where “I didn’t see that coming!”) — this book is a page-turner that kept me up well into the night. I highly recommend this book!
An Amateur Sleuth with a Musical Ear Faces a Not-So-Subtle Conspiracy
The protagonist of this novel, Matt Lanier, is a musician. He’s always humming a tune or drawing parallels between his situation and the lyrics of a song. And when he’s reluctantly pressed into a murder/conspiracy investigation, he leverages this talent to find clues to the truth in the timber and tone of voice of the people he meets. That’s not an ability I’ve seen other amateur sleuths leverage and one of the reasons I enjoyed Straight River.
As you might imagine with a thriller, the songs that Matt finds apropos to his situation are ones like Mozart’s Requiem Mass in D Minor—his circumstances are often bleak. Called back to his boyhood home after his father’s unexpected death, Matt soon suspects foul play. Then, later, he finds evidence of a multi-state (perhaps eventually, multi-nation) conspiracy to purchase vast tracks of farmland at below-market prices. Physical intimidation, even murder, are the tools of this criminal scheme and author Norbury keeps the reader guessing, presenting us with a long list of possible co-conspirators. The action is tense and well-paced, with the body count increasing steadily throughout the novel. But even so, there are pauses to enjoy the Minnesota countryside or to relive moments of Matt’s past. His still strong feelings for his ex-wife, in particular, provide a nice counterpoint to the action. And the ending, though a bit well-worn, felt appropriate to the plot.
The limitations of the book are primarily in the lack of subtly of the conspiracy and how/why that seemed to have little effect on the course of the tale. To start, the story is set in the 2008 Recession, so killing reluctant sellers seems a bit excessive given the overall financial state of the world. But even if we accept that premise as a literary given—to create tension—the number of deaths, near fatalities, and co-conspirators in one small Minnesotan county implies dozens, if not hundreds of incidents across multiple states. And facts that should have caused suspicion amid this killing spree are often ignored—things like suffocating in a silo when the grain isn’t being taken out from the bottom or a hanging that produces no bruising around the victim’s neck. And when a police sergeant asks the coroner about the latter evidence, she refuses to talk … but the sergeant still ignores the issue. A little more attention to aligning the investigation to the extent and nature of the crime would have increased the impact of the tale considerably.
Overall, expressive descriptions of setting and backstory add spice to a tense, well-paced thriller. Tightening up the plot would have let the action reach its full potential.
This is a well-written action/suspense story with outstandingly crafted characters. The heart of the story is the relationships between Matt Lanier – a professional bass player and reluctant hero – and his boyhood friends from a small Minnesota town (Straight River). His ex-wife is also drawn into the mystery and his aching desire to reunite with her gives the narrative extra emotional weight. The plot includes several unexpected and poignant twists and is not at all conventional or predictable. It is a classic good guys vs. bad guys adventure with plenty of action to keep you interested.
There are some flaws here, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. For starters, the book is exceptionally well-edited, leaving few blemishes to distract the reader from the story. The plot advances quickly through nicely paced chapters, drawing the reader into the story and then moving along from action sequences to breath-taking interludes before the next action sequence. The hero’s motivations are clear and each sequence is well-crafted and compelling. I had no thoughts of skimming to get to the end because each event along the way was worth reading.
The author’s loving descriptions of the Minnesota settings are also wonderfully crafted, allowing the reader to smell the manure in the barn and feel the cold water of the frigid lake, and hear the jazz in the nightclub. A small farming town can hold much mystery and intrigue and Mr. Norbury makes the settings come alive. If you enjoy rich description, you will luxuriate in this book.
The flaws here are easily overlooked within the action/suspense story. It’s often true with such tales that you should not think too hard about the plot and just go with it and enjoy the ride. That’s certainly true here. The bad guys are one-dimensional and lack much depth to their characters. The central plot involves a millionaire real estate mogul who is willing to cheat, steal, blackmail, and kill to achieve his ends. But the scheme he has cooked up is not illegal, so it doesn’t make much sense why he would employ such illegal and violent means – which opens him up to criminal prosecution – when his scheme could be as easily achieved using tough business tactics. But, he’s a bad guy, so he has henchmen and has corrupt politicians and lawmen in his pocket and is quick to use them to crush anyone who gets in his way. (The underlying real estate scheme is itself pretty far-fetched, but I’m happy to let the author have that one as a plot premise.)
Along the way, there are smaller plot holes in the story and leaps of logic. Matt, the hero, performs feats of courage and comes up with combat strategy far beyond what his character might seem capable. Matt suffers serious injuries, and yet is immediately able to battle the bad guys. There are a few instances of the tech being a bit too easy, and the big climax scene on an island on a remote lake has some funky geography. More than once you may scratch your head and ask, “but, how?” But it all works in the context of the story.
There are also a few segments where things drag out longer than necessary to get to the next important plot event. The descriptions are lovely, however, so you don’t really mind the lengthy interlude.
Mr. Norbury does not fall into predictable patterns, particularly with the resolutions for the main characters. This is not a story where all the good guys win out and all the bad guys go to jail. I love that. It’s much more relatable as written and for me more satisfying.
In the end, Straight River, is an enjoyable read and as the first novel in a series featuring the intrepid musician, Matt Lanier, it suggests great promise for the books ahead.
I found the setting and central characters so refreshing and surprising. I was hooked from the very first page. Matt Lanier grew up the son of a Minnesota farmer, but left the farm, moved to Minneapolis, and became a musician. You don’t often find a musician at the center of a mystery and the way he relates to the world has huge impact on how he navigates the danger he finds himself in. I thought all the characters were very well drawn and I was with Matt every step of the way with every surprising twist and turn. I don’t want to give too much away, but just know the tension and danger continues to ramp up from the first page to the last.
This introduction to professional musician Matt Lanier is a wild ride of a thrilling mystery! The story starts with Matt returning to his hometown after years away to settle his estranged father’s estate. Reunions with childhood friends and neighbors turn into suspicious happenings. Matt starts digging into the mysterious circumstances of not only his father’s death, but the death of a well-known neighbor. What starts as a favor to save a farm turns into an intricate web of deception and land-grabs. A country boy from Straight River finds himself matching wits with a powerful mogul. This book had twists, turns, and at times gasps of disbelief–in a good way. I saw some revelations coming, but others were surprises. The book has a satisfying end–for this installment. Luckily I have the second Matt Lanier book, so I could jump right back in and follow Matt’s game of cat and mouse. Though Mr. Norbury wrote “Straight River” after the second Matt Lanier book, “Castle Danger”, I never would have known it. If you like conspiracies, music, and suspense, you won’t be disappointed.