I loved this author's first book. However, I found this second one to be difficult to follow. It may have been the way it was formatted, I don't know. But I didn't find the story compelling at all. I was very disappointed.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of The Current. I enjoyed this book. I do agree with other reviewers that there were a lot of characters and plenty of past and present plot points to keep track of, but I did okay. The book felt like it twisted and turned and it kept me wondering where we were going to end up. I enjoyed the depiction of Audrey's dad (the sheriff) and the father who lost his daughter 10 years earlier. They were real in their grief and despair and in the end I wanted to see how it turned out for all the main characters.

Well I find myself thinking of The Current and it is like a force of something powerful that reminds me of sitting in high school English reading something that is supposed to be profound about mankind or nature or life or maybe all three but all I was thinking about having to work later and how long could this book be would it ever end and how could so many words that were supposed to mean something be so tired?

The Current reads just like that word salad.

It is trying to be deep but it's so busy filling in every space with words and thoughts that aren't half as clever as the words it wrap them in that it forgets things like character development and plot.

The Current is a meandering ride to nowhere.

Two best girlfriends were travelling by car from their Southern college to a small town in Minnesota. Caroline Price had generously volunteered to drive Audrey Sutter seven hundred miles to visit her father, Retired Sheriff Tom Sutter. Sheriff Sutter had inoperable lung cancer. A late night gas station stop in Iowa, near the Minnesota border, on a raw snowy night, turned deadly leaving Caroline missing and Audrey barely alive.

The gas station, approximately two deserted miles from the highway looked desolate. Two vehicles were parked near the ladies restroom, one being a two-tone truck. A bathroom pit stop...Audrey was accosted...Caroline pepper sprayed the young men...then...Audrey and Caroline stumbled to Caroline's RAV4 and attempted to drive away. As they approached an icy trestle bridge, the car was rear ended and plunged, nose first, into the Black Root River. Audrey woke up in the hospital, Caroline was presumed dead. Who would do such a thing?

Gordon Burke used to co-own Burke-Young Plumbing and Supply. A decade ago, his sixteen year old daughter, Holly was found dead in the Black Root River. A car accident...but...when still alive, she was pushed or had fallen into the river. Why did Danny Young skip work that day to go hunting? Danny seemed to be the prime suspect. No case...lack of witnesses or evidence. Immeasurable grief and loss. Sheriff Sutter never found Holly Burke's killer. Gordon Burke wondered, "What would he do for himself that he didn't do for me?' There is no longer Burke- Young Plumbing and Supply. Rachel Young, the onetime suspect's mother, is somewhat comforted by the presence of Danny's old dog, left behind by Danny. Waging an uphill battle, Audrey is determined to fight back in memory of Caroline and to jump start her stalled life journey.

"The Current" by Tim Johnston is an atmospheric, psychological, emotionally packed novel. The mysterious, unsolved drownings in Black Root River were difficult to fathom, culpability difficult to unmask. Author Johnston very successfully created numerous twists and turns to mislead and pique the reader's interest. Highly recommended!

Thank you Algonquin Books and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Current".

Reading this novel was a bit like being swept away on a rapid current. You get the close calls, the moments to take a breath and reflect, then pulled back under gasping for air. Fast moving novel. This isn't a Who Done It novel. It's a novel where you realize just how many people could have done it and not done it but been falsely accused of doing it. What timing for the #MeToo movement.

Johnson does a great job with creating believable characters. One scene in particular still feels off to me: Without giving away spoiler alerts, I'll be vague. I don't think many young mothers in the house alone, giving a young child a bath, would open the door to stranger, even a young woman, and ask this person who looks nineteen (even if it was the person on the news for surviving the crash) to grab the bottle of wine and bring it to the bathroom so they could sip wine and chat while bathing the child.

The ending left me in limbo, but I feel like my life is in a perpetual state of limbo right now, so I deserve that ending. Would I really want a happy ending, a dramatic ending, an ending that wraps up everything neatly after riding the current with the low and high tides of this novel? Might as well stay in muddied waters remembering how not everything has a right or wrong answer, a clear cut verdict, and justice isn't always served appropriately.

I was granted access by netgalley.com to an ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book was hooked my in the first few pages, and I had a tough time putting it down! Intriguing and suspenseful, I'll recommend to all lovers of psychological thrillers!

Sorry, this one was just but for me. I felt like I was in a state of confusion throughout. It was hard track of what exactly was happening. A lot felt like a dream.

When two young women leave their college campus, they suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives in the What happens to these girls will affect the future of many people in their small town. Does history repeat itself? What happened ten years earlier? Is the killer still among them? Who is safe?.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read this book.

I seem to be in the minority here - I did not enjoy this at all. Most of the time I was left wondering if what was going on was in someone's head. I usually enjoy stories that have many characters, and told by multiple view points; however we have Rachel, Audrey, Eileen, Danny, Sheriff, Gordon, Caroline, etc etc. Through each we get snippets of information, and a whole lot of ... nothing? I felt like I was pulling teeth to get at the story. I could not get past when Audrey wakes up in the hospital after the accident. I have no idea what really happened except who the killer is because I flipped forward.

Having said all this, I do wonder whether it was the format of the digital ARC I was reading on my phone that made it unenjoyable to read physically. I plan on getting a paper copy once it comes out and giving it a second try.

I couldn't get into this. I loved Descent but this one feel flat. The alternating viewpoints were a little confusing.

A captivating novel about two murders; 10 years apart and how they are intertwined tearing up the people living in a small Minnesota town. Caroline Price and Audrey Sutter are two young women going to the same University. They have become good friends and take to sharing their experiences and confiding confidential matters to each other. When Christmas and New Year break comes up circumstances place them together in Caroline's car driving to their respective homes which are fairly close together.

