Holding Lies
A Novel
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
With Holding Lies, John Larison takes us deep into a thriving subculture of the Northwest, one born of ferns and firs, rain and hot-springs, salmon and whitewater. He takes us even deeper into the troubles of Hank Hazelton, a fifty-nine-year-old river guide, as he struggles to reconnect with his daughter after a long estrangement. Before his daughter’s arrival, Hank discovers a drift boat stranded below a rapid, its oarsman missing. Within days, the sheriff has opened a murder investigation, one that to Hank appears more about old grudges than objective evidence. When Hank himself becomes a suspect, he’s forced to confront the violent past of his home valley—and his own culpability. In a novel about finding family in unlikely places, Larison breathes life into a community rich with history, sin, and hope, a place where bears still wander side streets and time is still marked by the seasons of the river. Holding Lies is a taut, big-hearted novel, steeped in the ecology of place and peopled with unforgettable characters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The subculture of fishing guides and the lore of steelhead trout provide an evocative background for Larison's debut, a thriller set in the breathtaking Oregon wilderness. At 59, Hank Hazelton brings mostly wealthy clients to his special spots along the Ipsyniho River. The river has never lost its allure, but life as a guide has left Hank alone, with little money. Hank becomes a suspect when he finds abandoned in the rapids a bloodied boat belonging to Justin Morell, the most vocal of a group of younger guides who give away fishing secrets, steal clients, and have little respect for the "river etiquette." Meanwhile, he both dreads and anticipates a visit from his only daughter, whom he hasn't seen in 14 years. Larison romanticizes Oregon's outdoors and the tight-knit river guide community without overly sentimentalizing either and realistically explores the father and daughter reunion fraught with emotions and misunderstandings. Fans of C.J. Box will find much to like.
