The Fields

A Novel

By: Erin Young

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

A breakneck procedural that is beautifully written and masterfully crafted, Erin Young's The Fields is a dynamite debut - crime fiction at its very finest.

Some things don't stay buried.

It starts with a body, a young woman found dead - torn to bits - in an Iowa cornfield on one of the few family farms still managing to compete with the giants of Big Agriculture.

When Sergeant Riley Fisher, newly promoted to head of investigations for the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, arrives on the scene, an already horrific crime becomes personal when she discovers the victim was a childhood friend, connected to a dark past she thought she’d left behind.

The investigation grows complicated as more victims are found. Drawn deeper in, Riley soon discovers implications far beyond her Midwest town.

Some things don't stay buried.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

©2022 Erin Young (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"The Fields is my favorite sort of novel: the sharp prose and explosive plot immediately drew me in, but the richly textured exploration of life in rural America stayed with me long after I finished. I hope to see more of Sergeant Riley Fisher, the novel's dynamic female protagonist. This is a classic crime series in the making." (Cristina Alger, New York Times best-selling author of Girls Like Us)

Great Listen

Not going to dissect every aspect of this book. It was well written, great characters, and difficult to put down at the end of the day. Enjoyed listening to the entire book.

Gritty in-depth mystery thriller

Sergeant Riley has been put lead on a case involving a victim that she was previously connected too, however it doesn’t stop there. More victims show up and it appears they are dealing with a cannibal serial killer. There is so many details on this book and I can understand why it has been called a mashup of The Pelican Brief and Silence of the Lambs.
If you are looking for an intriguing, make you think, mystery/thriller involving cannibalism with a potential twist on how this could possibly involve the Governor…this is for you!!

Terrible reader

Do people in Iowa really talk like this? Say no? at end of the sentence like a Spaniard? Dialogue is pretty lame.

okay.

This was pretty average. If it wasn't for the setting I'm not sure I would have much interest in finishing the story. The story was pretty predictable and I had already figured out what was going to happen 2/3 of the way through. So the final chapters of the book while action packed didn't deliver any great twists or even that much suspense because I already knew what was coming. I began to like it less when characters started making poor decisions in the final chapters. I don't want to delve into spoilers but it seems in the last act many of the characters forget they were law enforcement or at the very least decided to ignore their training. So that was a bit irritating.


As far as the setting goes the author did her research and showcased some interesting parts of the area. She did make it more rural than it actually is but she did describe the dynamic between the two cities well. The charm of the Cedar Valley seems to have rubbed off on her. It was pleasant to have a story based in Iowa that was not a complete caricature of the state or the people who live here. My only gripe is that the timber rattlesnake is found in the state but is rare. It's found in the far eastern part of the state along the Mississippi River Valley. Blackhawk County is too far west and south.

All in all it was enjoyable enough and I plan on checking out the next book in the series.

Ridiculously gory

Large plot holes and gratuitous violence. Altogether unpleasant. Won't read anything else by this author.

Gratuitous Gore

I had to quit after the needless description of serial killers/cannibals. These did nothing to advance the narrative and as many descriptive passages prior (the hog’s tongue, excruciating detail of corpses) seemed added for shock/disgust value only. The repetition, the reveries, the endless parade of dysfunctional characters, finally forced me to quit. Rarely have I ever left a mystery “unsolved”, and have never submitted a negative review, but this did it for me.