When These Mountains Burn Review

Author: David Joy

Genre: Southern Noir

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: Aug. 18, 2020

Purchase Links: Amazon

My Rating: 4 Burning Hearts

Acclaimed author and "remarkably gifted storyteller" (The Charlotte Observer) David Joy returns with a fierce and tender tale of a father, an addict, a lawman, and the explosive events that come to unite them.

Review:

Poverty, despair and illegal drugs flow freely through the Appalachia Mountains of Western North Carolina.  People are losing their livelihood, families and lives.  Neither the poor nor wealthy are immune to the devastation and havoc as loved ones succumb to the alluring high of their addictions.  Retired Fire Forester Raymond Mathis knows first-hand how destructive the drugs can be as he's all but given up on saving his son Ricky from the disastrous effects.  And yet, when a drug dealer calls Ray threatening Ricky's life for payment of a debt, Ray finds himself answering his son’s plea for help one more time.  He gathers the last of his meager savings and pays the drug dealer off - even knowing he can't save Ricky from himself.  But this time, a flame is ignited inside Ray.  He's known enough grief and pain to last a lifetime.  The police are spinning their wheels - even after Ray informed them the illegal drugs were being routed through the sovereign nation of Cherokee.  Pushed to the brink, Ray goes rogue seeking vengeance for himself, his son and all the families whose lives have been destroyed by ruthless drug runners.  Ray believes for every action, there's a consequence, and he won't stop until vengeance is his . . . even if he has to burn the mountain down.

Police corruption, dysfunctional families and drug empires seize the day in When These Mountains Burn.  Utilizing multiple points of view, the author renders his story via Ray who’s fighting to save his addicted son Rick, a local addict called Denny who depends on petty theft to feed his habit and a dog-tired DEA agent who's deep undercover without a lifeline. Through alternating chapters, readers get inside each character’s head experiencing the anguish driving each one while learning just how low they'll go to feed their need . . . be it drugs, alcohol, redemption, forgiveness or vengeance.  The sense of despair and desperation portrayed is overwhelming and heartbreaking as they each fight to survive the only way they know how.  Author David Joy brilliantly draws readers in to fight alongside these characters as they claw their way through dark tunnels, blind alleys and forest fires.  The setting is authentic and highly atmospheric, lending a malicious undertone that resonates throughout - driving the pace at suicide speed like a car with no brakes barreling down a dark, twisted mountain road at night.  As a reader, all I could do was hold on and burn though the pages until reaching the end where Joy expertly brings them all together in one explosive scene that will leave you reeling.  One thing's crystal clear - a day of reckoning is coming to the mountains . . . who will be left standing?  

 

Raw, gritty, and emotionally charged, When These Mountains Burn is high action suspense at its best - guaranteed to entertain and thrill fans of Noir, Suspense and Thrillers.  Readers Beware: Joy’s writing is highly addictive!  I’m hopelessly hooked and looking forward to reading more of his work.

Synopsis:

When his addict son gets in deep with his dealer, it takes everything Raymond Mathis has to bail him out of trouble one last time. Frustrated by the slow pace and limitations of the law, Raymond decides to take matters into his own hands.

After a workplace accident left him out of a job and in pain, Denny Rattler has spent years chasing his next high. He supports his habit through careful theft, following strict rules that keep him under the radar and out of jail. But when faced with opportunities too easy to resist, Denny makes two choices that change everything.

For months, the DEA has been chasing the drug supply in the mountains to no avail, when a lead--just one word--sets one agent on a path to crack the case wide open . . . but he'll need help from the most unexpected quarter.

As chance brings together these men from different sides of a relentless epidemic, each may come to find that his opportunity for redemption lies with the others. 

David Joy is the author of the Edgar nominated novel Where All Light Tends to Go (Putnam, 2015), as well as the novels The Weight Of This World (Putnam, 2017), The Line That Held Us (Putnam, 2018), and When These Mountains Burn (Putnam, 2020). His memoir, Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman's Journey (Bright Mountain Books, 2011), was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award for Creative Nonfiction. His latest stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Garden & Gun, and The Bitter Southerner. He is the recipient of an artist fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council. His work is represented by Julia Kenny of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. He lives in Jackson County, North Carolina.

Website

http://www.david-joy.com/

Twitter

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Genre

Fiction, Memoir

Influences

Larry Brown, Daniel Woodrell, William Gay, Ron Rash, Jim Harrison