Caught up in a huge snow blizzard the two stop at a roadside fast food store in Iowa to get some coffee and donuts. Audrey, going into the store is attacked by two men in a rape attempt. She is saved by Caroline who runs inside and uses mace to stave off the attackers. Dashing out and meaning to run away from the attackers they drive in a completely unsafe manner for the conditions caused by the snow. When stopping to get their bearings their car is pushed by another car coming up behind them into an iced over river, breaking through the ice and sinking into the fast flowing water that is underneath. Caroline is killed while Audrey miraculously survives and returns home to the Minnesota town she lives in with her father. The driver of the other car is sought for the crime which brings back memories of a similar murder that happened 10 years ago. That murder was never solved although suspicion forced a young man to flee the area.

Mr Johnston utilizes a writing style that fully describes the actions in the book in a manner that keeps the novel moving rapidly, portrays the characters both via describing their actions and having them also speak at the same time. It is a style that causes a good novel to become mesmerizing and the reader totally captivated. The ending is a perfect capstone for the book, but is by no means a fairy tale one and does not set the groundwork for a sequel. An excellent narrative which will cause readers to eagerly await the next book by Mr Johnston.

I liked Descent better. This was good and held my attention. Tim Johnston is very talented and knows how to make us care about his characters. I recommend for sure- but if you haven't read Descent, you simply must.

I’ll admit I had a hard time getting into this novel- It’s told in alternating viewpoints, and at first I wasn’t able to keep everyone straight and establish what felt like a relationship with the characters. But I really liked Descent, the author’s previous book, so I stuck with it. In retrospect, part of the issue may have been the formatting of the e-ARC I was reading, which probably made it harder to even tell when narrators switched from one to the other. In any case, everything worked itself out. The Current tells the story of a tragedy in a river’s icy waters that leaves one girl dead and causes a town to look back on another death in the same river ten years earlier. A poignant, suspenseful look at how secrets can reverberate through years.

This one didn't hit the mark for me. I did not think it was well thought out or written. Couldn't follow the story.

Thank you Netgally for the chance to read this intricate thread of crime, secrets, lies, truths and the fragility of life.

It is the dead of winter, quiet, as sounds are muffled by the snow. Outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull an automobile from the icy Black Root River. One girl is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene, half-frozen and unconscious, but alive. Was this an accident? No and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier. They had a real suspect, but not enough to arrest him. Therefore, the killer may still be living among them. As the story unfolds, the surviving girl realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case of another girl who didn’t survive the river. The more she delves into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that is about to erupt in her small hometown.

Being from a small town myself, I could identify with the characters and scenes in the town which made the story come even more alive to me.

Tim Johnston is a brilliant writer don't miss this

Well plotted book. Story was interesting. I look forward to future books from this author. This was my first read from this author. He seems to have given a lot of time to the storyline. Really enjoyed the book.

If you are making your reading list for the new year (2019) then please add this wonderful book to it.
I loved his first book, "The Descent" and I must say this one is just at good.

An accident reawakens old memories and the death of a young girl 10 years previous which was never solved, but speculation ran rampant and even to this day affects the lives of those involved. How will this accident bring the truth to light after so much time below the surface of the river?

Set in the stark, bleak beauty of Minnesota in winter, and told with such beautiful, descriptive prose that you feel the snow falling and the utter subzero temperatures of the water, this book will draw you end and leave you gasping as you swim within the current.

Highly recommended!

With “The Current” Tim Johnston has written an instant classic. I didn’t think it would be possible to top his debut novel, but he actually blew it out of the water. “The Current” drops right into my favorite books list, somewhere between Dennis Lehane’s “Mystic River” and John Hart’s “The Last Child.” This is a story that I believe even the great Ron Rash would be thrilled to call his own. This is not a story for casual beach readers, this one requires every bit of your attention and demands your heart and soul.

A young woman is found dead in the local river. Years later two more college students end up in the river but this time one survives. The cases are not directly connected but many people are indirectly involved in both. The survivor Audrey is the daughter of the sheriff who investigated the first case. Audrey begins to unravel the mystery of the first case. Many people's lives were affected by the fact that no one was arrested. This was a great mystery and I like how the two cases were related.

Life is about the intrusion of the unexpected.

Sun-filled, glorious days fill us with the ease of life and its gentle flow. But it is the ravaged moments of night that brutal reality visits upon us. And with it comes the jagged scars that are deep, very very deep.

Two Iowa college girls take to the road heading north in the midst of an icy Minnesota winter. One girl has home as her destination. The other girl will have quite the unplanned destination. They stop nearly out of gas at a small town convenience store. A simple trip to the outside restroom will place them face-to-face with some hard-boned individuals from hell. They will soon find themselves on the banks of the Lower Black Root River facing consequences that they could never have imagined.

Tim Johnston presents a story that will evoke a whole range of escalating emotions. If you have read his previous book, Descent, you know where his talents lie. I simply had to give this one all the stars........the mighty 5-Star medal of honor. The storyline has a definitive ebb and flow like the aforementioned river. But it's uncanny ability to hone his characters into believable, raw, achingly human individuals who tread the high roads of life as well as the dark, foreboding roads, too.

Johnston can take unspeakable grief and give it a face. Agony and vengeance find a voice here. And not all heartbreak in life finds its way to the surface. Real people hold onto it and clutch it because it truly belongs to them alone. Pay attention to each soul that weaves patterns throughout this story. Savor the dialogue. Prepare yourself for Old Wyatt the cripped up rescue dog. We all serve our purpose in life whether of long or short duration. Tim Johnston gives us a hand on the shoulder to remind us of that truth.

I received a copy of The Current through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Algonquin Books and to the very talented Tim Johnston for the opportunity.