Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-02
• Released on: 2007-10-02
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Hart surpasses his bestselling debut, The King of Lies (2006), with his richly atmospheric second novel, which offers a tighter plot, more adroit pacing and less angst. Five years earlier, Adam Chase was arrested for murder, largely on the basis of his stepmother's sworn testimony against him. He was acquitted, but nearly everyone, including his father, still thinks he did it, and Adam's deep bitterness has kept him away from home ever since. Now, at the request of a childhood friend, he's back in Salisbury, N.C., where all the old demons still reside and new troubles await. The almost Shakespearean snarl of family ties is complicated by a very modern struggle between economic progress and love for the land, between haves and have-nots. Throughout, Hart expertly weaves his main theme: that by their freedom of choice, humans are capable of betrayal but also of forgiveness and redemption. This book should settle once and for all the question of whether thrillers and mysteries can also be literature. 150,000 first printing; 15-city author tour. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine
John Hart’s 2006 debut, The King of Lies (**** Selection Sept/Oct 2006), earned an Edgar nomination for Best First Novel. Most reviewers agree that his sophomore effort is a worthy successor. The plot moves energetically through interesting terrain: a southern county torn apart by the possibility of easy wealth, a family ruptured by suspicion, and a community that despises the book’s protagonist. The New York Times criticized Hart for overblown writing and stale imagery but grudgingly praised the story’s vigorous plot and feverish pace. With Down River, Hart garners comparisons to Raymond Chandler, John Grisham, and Scott Turow. This illustrious list should be recommendation enough for most readers.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* King of Lies (2006), Hart's debut, was gripping and stylishly written, but it pales in comparison to this complex, emotionally charged novel. Adam Chase returns home to small-town North Carolina after five years living in New York City. He left his hometown—or, in fact, was run out of town—after he was acquitted of murder. He has returned home because his family is there and because everyone he has ever loved is there. But when his oldest friend goes missing, and Adam is beaten to a pulp by his friend's father's stooges, he begins to regret his decision. As he tries to reconnect with family and friends, Adam learns that some people he's known all his life are hiding dark secrets—and that the truth surrounding the murder he was accused of five years ago is more frightening and closer to home than he could have imagined. Down River is a beautifully constructed story of personal redemption, family secrets, and murder—a small-town epic, if there is such a thing. Hart dexterously juggles a large cast of characters and several intricate plotlines, and when he starts to tie together the threads of the various stories—well, that's when the real magic begins. A truly splendid novel with a deep emotional core. Pitt, David

Customer Reviews

More than a Story
John Hart is a new drama-suspense literary talent that will out-rival the others in his genre. This story is so much more multidimensional than the best selling who-dunits of the last 10 years. John vividly portrays the human nuances of complex interpersonal relationships and emotions whilst telling a most riveting and suspensfull tale.

Adam is banished from Eden, but the serpent lives on
Adam Chase was barely acquitted of a young man's murder five years ago despite his stepmother's testimony against him. His father chose to abide by his wife and asked Adam to leave the family farm. Adam leaves Rowan County, North Carolina with his memories of an idyllic childhood by the river, and spends the next five years nursing his wounds in New York City. Now he's back, his best friend, Danny Faith, wanting to speak to him in person about some life-altering decision. But Danny's disappeared and soon Adam is once again the town's suspect in a beating, an arson, and murders that follow. To clear his name once and for all, Adam tracks down the real killer and in the process, resurrects the pain that has crippled his family.

Reading `Down River' by John Hart is like stumbling into a Tennessee Williams play, but with the heat turned up--way up. It's about greed, secrets, murder, backstabbing, front stabbing, and what Williams called "mendacity." Awash in hyperbole, it's a hothouse of emotions, where everyone speaks and acts as if someone ought to be named Brick and the daddy here, Jacob Chase, ought to be Big Daddy. There are no stiff upper lips to be found--everyone emotes and anger doesn't just percolate, it boils over. This isn't the Antebellum South; laden with atmosphere and family dysfunction, it practically shrieks Southern gothic. Mr. Hart's penchant for melodrama suits his theme quite well and even if it gets unwieldy at times, it's a decent mystery that entertains.

A true page turner.
According to most of the people in Rowan County, North Carolina, acquittal was a term used by the courts when they didn't have enough evidence to convict a man. It had nothing to do with guilt or innocence. Adam Chase was guilty of murder. His step-mother had even testified against him. The acquittal meant nothing.

Adam Chase was tried for a murder he did not commit. After going through an ordeal like that, Adam knew he could deal with the suspicion, animosity, and outright hostility, but his father's betrayal cut to the quick. He couldn't handle that. Jacob Chase chose to believe his wife's version of the story rather than his son's. Left with few alternatives, Adam turned his back on his family, friends, and Rowan County. In New York City he would be an anonymous face in the crowd. The past and the future would no longer matter.

Adam was wrong. Five years had passed and the walls he built around his heart were thick and solid, but one phone call from a childhood friend asking him to come home, and the walls started crumbling. Adam was no longer insulated from the pain. There would be no peace until he returned home and set things right.

There was trouble brewing in Rowan County and Adam's unexpected return added fuel to the fire. The friend that summoned him home had disappeared, and when a family member was assaulted, the cops looked at Adam with suspicion. Was the trouble dogging his family stemming from the past, or was it related to the latest controversy involving the proposed nuclear power plant? The nuclear power plant would give the town and the county a much needed economic boost, but his father's refusal to sell the land needed for it had stalled the project.

Unable to bridge the gap between himself and his father, Adam considered heading back to New York, but then the first body surfaced. It was found in an isolated cavern on Chase land. Adam knew he couldn't turn his back on his friends and family again. He had to ferret out the truth. He owed them that.

Down River is an incredible story about relationships, revenge, and retribution. Written from Adam's point of view, it was easy to understand his attitude and why he did what he did. But John Hart took it one step farther. His secondary characters are not treated as secondary characters, but as an integral part of the story. I felt their pain and understood their motives as surely as I did Adam's.

If you haven't read Down River yet, I highly recommend it. It is the second novel written by John Hart and I am looking forward to the next one.