“A first-rate thriller . . . Past and present merge in The Current, Tim Johnston’s atmospheric, exquisitely suspenseful novel of two murders separated by ten years.” –The Washington Post “Gripping . . . Johnston’s masterful novel is worth lingering over–it soars above the constraints of a traditional thriller and pulls you deep into the secrets of a grief-stricken town.” –People Tim … grief-stricken town.”
—People
Tim Johnston, whose breakout debut Descent was called “astonishing,” “dazzling,” and “unforgettable” by critics, returns with The Current, a tour de force about the indelible impact of a crime on the lives of innocent people.
In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene—half frozen but alive.
What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them.
Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river, and the deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.
Grief, suspicion, the innocent and the guilty–all stir to life in this cold northern town where a young woman can come home, but still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted and unrelentingly propulsive, The Current is a beautifully realized story about the fragility of life, the power of the past, and the need, always, to fight back.
Tim Johnston’s second novel, The Current, is even better than his first, which is saying something. He’s a terrific writer and definitely a name to watch.
Tim Johnston’s second novel, The Current, cements his status as a unique, unequaled voice in contemporary fiction. Simply put, The Current, is a beautifully written, achingly heartbreaking story with authentic characters and a storyline that grabs readers by the heart and never lets go. The Current is an exploration of the enduring impact of a crime on innocent people set in the most American setting — a small town in the Midwest.
Two college students, Caroline Price and Audrey Sutter, set out on a trip to Minnesota. It is the dead of winter and Audrey needs to get home because her father is ill. She has no car or money, but Caroline has both, They don’t reach their destination. Minnesota state troopers pull the car from the icy Black Root River. Caroline’s body is found downriver, and Audrey is half frozen and traumatized, but alive. Their vehicle’s descent into the river was no accident, and news travels quickly through the small town where Audrey’s father is the former sheriff. Moreover, the incident is eerily reminiscent of an unsolved crime. Ten years ago, another young woman also lost her life in the river, and her killer has never been found and brought to justice.
Audrey is determined to find answers and soon discovers that she is connected to the prior case by more than the river. As her investigation leaders her toward dangerous truths, she is disillusioned to learn that violence simmers just below the surface of her hometown about which her father’s suspicions may have been well-founded.
Johnston’s economy of language and keen understanding of life in America’s heartland effectively pull readers into the lives of his characters. Its a place where winters are long and treacherous, right is right, and there are no strangers. Against that backdrop, Johnston weaves an intricate tale about getting on with life in the face of unspeakable tragedy and the underlying rage it fuels, and the myriad ways in which small town life is not always as simple as it seems to be on the surface. The Current explores Audrey’s coming of age and empowerment as she sees her hometown through adult eyes for the first time. And quietly examines the unconditional, unending love of a parent for his/her child through the perspectives of several of Johnston’s characters. The story’s pace is akin to the flow of the river — constant and steady, surging at particular junctures. Ultimately, The Current is a haunting and memorable study of the ties that bind us to our loved ones and communities, and the power of events to shape our future. Johnston confirms that there is a current running through our lives that binds us together, even as it separates us in significant ways, and gives us strength when we need it most. The Current is sure to be deemed once of the best books of 2019 and become a contemporary classic.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.
Tim Johnston is the best thing to come along in crime fiction in years. With Descent and The Current he has already established himself as one of the best writers in the game, with an original voice that calls to mind the likes of Cormac McCarthy and Dennis Lehane but is entirely his own. With its beautiful prose, deeply emotional storytelling, and craftsman’s eye for detail, The Current made me want to read slower, and write better.
The Current is a rare creature: a gripping thriller and page-turner but also a masterwork of mood and language — a meditation on memory and time. You’ll want to go fast at the same time you’ll be compelled to savor each and every word.
Johnston writes my favorite kind of books: the kind with deeply complex and flawed characters, a suspenseful plot, family drama, and “real” endings.
This had an added angle: small town dynamics and an unsolved crime that haunts everyone in it.
I loved the way Johnston wove the old crime with the current suspense, and gave each character their very unique part to play. I loved the unveiling of the bad guy layer by careful layer. And I loved the law enforcement angle…both the abuse of power and the heavy, realistic respect of it.
