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 Black River Falls by Ed Gorman
reviewed by Underview
Original appearance: Albedo one issue 11, 1996
Ed Gorman writes thrillers which inhabit the twilight fringes of horror. His latest is Black River Falls and it's a cracker. If you're looking for deep intellectual insights into the mind of a vicious killer or into the psychology of serial murders, this is not the place to find them. But if a page-turning action adventure with believable characters and an atmospheric setting is what you're after, then Ed's your man.
Gorman's writing is straightforward and his characters are reasonably uncomplicated. Even his plotting does not get too complex. There are the usual twists and turns and misdirections but in the end, given the restrictions of his genre and the small cast of characters, the identity of the murderer is fairly inevitable from an early stage. But this is not-a who-done-it, rather a will-he-get-away-with-it or even a how-does-he-get-caught-without destroying-the-good-guys-lives.
Ben Tyler is a relatively innocent young man. He is intellectually, emotionally and athletically limited, especially when compared with his older brother, Michael, who is the biggest fish in the very small pond of the small Midwestern town of Black River Falls. Michael very nearly went all the way to the pros as a footballer until his budding career was destroyed by injury. Now he remains an unfulfilled promise of what might have been - the high school football hero making good in his home town. The most popular kid at high school who has grown into the most popular man in town. Unless, of course, he's screwing your wife.
Ben, limited though he is, has one thing going for him - the love of a good woman, Alison, which is in the process of redeeming him from hell-raising drinker and loser. There is even a chance he might eventually take over his mother's veterinary practice if things keep going well for him.
But behind the fairly normal small town Tyler family lies a dark secret. Ben's grandfather was executed for murdering a teenage girl with whom he was having an affair. And Ben's mother has had to live with the stigma for most of her life. Now murder has returned to Black River Falls and Ben suspects his brother may be involved. Who can he confide in? His brother is also his best friend. His mother would be devastated by even the suggestion Michael is involved. And how can Ben be sure that his judgement has not been affected by his relationship to the victim; his girlfriend, Alison.
This is a good, snappy thriller, very reminiscent of the style of another Headline writer, Richard Laymon, though perhaps a little less gory. The influence of Stephen King is there for all to see, but what novelist working in the field of popular American literature could fail to have been impressed by King's easy down-home style and - dare I say it - popularity.
You would have to try hard to dislike Black River Falls or anything about Ed Gorman's writing. A good companion for a cold winter's night or a long journey.
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