Thriller debut worth all the bells and whistles
Afirst thriller arrives with so much trumpeting from its US publisher that you may need ear protection — and, goodness me, it deserves all the decibels. Rice Moore hides himself among 3000ha of nature reserve in the Appalachians. Wouldn’t you, if you were fleeing highly unpleasant Mexican drug cartels who’ve murdered your girlfriend?
At first, things look good, except for belligerent bees and certain goatee-sporting, pickup-driving locals. Rice tracks wildlife, maintains cabins, faces a few demons. Then a mutilated mushroom gatherer leads him to the carcasses of dead bear, paws and gall bladders taken to sell on black markets. A local biker gang seems involved.
Helped by comely (of course) wounded (of course) Sara, Rice sets out to find the poachers. It ain’t easy: neighbours, the law, his boss are suspicious or hostile. Our anti-hero, whom the first pages show to be lethally proficient with a cast-iron pipe, faces an ethical choice: silence and safety or action and exposure.
It’s a plot distinguished by its inerrant rendering of the natural world. The writing is lyrical, hardly ever self-indulgent, except for a few cosmic questions and cat chats. McLaughlin’s images are near-perfect: cumulus hanging “as inert as god’s laundry”; swifts that whirl “in a twittering gyre”. Wildlife is authentically feral, vulnerable, never sentimentalised. Ravens, rat snakes, raccoons, vultures “careening overhead” form the backdrop to a steady excavation of Rice’s past. Characters are complex and challenging; they make Jack Reacher look like a wind-up puppet (okay, that’s not hard).
The narrative rampages along, via the odd busted nose, stomped knee, firewood concussion. A ghillie suit, the essential wardrobe item (blackened cork, badminton net and rain poncho) for the well-dressed poacher, features. There are moments of hallucination with Rice alone in the forest; moments of humour — a bear watching curiously as the protagonist perches up a tree.
More than one death brings things to a sustained climax, with a bullet in the cranial cavity, a Mayan mask, a hair net (sic) and an old dawg. I promise none of these are spoilers; the wrap is pleasing if a bit formulaic. It’s one heck of a debut.