This is storytelling at its best.
Wow – this book and I’m now a big Tim Johnston fan. Excellent writing that evokes a full range of honest emotions + vivid, nuanced characters + strong, interesting premise and a solid plot as the story unfolds = a literary crime novel that will send you searching for what else Johnston has written. This one is deeply satisfying from the first page to last.
I really enjoyed this book. I didn’t want to put it down until I had finished it.
I am an avid reader and yet I could not for the life of me get into this book. I gave up after about 10 pages.
Fine suspenser by the author of DESCENT.
Johnston’s THE CURRENT is an unexpected ride on an unpredictable current. His characters are as real as you and I, multidimensional, with echos of the dark and light we all carry in our makeup. This is an in-depth psychological study of human nature as much as it is a thriller and a mystery.
Sometimes I think reading the synopsis for a book spoils the reading experience for me. Not in this case. Instead, in my eagerness to know what happened to the two young women on that cold, dark night, I made sure I set aside plenty of time to savor the story. I knew this was going to be a straight through read for me.
The two girls weren’t friends, but then they were. How that came to be was a great idea by the author. It made the girls real and likable. I quickly formed a connection with them and it saddened me. I knew the events of that night would leave one of them dead. It had me wishing I could change the outcome. That, to me, is a sure sign the rest of the book will take me places I might not want to go, make me feel things on a higher level and, perhaps, give me an ending I wish were different. Not that that is a bad thing.
All of those feelings, and that’s just the beginning of the book. What comes next is a string of events and reveals that had me both holding my breath, wringing my hands and thinking, oh no, that did not just happen.
I read Descent, another of Tim Johnston’s books. I liked his writing and how he could pen genuine characters and have me thinking I knew what was going to happen and then taking the story in a whole other direction. I got more of that with The Current. And a boatload more suspense. Lovers of this genre need to grab a copy and dive in. Just remember to breathe.
Predator and prey
It’s difficult to follow up a stellar book like DESCENT, which is this author’s first book. DESCENT is a book I will keep for my permanent library and probably read again one future day. It’s that good.
But Johnston followed through and here we have THE CURRENT. I won’t be keeping it for my library and I won’t read it again. But am I glad I read it this time? Absolutely! I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. But…it is a dark book. It delves into the dichotomy of every person, between our public face and selves and the one we keep hidden, allowing out rarely, if at all.
The story is told from many perspectives, most based in a small town in Minnesota. And it is based on two similar events, ten years apart from each other. Both events are explored in depth and many viewpoints are shown to the reader of both.
The most recent event centers around two college girls driving to Minnesota because the father of one has terminal cancer. The ten-year old event happened in the small town in Minnesota to another girl and both events center around the same river in winter.
While I hardly looked up from the pages of DESCENT once I started reading it – the lyricism and power of the written word drew me in – this book I had to keep putting aside, I guess recovering a bit from the way it made me feel. And it does make you feel. That’s not a bad thing for an author to do but it was uncomfortable for me.
This is also an exceptional book – filled with light and dark and love and hate and sorrow and regret. And bitterness and lust and anger.
I highly recommend it but be forewarned – it leaves you a bit changed once you finish it.
I received this book from Algonquin Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.
/ 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.
Tim Johnston’s The Current feels more like classic literature rather than top-ten murder mystery, and that is not a bad thing. Every choice the author made really added to the mood and flow of his novel.
The writing is very descriptive. The character development is excellent; they’re layered and nuanced.
The prose flows like a river under the ice—hard and brittle like the surface at times, and yet, deep and rushing at other times. I found the third person narrative difficult to get into given the genre, but as the story tension mounted, I became more invested in the increasingly complex storyline. I have to admit that I ended up appreciating the multiple character perspective the third-person narrative allowed. The rich characters and small town relationships really drew me in. I could hear their keening at the loss and abuse of loved ones. Mr. Johnston truly makes the reader feel each fathers’ and mothers’ loss.
The Current is not a fast paced novel, but its rich detail, and deep emotions will keep you invested. It really gave me pause to think about the assumptions one makes about their own safety, about presumed guilt, and safety some assume through their job/work role.