The Dark Tide
Andrew Gross
Reviewed by J. D. Harkleroad
The adjective "compelling" tends to be greatly overused, especially by publicists, but what better word to describe Andrew Gross' THE DARK TIDE? Gross provides two equally strong protagonists — Karen Friedman, a Greenwich, Connecticut, housewife, and Ty Hauck, local police detective and former New York cop. But the first character introduced to the reader is Karen's husband Charles, a "hedge fund" manager. (To Gross' credit, he provides a mini-crash course on "Wall Street Shenanigans for Dummies,"which was of immeasurable help to the reviewer.)
Just a quick glimpse of Charlie Friedman is given before he is killed in an underground train explosion…or is he? Because the initial picture of Charles Friedman is so sketchy, the reader can judge the man's character only through Karen's eyes and it is that very ambiguity that keeps the reader guessing throughout the story.
On the same day of the tragic explosion, Hauck is called to investigate what appears to be a hit-and-run fatality. Karen and Ty's stories, presented alternately at first, become so inextricably entwined, that one can not be told without the other. And, as parallel railroad tracks appear to converge at a point in the distance, so Gross convincingly draws these two disparate events and lives together.
The book has a second, more subtle underlying theme, that of forgiveness. Before Karen Friedman or Ty Hauck can go on with their lives singularly or together, Karen has to forgive Charlie of his multiple transgressions and Ty has to forgive himself for a tragedy that destroyed his family several years earlier.
That Karen and Ty's "voices" could conceivably have been interchanged — neither Karen's southern background nor her feminine voice came through in her speech pattern, except for the "Kiss, kiss!" she threw at Charles as he left for work — takes nothing away from Gross' exciting and well written story.
Gross allows no dead time, does not pad, and wastes no words. His non-stop action and fast-paced suspense seamlessly carry the reader from one chapter to the next. THE DARK TIDE is the first book of Andrew Gross that I have read, but it won't be the last. I highly recommend it.
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About the Reviewer:
J.D. Harkleroad and her husband divide their time between their farm in Virginia and their ranch in Utah. An expert rifleman and rider, she is described in the liner notes of a musical CD she recently directed as "...a woman of faith, TV editor/writer, educator, musician, artist, photographer, and 'cowboy.'"
SWEP CULHANE, an action/romance story circa 1944, is one of her "Men of the West" series. Others include the contemporary crime fiction BLOOD ATONEMENT and traditional "Westerns," KETCH COLT, and FREEZEOUT!
J.D. Harkleroad belongs to The Western Writers of America (WWA) and Women
Writing the West (WWW). Visit J.D. at: http://jdharkleroad.webs.com
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