Gale Massey makes a gritty and thrilling crime debut set in small town, Parsons, in New York, a place where once your family is saddled with a history and reputation as convicts, thieves and cheats, its hard to escape the heavy weight of peoples' judgements and expectations. 19 year old Jamie Elders is bright and intelligent, her life has not been easy, her mother is in prison, and all she wants is to escape from Parsons. She is a great poker player, a gift honed from her mother's skills in the game, she has plans of becoming a professional player in Florida. However, it all goes to hell in a handcart after Jamie makes a series of poor decisions that land her in a whole heap of trouble and in enormous debt to her nasty piece of work, abusive and corrupt Uncle Loyal, a man deep into illicit gambling with connections in high places.

was a gripping thriller that took you to every aspect of trying to figure out what was really going on and what was going to happen next! This was such an amazing book and I can’t wait to see what else is released from this author!

If I am being honest, the Girl From Blind River felt like a first draft - the writing was clunky and incredibly characteristic of the poor-standard that I have come to expect from so many mystery/thrillers; the characters, in an attempt to make the main character’s life as awful as possible, felt more like caricatures than real human beings; and the tedium of the poker descriptions were just really unnecessary.
Please, for the love of god, can authors start picking plot-centric features that aren’t ’she did this, and then he did this, and then she thought for a moment and then did this’?? Like, I know, I know, I hate poker, but I think even a seasoned player would be driven up the wall by the formulaic, step-by-step way it was described.
There was no action in the descriptions, no excitement.
Just a bunch of characters putting cards on a table for no discernible reason.
And, what reason did they have?
The main character, Jamie, had all of the resources she needed to get out of her supposedly-horrific situation, but she chose instead to stay and play poker. And why? Because, as the only female, she was the only one with any sense of responsibility (that is including her brother, who was only something like ten months younger than her) and therefore, had no solo agency until she got all of the males in her life out of the terrible situation as well.
I spent all of my time reading this willing her to run, to go, to say fuck-you to them all and leave them all behind. At least, until I just couldn’t find the energy to do it anymore.

A slow and steady read in the crime fiction genre, The Girl from Blind River by Gale Massey is a story of a girl from the wrong side of the tracks, who's family is "that" family who most people avoid at all costs: the Elders family who are nothing but convicts, alcoholics, liars, gamblers, and cheats, the kind of family she can't seem to escape.

And the story goes...

19-year-old Jamie is stuck. Stuck in the small town of Blind River, New York. Stuck dealing poker games to the crooked and corrupt people in town. Stuck in a relationship with her married boyfriend. Stuck looking after her younger brother who can't stop getting in trouble. Stuck under suspicion when a famous football player goes missing after a high stakes poker game goes awry. Stuck in debt to and at the mercy of her alcoholic and abusive uncle, Loyal Elders, which means when he tells her he needs her help disposing of a body for one of the most powerful people in town, she's stuck. Stuck in the maelstrom of her uncle's criminal life. And now she's stuck with a detective on her tail, with her brother's future and her escape from Blind River at risk, will she do the "right thing" to be able to escape or will she embrace the Elders' criminal ways and be stuck in the Blind River life forever.

My thoughts...

I enjoyed this book, but it took a while to ease into it. The characters are relatable. Either it's your family or you know the family who is "that" family. You know the girl who makes stupid decisions and can't seem to escape the town or the consequences, because she doesn't think about her actions (or the consequences) of her behaviors, so her short-sightedness becomes another obstacle that keeps her from escaping Blind River (ahhh, I love a good symbolic title). While I wouldn't classify this as a psychological thriller (one of my favorite genres!!), I would say it is a solid crime fiction read and definitely worth the read. This book it the stands this summer on July 20,2018, so make sure to pick it up!!

Special thanks to @CrookedLaneBooks and @NetGalley for the #ARC for my honest (albeit extremely delayed review!!) #TheGirlfromBlindRiver #NetGalley

I started this but just wasn't feeling it. There was nothing inherently wrong with it I just wasn't feeling it at the time, however having been really excited about this book beforehand I would like to try again sometime.

The odds were against her from the start. Jamie Elders, 19, comes from a family of thieves, crooks and liars. Her mom, recently out of prison after eight years, Jamie and her younger brother Toby, were raised by their uncle Lloyd. Lloyd runs an illegal gambling ring, and pays money to a powerful local judge. Jamie wants nothing more than to escape Blind River, have a different life, but she has neither the money nor the means. Although her skill at cards may give her a chance, she has one weakness, her brother. After a series of bad decisions, and a terrible twist of fate, Jamie finds her last chance may rest on one decision, and the final turn of a card.

