Down River

A Novel

By: John Hart

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

The New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award-winning novel with from an author whose "prose is like Raymond Chandler's, angular and hard" (Entertainment Weekly).

Adam Chase has spent the last five years in New York City trying to erase his worst memories and the scorn and abandonment of his family. Then a phone call from his best friend awakens in him a torrent of emotion and pain. Having left North Carolina and its red soil for good, he never thought returning would be easy—but being remembered as a murderer doesn't help much. Adam is beaten, accosted, and hostilely confronted by his family, including Grace, the young woman whose abandonment torments him still.

Then people start turning up dead.

Within this small Southern town, John Hart explores the lengths to which people will go for money, family, and pure greed—and whether or not forgiveness is ever attainable.

©2007 John Hart (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“Southern writer John Hart's work has a lyrical quality that Scott Sowers narrates with a growling weariness...The combination of Hart and Sowers provides the perfect marriage of prose and voice. Together they enable the book to transcend genre fiction and become something exceptional.” —AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner

“Scott Sowers delivers a solid performance reading Hart's powerful second novel…Hart writes with an intimate sense of melancholy and loss that Sowers resonates perfectly. Using a low-key, Southern accent to good advantage, Sowers draws the listener into the story from the very beginning with his simple, earnest delivery, and holds them tight.” —Publishers Weekly

“There hasn't been a thriller as showily literate since Scott Turow came along.” —The New York Times

I'm angry this is so good

John Hart's award winner is a great read (listen). Smart, detailed, twists, full of ambience. My only complaint is that the character's anger is splashed, and the conceit used, a bit too much. It all ties well in the end, and the form may be a bit more natural in print, but it is noticeable in audio. Still, I'd only take .5 off--it's a great book to enjoy.

So sorry I fininished the book

When I read other reviews on the book I almost didn't purchase it. People were saying that is was too long with too many characters. Let me tell you I love the book, its one of my favorites, with a lot of twists and turns. This is my first time reading John Hart and I will look into picking up another one of his books.

Ok

It was just ok. It kept my interest most of the time. The narration was good.

Very well written

I came close to giving this book five stars but decided not to because of the absence of a character you could feel good about. Try as I might, I couldn't make myself like Adam. The author combined the elements of an intriguing tragedy with mystery and kept me involved for the entire read. Well worth a credit.

About the narration---

I haven't finished the book--in fact I've just started it, but I've discovered something about the narration that may be helpful:

I generally listen to a book with the speed at about 1.10 or even 1.15, because it somehow suits my own weird rhythm.

Scott Sowers' narration does NOT lend itself to higher speeds. At 1.10, while it didn't seem like he was speaking quickly, the very slight rushing of his words made the sentence structure monotonous, and changed the tone and music of his voice, making it sound abrupt and perfunctory.

The narration was beginning to grate on me, when I thought to slow it to normal speed. At 1.0, Scott sounds just like the man he portrays, and I'm very eager to dive into this story again.

I gave five stars on faith, and I'll be back with a full review when I've heard the whole book!

Worthwhile But Lacking

There is nothing to sway any real passion either way about this story. Adam was wronged with a murder trial but found innocent. The town apparently disagrees with that finding. He goes away but comes back. The twists and turns that follow are largely not believable. Or involves something that I don't care about. The explanation for why it all happened (and I won't spoil the ending) is the craziest of all. Truly good police work would have discovered some of it out. But apparently that is what this town was lacking, and that definitely includes Robin, Adam's lover.

5 stars

Really good story that holds reader’s interest. Perfect presentation of characters by the reader. Highly recommended.

Depressing story went from bad to worse.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No! The story had too many negative events and outcomes.

Do you think Down River needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. This family was toooo disfunctional to continue the story.

Any additional comments?

Purchased this book because of a good rating but don't agree with that opinion.

Somewhat lacking

My difficulty was that I simply did not connect with the primary character, Adam Chase, enough to care about his situation. I appreciated how he was grappling with some of his family issues, but I never really found him overall that interesting. Nor did care too much about his predicament. Could be me. Other characters were drawn with fairly bold lines, not much nuance to any of them. I'm sure that was intentional, almost requisite for this plot to work. But again I failed to connect with any of them. So I did not feel much anticipation regarding the overall resolution of many of their conflicts. The plot was somewhat interesting but not gripping or demanding. The strength of the story was Adam's efforts at dealing with issues involving his mother and father and family. The author handles this very well and demonstrates a clear understanding of human nature and family motivations.

Loved it.

What did you love best about Down River?

Every time I thought I had it figured out there was another twist

What was one of the most memorable moments of Down River?

I was moved in the very last chapter. It was nice to see the change in Adam

Which character – as performed by Scott Sowers – was your favorite?

Adam

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Adam decided to take the call from his dad

Any additional comments?

I wish Janis would have been arrested. I would have liked to seen Jacob do the right thing.