This is a first rate literary thriller, and a nice follow up to Bearskin. I highly recommend it and am looking forward to the third book of the trilogy.

For those who have spent time in Colorado, James McLaughlin's evocative writing about the remote landscape will bring back vivid memories. Even for those who have not, reading PANTHER GAP will bring the beauty and isolation of the land to life. Bowman and Summer are siblings who have been brought up by their paranoid father beyond the reach of anyone outside of their family. They've learned survivalist skills alongside a wide-ranging homeschooled curriculum with Bowman, in particular, becoming so entranced by the natural world that Summer sometimes believes he may have succumbed to the mental illness exhibited by his father. The book is told from both Summer's and Bowman's perspectives, both in the present and in the past, and Bowman's chapters share his metaphysical leanings. Summer's chapters often allow the reader to ground Bowman's transcendent experiences in the rational world. Together, the two perspectives transport the reader to a world of both beauty and pain.

When Summer, struggling to keep the family's hidden ranch afloat, is notified of a potentially huge inheritance that can only be theirs if both she and Bowman appear at a meeting with representatives of a Swiss bank, Bowman has left civilization to live in a remote Central American jungle. Circumstances force him to head home at this point, as Summer and her uncles attempt to protect the ranch while still meeting the bank's stipulation. The trajectories of these two plot lines rely on what seems like circumstances as they move toward intersection but, in fact, are carefully constructed to make sense as the book draws to a highly suspenseful end.

There are many characters introduced throughout the book but, while lesser authors might struggle to help the reader keep track of them, McLaughlin does a superb job of making each clearly essential and well-defined. The plot line is highly complex, involving, among other things, mental illness, survivalism, hidden bank accounts, drug cartels, FBI informants, hidden identities, and lots and lots of gunfire. At no point does McLaughlin lose track of the main theme of the book, however, which is personified by both Summer and Bowman: how can an individual use his or her skills, intelligence, and resources to make a real difference in the world without having the world destroy them first. The book can be read simply as a fast-paced thriller, but McLaughlin invites us to think much more deeply than that. The absolutely gorgeous writing only enhances the experience.

This is McLaughlin's second novel, following 2018's BEARSKIN. While there are similarities, especially in the remoteness of the outdoor settings, the books are standalones After reading the first, I was unsure that McLaughlin would be able to meet the high standard he had set for himself but, if anything, he has surpassed it with PANTHER GAP. I can only hope it doesn't take five years for him to grace us with his next.

Bowman and Summer Girard were raised almost single-handedly by their dad in a small, private valley known as Panther Gap. Leo Girard is a former military man whose time in foreign service left him with perhaps questionable views on humanity. He wants his kids to appreciate nature and science, and perhaps most importantly to be wary of other people. For he knows that sometime in the future they’ll inherit a considerable fortune, one that powerful interests will do anything to seize for themselves.

While Summer turns out relatively well-adjusted and goes on to run the family ranch, Bowman has a much harder road to travel. Sensitive and likely on the autism spectrum, he takes his father's teachings too much to heart, learning an empathy with animals that borders on the hallucinatory. While still a teenager, he decides to retrace the steps of the creature he is certain gave their home its name. He doesn't believe that the panther in question had been a local mountain lion: he’s sure it was a jaguar traveling far beyond the northern end of its usual range.

Attempts by both Leo and Summer to bring him home face differing degrees of failure. As the years go by, Summer tries to feel less hurt by what she sees as his abandonment of their family, even as the income required to keep their homestead going continues to dwindle. Learning of the time-locked inheritance is a godsend for her. But Bowman has a different perspective, and is finally ready to come home after a series of signs and disasters points him back, if only to save his sister from unwittingly walking into danger.