"Follow your heart, but always bet your spades."

Another terrific and tightly plotted debut novel. It is gritty and unflinchingly in it's portrayal of a young woman, who not coming from the best of circumstances, wants her life to be different. One can't help but root for Jamie, she is a character that while she makes mistakes, it is easy to understand her motives. One wants her to succeed. This was also a novel where one can follow the trajectory of one bad decision leading to another, until one is caught circumstances hard to manipulate, know what to do.

Am liking this recent trend that feature young woman, who seem powerless, though turn out to be anything but. Looking forward to what and where this author will go next.

ARC from Netgalley.

In spite of the fact that this book is good written, I honestly was very closed to DNF it.

If you like to read about beautiful, successful and happy characters surrounding by the picturesque landscape, then this book is definitely not for you. If you read to relax and to escape from your busy and stressful daily routine in a wonderful fantasy world, then don't read it.

This book is depressing. Not because the main characters and the secondary characters, the characters that you read about are nothing to admire or be envy about. The most depressing part for me is the realization that neither I or you, nor anyone else, not even the characters themselves can changes anything in their a terrible situation from which there is no escape. We talk often about possibilities, chances, about how we are responsible for ourselves, our lives, our targets and our way of living. But there are circumstances where people just doomed to be who they are. An extreme poverty, families where practically all members are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts, add a tiny town with the most corrupted judge you can imagine, and you have more or less the scenery of The Girl From Blind River.

What could be more tragically than a life without any hope?
And so Gale Massey gives us, or better to say, Jamie this tiny hope for a better life, a tiny chance to escape... and I am grateful for it.

Occasionally, debuts come along that are so tightly-plotted and strongly-written that it is hard to believe they are first novels. When that happens, readers instantly know they will be following said author’s career for quite some time to come. That is exactly what will happen when readers pick up Gale Massey’s The Girl From Blind River; there is no turning back.

In a way that is not always the case, the title of Gale Massey’s debut clues her new fans in to what is most important; the girl – Jamie Elders and the location – Blind River. Based on the strength of those two elements alone, The Girl From Blind River would be a smashing success, but in an embarrassment of riches, Gale Massey manages to provide so much more.

Crime fiction needs a character like nineteen-year-old Jamie Elders. She’s spirited, candid, and steadfast to the core; she’s incredibly savvy, yet inherently world-weary; she’s an every-woman who manages to also be one-of-a-kind. This complex nature makes Jamie Elders the perfect type of character on which to base a series. Not only will readers not know where she is going to go in The Girl From Blind River, there is also no telling where Jamie is willing to go in the future.

Which brings us to Blind River. Gale Massey’s elegiac language brings this location to life in a way that makes it unforgettable. On the surface, Blind River is nothing special: a struggling corner of New York state one either passes through with arms tense and breath held or a birthplace one aims to rid oneself of as soon as possible. But it is more than a physical place; it’s an attitude that resides in the bones of its citizens, making escape impossible – and just maybe unwarranted.

Of course Jamie dreams of leaving Blind River behind, but she won’t abandon her younger brother, Toby. When Uncle Loyal gets Toby embroiled in a major crime – as the lead suspect, no less – Jamie’s fierce nature roars to the forefront. Self-preservation becomes a non-entity as she willingly sets out to do whatever she must to save young Toby.

Jamie’s journey toward a new understanding of maturity dominates The Girl From Blind River, but the secondary characters are never neglected. The good, the bad, and every permutation between are fleshed out in nuanced ways, eliciting true emotion from the reader with each new plot turn.

Poker plays a significant role in the plot, but excessive familiarity with the game is not really necessary. Massey creates an ambience out of the many risks gambling generates for her characters – a gateway to worse crimes. Based on the authenticity displayed throughout The Girl From Blind River, one suspects that this author’s knowledge of card games is on point.

Gale Massey’s writing style in The Girl From Blind River is unique. While the plot moves at fast clip, the language is methodical and at times lyrically beautiful. This is a writer in charge of every word and phrase, able to seduce readers, keeping them under her spell for the duration. Based on the strength of the writing, the complexity of the characters, and the uniqueness of the setting, a lot of new fans will be created once The Girl From Blind River is completed.

Drawn in by the interesting cover, I felt like I could really read The Girl From Blind River--especially because of that intriguing synopsis! 

