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{"id":1901,"date":"2020-01-12T10:45:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T10:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=1901"},"modified":"2020-01-12T11:03:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T11:03:43","slug":"lone-star-review-bitter-falls-rachel-caine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/?p=1901&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Review: BITTER FALLS by Rachel Caine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review of Bitter Falls<\/em>, Rachel Caine’s fourth Stillhouse Lake thriller<\/p>\n

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Life is complicated when your ex-husband was a serial killer. Gwen Proctor, her daughter, Lanny, son, Connor, and partner, Sam Cade, are trying to establish safety and normalcy, but their neighbors in the small community of Stillhouse Lake harbor suspicions. Worse, the Belldene clan, who \u201ctreat feuds like sporting events,\u201d prefer them gone, as Gwen\u2019s controversial presence and her \u201cneed for control<\/em>, for defiance\u201d attracts a spotlight that threatens to illuminate the clan\u2019s business activities. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Now, Gwen\u2019s employer, a private investigation firm in Knoxville, assigns her the cold case of Remy Landry, a college student missing for three years. When Gwen\u2019s investigation, which is being paid for by a shadowy religious nonprofit, turns up not only suspects but more victims, the complex tangle of events and relationships from the past collide with the present. The plan to get everyone out of this alive involves a quid pro quo between strange bedfellows in a tactical alliance\u2014the enemy of my enemy is my friend. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bitter Falls<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/a> <\/em>is the fourth book in Rachel Caine\u2019s Stillhouse Lake series of thrillers. The prologue makes clear the stakes involved in Bitter Falls<\/em>, beginning with a chilling hook on the first page. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>While it\u2019s not necessary to read the first three books before you open Bitter Falls<\/em>, and Caine does a fine job of briefly explaining relationships and past plot points from the previous installments, I do recommend beginning with Stillhouse Lake <\/em>and working forward to Bitter Falls<\/em> for a more complete and nuanced understanding, not to mention a thrilling ride. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Bitter Falls <\/span><\/span><\/em>is an elegantly constructed riddle, a fast-paced page-turner enhanced by sophisticated psychology. Multiple subplots involving each supporting character\u2014especially Connor and his PTSD\u2014are seamlessly interwoven with the main narrative, though the number of moving parts can sometimes feel overwhelming. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Gwen is shades of Jamie Lee Curtis in the last Halloween<\/em> movie, who conducts the equivalent of active-shooter drills at home, which now feels \u201cless like a refuge and more like a fortress.\u201d A series of first-person narratives rotates between Gwen, Sam, Lanny, and Connor, Caine seeming to channel different ages and genders. This is an effective technique until switching between points of view interrupts the climactic acceleration, but increases the tension, inducing that frantic need to know, when you have to fight the urge to peek\u2014a trade-off. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Caine slides social commentary of our modern times into the narrative through her characters\u2019 ruminations. \u201cThe internet enables and organizes hate very effectively; it lets people believe they\u2019re righteous warriors for justice when in reality they\u2019re just clicking keys.\u201d The many dark themes of Bitter Falls <\/em>are leavened with an acerbic, sometimes absurdist, humor, much of it involving the Hillbilly Mafia\u2014it\u2019s not personal, it\u2019s business. When Ma and Pa Belldene pay a call to encourage Gwen to leave town, they arrive bearing meatloaf, which everyone agrees is locally legendary and probably not poisoned. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Caine excels at suspense, creating real tension in not just the action scenes, but the quiet ones too. It\u2019s always particularly creepy when faith, meant to comfort and sustain, is twisted. As Sam knows, there is \u201cnothing scarier than fanatics who don\u2019t feel like they have anything to lose.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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