However, very quickly into the book I realized that Jamie's story just wasn't for me. Other people seemed to have loved it, which is great. I just couldn't cope with how depressed Jamie was in the beginning, since it was triggering my own depression.

Just a damn great exposition on fate, poverty and the human will to overcome
An excellent debut novel and an author to keep an eye on

The Girl from Blind River is one of two books by Gale Massey listed on Goodreads, and based on the other one listed I can already tell she’s got a decent range of writing (fiction and non-fiction, for starters).
I know I say this a lot, but what first caught my attention when I was scrolling through the listings on NetGalley was the cover. I loved the muted tones combined with the darker trees and white font. It’s a striking mage. The title itself was intriguing as well, and obviously the description itself sold it.
The Girl from Blind River is described as a gritty thriller, and that couldn’t be more accurate. This novel was unlike any other thrillers I’ve read, and it had this way of getting under my skin. I ended up reading the book in one sitting – I just couldn’t leave it without knowing how everything was going to go in the end.
It’s impossible not to feel bad for the main character, Jamie. Sure, she may not always make the best decisions, but considering how her options in life have already been limited, who’s to blame her? Everyone in her town is so quick to judge her for her family’s actions; nobody seems at all interested in finding out the real her, instead just assuming that she’ll end up a criminal just like her mom. So in the end it all sort of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can only treat a person like a criminal for so long before they start internalizing that message.
Jamie however, is a fighter. She hates the town and knows the only way to escape that fate is to get as far away as possible. The problem is you sort of need money to move, and she doesn’t have much of that. Plus she’d never leave her little brother behind. Her brother is another prime example of what happens when you treat somebody like a criminal for long enough. So naturally she’s very worried about him, and frankly she has reason to be.
This is one of those novels that from start to finish will surprise you. I knew based on the description of the book that there would be a murder that Jamie would end up having to help cover up, but honestly with the way the story started out it was actually almost easy to forget about that. Until it actually happened. From there things moved very quickly for the main plot, with one curveball after another being thrown at either Jamie or her brother.
What Massey truly excelled at here was getting us to feel for the characters. I legitimately felt bad for Jamie at times and furious for her at other times. I could see when she was being taken advantage of, or being judged, and it would make my blood boil. There were times where I wished I could step into the book and stop a situation from happening, but knowing that I never could. The end result was a myriad of emotions that left me exhausted, but in a ‘I just read a fantastic book’ sort of way.
I know this is one of Massey’s first novels, but I have to say that I am impressed. I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes open for any more thriller novels coming from her direction. She’s got a lot of potential, and I love her creative way of handling thrillers.

I posted the below 3-star review to Hillbilly Highways, Amazon, and Goodreads on 7/11/18:

Jamie has got problems. She is stuck in a dead-end town with nothing much going on beyond a fertilizer plant. Her uncle has raised her since her mother went to prison (she’s out now), but his “raising” has consisted in significant part of her helping out with his small-scale gambling operation. And things go very, very wrong when a minor football legend comes into town and Jamie decides to make the jump from online to casino poker.

That’s a decent quick intro, but there is a good-sized cast for a story of this sort. The Girl Jamie. Her mother the ex-con Phoebe. Her brother Toby. Her uncle Loyal. The crooked judge Keating. The football star TJ Bangor. The disgraced detective Garcia.

Jamie is the obvious protagonist, in the vein of Ree Dolly from Winter’s Bone. After telling the story from her POV for the first quarter or so of the story, the shift to another POV is a bit abrupt, but the shifts in POV are well handled from there.

I enjoyed this book. It neatly fits in the country noir subgenre (or roughly fits, because nothing in country noir should ever been neat except the whiskey, and that ain’t whiskey neat, it’s just whiskey). So it was exactly the sort of thing I was looking for. It has a good voice (so, so important for a country noir).

But the prose is a little off. It isn’t badly written, but it also ain’t Ron Rash or Daniel Woodrell. The Girl From Blind River is set in what is maybe intended to be upstate New York, but it doesn’t have a strong sense of place. The fertilizer plant is a nice touch, but the main other marker is how much people won’t stop talking about how cold it is. I live in Michigan. People b____ more about the heat (or “heat,” as a former Houstonian). The cold in winter is just a brooding omnipresence, to be endured but barely noticed.

The real problem is that the story is a little on the limp side. The poker, Lloyd’s tin-pot criminal empire, and his relationship with the corrupt judge are nice touches. Using a closeted man’s sexuality as an excuse to kick at him, on the other hand, is at this point a tired and lame trope. The biggest sin, though, is a tepid climax. These things must never end pat, or casually.

I got my grimy hands on a review copy.

The Girl From Blind River by Gale Massey is another novel that readers of popular fiction will pass right by and not realize the gem of a book this one really is. Gritty and brutally honest, this is the tale of what we do for the ones we love and how the forces of family and small town America can keep us down. Comparisons will be made to Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone and if you don't know what that book is, then it is well past time for you to expand your horizons.

"...I see it all the time. Kids like Toby are like a tidal wave that just rolls over you. Parents think they're creating something better than themselves , something beautiful and wondrous, but it isn't like that. Kids are their own form of grief-if they don't pull you under, they show you what you're made of..."

The Elders family are criminals and cheats. A simple truth that has haunted nineteen year old Jamie Elders all her life. A truth that will continue to keep her down as long as she stays in Blind River. But she cannot leave just yet. She is her uncle Loyal's ward and her younger brother Toby has to stay on the straight and narrow so that he can join the Army one day. That in itself is the challenge. But Jamie has a plan. She is a wiz at online poker and slowly, she is creating a savings that will buy her away from Blind River. Toby gets to be in the Army and she gets out. No more Blind River. No more running errands for her uncle Toby's illegal gambling business and no more being just another crooked Elder. She can go where the Elder name won't follow her.

But plans have a way of changing and in Jamie's case, falling completely apart. There is a dead body and all her money disappears and now she is in debt to her Uncle Loyal and the only way to pay him back is to help him hide a body. Jamie feels herself sliding deeper and deeper into the Elder ways. But it is when her younger brother Toby is accused of murder that she feels it all slip away.

"...That day. The preacher was baptizing people.'
'You made me wait so you could take a turn.' He'd been so stubborn about it and she'd sat there sweating in the sun for an hour.
'That river was cold. I always thought that's what it'd be like to die, you know? Everything just goes cold.' He pushed up from the table.
'Toby, don't go there. Don't do that.'
But he was already banging on the door. The guard opened the door, unlocked the chains, and grabbed Toby's arm. She tried to grab his sleeve, but the guard blocked her hand.
'Give me a little time, Toby,' she said, but he didn't turn back. His metal anklets clanged against the concrete floor as he disappeared into the sound of a dozen slamming doors..."

Now Jamie has to bet it all on one last long shot gamble. To free her brother, to get her freedom and be the one Elder who amounted to something. But with a crooked Judge and her criminal Uncle and ex-con mother and the whole area of Blind River in her way. Will she even survive?

Gale Massey has written a terrific novel of the struggles of escaping the home that is its very own prison. Jamie Elder is a character that we can all relate to as we try to become more in our lives than the world around us wants us to be. She has every reason to give up. A best friend who has become the very thing they both swore that they would not be. A younger brother whose self destructive tendencies keep both of them chained to their small town. An uncle who is both burdened and angry at having to raise two children that are not his. A mother who looks out only for herself. And there is Blind River, a prison without walls.

The Girl From Blind River is the evolution of the American Novel. It is not trying to make some deep social and political statement. It is a novel about people and a place. It is about struggle and hope. It is about all of us.

The Girl from Blind River by Gale Massey

Small town
Corrupt Judge
Evil uncle
Troubled brother
Deceased father
Mother on parole
Married lover
Deck stacked against you
Where do you turn?

Jamie seems lost to me – in more ways than one. Her only true interests seem to be poker and getting out of town to move to a place she will be warmer and…can play poker. Her family is not one to want to emulate. The things she does to survive are hard to understand. In fact…though the lives of the people in the story are well fleshed out and I did get to know them I had trouble relating to them. I have mixed feelings on this one. I guess I didn’t feel closure for Jamie or her brother and wish there had been some. That said, life doesn’t always give us or book characters a happy ending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

Excellent debut- it's gritty, it's dark, it's well plotted, and it's got a great character in Jamie. Jamie makes a bad decision, a really bad decision, and now she's trapped and bound to her Uncle Loyal. Her situation is so rotten that you wonder why she just doesn't walk away from Parsons, New York, just get on a bus and go, but ... She's devoted to her younger brother Toby and again you'll wonder why the two of them don't just leave. Things don't work out that way, though, and now she's trying to free both of them from both a debt and suspicion of murder. You'll be able to hear the various voices of the characters in alternating chapters, which is a positive for this. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

THE GIRL FROM BLIND RIVER, Gale Massey’s debut mystery novel, is due out July 10th 2018 by Crooked Lane Books.

Nineteen year old Jamie Elder would like nothing more than to move on from her past – but that’s hard to do when she can’t even escape her hometown of Blind River, New York. Jamie’s father died when she was a child, and, not long after, her mother was convicted to an eight year prison term. Jamie, and her younger brother, Toby, have lived with their abusive, law-breaking uncle ever since – and let’s just say that Uncle Loyal has done the absolute bare minimum required to provide for his brother’s children. The only reason Jamie has stuck around after high school is to take care of her younger brother. Once Toby turns eighteen and joins the Army, Jamie plans to skip town and join the traveling poker circuit. Her plans change when she steals money from her uncle. To repay her debt, Loyal forces Jamie to help him dispose of a dead body. The local police know that something is up, and Jamie is torn between keeping her mouth shut and telling all she knows. As Jamie learns more and more about what is going on in Blind River – and how it has shaped her life and continues to affect her and her brother – she realizes that there is only one choice for her to make.

THE GIRL FROM BLIND RIVER is a fast-paced, compelling thriller that is told from multiple third-person points of view. The majority of the story is told from Jamie Elder’s perspective, but it is essential to have certain scenes told from other characters’ points of view. The reader will be captivated from the first page to the last as Jamie and the rest of the characters uncover the various secrets of Blind River.

Jamie Elder is not perfect. She’s not always all that the likable. To be honest, none of the characters are really all that likable. You certainly wouldn’t want to invite them over for tea and cookies…But you would want them on your speed dial should you have a dead body to get rid of. Yet the readers will find themselves cheering for Jamie to overcome her past – her family members are criminals and she has been pegged from childhood to follow in their footsteps – and find a brighter future for herself. Jamie may be young, naïve, and bitter, but she is also resourceful and cunning. The chips may be stacked against her, but she knows how to play the odds. She will even cheat if she has to.

Thank you #NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the E-ARC copy of this book

This is a fantastic, dazzling debut that provides glimpses into the underbelly of illegal gambling.
Review forthcoming.

This book was bloody fantastic! The writing was excellent. It was well paced. The plot was super engaging and had me hooked right from the start. The characters were well developed and intriguing. I loved the gritty small town feel it had. The only negative thing and why this wasn't a complete 5-Star book, I thought the ending was a bit rushed. I would have liked a bit more closure. Or maybe a farther look into the future. Perhaps there will be a follow-up book? In any case, that was just a small niggle in an otherwise excellent debut novel.

The Girl From Blind River is a very depressing book. It’s about a 19 year old girl who lives with her 17 year old brother and her uncle Loyal in a depressing little town called Blind River. They have been in their uncle’s custody for 10 years while their mother was in jail. There are so many things going on in the story both criminal but also a lot of the lack of social justice for people who are really on the down and out mostly through no fault of their own. For about the first half of the book I thought I was probably not going to like it but when I reached the end which turns out not to be an end but a new beginning for almost all of the characters I was really sorry that the book was over. I hope there will be a sequel with at least Jamie because I sincerely want to see how she turns her life around. I read that one reviewer was turned off by the book because she didn’t understand gambling which I don’t either but you are not going to miss out of too much of the action even if you know absolutely nothing. The characters are what makes this book and you really get to care about them either if you love or hate them. I will definitely recommend this book to others and I want to thank NetGalley, the author and the publisher for letting me read this book in exchange for my unbiased review. I happily give it five stars.

This book did a slow burn and caught me all in. I was as nervous as Jamie at the casino. And she’s got plenty of trouble. She’s loyal to her brother, despite him being a bully and damaged goods.

Massey paints a grim picture of Blind River. We all know these kind of towns that are beyond down on their luck. “Small town bullshit. She’d been born into it and knew exactly how her life would play out if she stayed. Two or three kids, a divorce or two. A dead-end job that would keep her half-starved if she didn’t eat junk food and get fat, get diabetes and lose her feet, or die of a heart attack. She saw it all around her, doughnuts and caffeine for the early morning despair, booze after work Just to take the edge off a twelve hour grind.”

It helps to know Texas Hold’em terminology and I had to google a few terms to understand what I was reading about.

This is a sad and depressing book. It’s beautifully written and you quickly become invested in Jamie and how or if she’ll even escape.

My thanks to netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advance copy of this book.