His reimmersion in the technology he left behind in favor of living off the grid on a Costa Rican beach is jarring, as he tries to remind himself that this isn’t an alien world he’s coming back to, just a different part of it:

QUOTE
The sudden reinsertion into American clamor and commerce had triggered a sense of dislocation, as if he'd teleported to a different dimension where he didn't even know himself. This perception, he knew, was false. The urban setting, air travel, the enclosure of the airport's four walls, the technological soup, it was all of a piece with hanging suspended ten feet underwater, holding his breath, watching the yellow-on-black sea snakes swim in the cove. It was all real, all part of the same terrible, magnificent world. It wasn't something you could leave or return to. You were always in it.
END QUOTE

Even as Summer waits for Bowman to come home, she's busy dealing with the sudden appearance of a man on her property, who comes spouting a wild tale. Sam Hay is a tax lawyer who'd embarked on a road trip out west with his best friend Mac. Against his advice, Mac had picked up a beautiful drifter. Trouble swiftly followed in her wake, leaving Sam abandoned and desperate in the Colorado desert. He accidentally stumbles across Panther Gap, and begs Summer for help in saving his friend. Summer is canny enough to realize that having a tax lawyer in her back pocket, especially in the face of incoming wealth, is never a bad thing. Little does she realize, though, that agreeing to help him will put her in the crosshairs of even more dangerous people than she’d ever expected.

This sprawling tale of modern malfeasance takes the template of the Western genre and infuses it with both technological sophistication and a deeper appreciation for ecology. These two aspects often rub up against each other, but more often serve as illuminating juxtaposition in James A McLaughlin's beautiful prose.

Embodying these aspects are our two main protagonists. Summer is an easy heroine to root for but Bowman can take a little getting used to. Good thing we spend so much time in his head then, as he's called to act in ways he finds utterly contrary to his nature:

QUOTE
As a sophisticated–that is, self-aware–paranoiac, Bowman had had to learn how to make the right mistakes. Facing uncertainty and the unknowable minds of others, he would evaluate each pair of opposing interpretations of any situation agnostically, gaming out for each alternative the worst possible outcome if that interpretation was acted upon and turned out to be wrong. He would then choose to act upon the interpretation where being wrong resulted in the least harm. If he called Sarge and warned him, and his suspicion of the woman turned out to be wrong, Sarge would think he was crazy. If he went with the more reasonable interpretation that all was well, and it wasn't, then Sarge could be hurt.
END QUOTE

There is a lot going on in this 21st century Western, with Bowman and Summer traveling further than they'd ever imagined necessary in order to be able to face the future together. The narrative too travels back and forth in time as it explores how the siblings came to this pass, both chronologically and psychologically. Much of the present-day shenanigans feel messy, as crimes in real life often do, in contrast with the almost halcyon glow of a childhood that slowly dissipates as the children grow up and learn the truth of what they've inherited and their responsibility not only to each other but also to the greater world.

Favorite Quotes:

He glanced at the fifth of Maker’s Mark propped up in the passenger seat, reached for it, had himself a snort. That’s how he described it to himself: a snort. It sounded vaguely cowboy, decidedly western. When he drank alone he sometimes entertained himself via self-mocking role-play.

The harsh malignance— the venom— in the man’s voice took Sam aback. This was worse somehow than the message. Live, he didn’t sound like an actor pretending to be a criminal in a movie, which was Sam’s only reference. He sounded like a person who habitually hurt other people, who liked doing it, whose life had been defined by his willingness and ability to hurt others. The vast majority of people weren’t like that. Certainly no one Sam had ever known was like that. He felt childish and naïve, stripped naked, even over the phone.

Sam’s butterflies had been slowly morphing into nauseous abdominal pit bulls...

Summer liked the museums. She said they were like funnels concentrating human endeavor and knowledge in one place where you could soak up a lot at once.

Darwin was unsure whether to believe him, didn’t want to believe him, but kind of did believe him and disliked the implications.


My Review:

This was a thoughtfully written and complicated tale with multiple timelines and multiple plotlines that slowly converged. The intense storylines were well populated with bizarre, oddly unique, complex, and well-textured characters that often weren’t all that likable yet tugged at my curiosity. I was deeply invested and intrigued by the storytelling and deeply perceptive and absorbing writing style that slotted me into each scene, so much so that I often had the urge to bathe while the characters were camping for extended periods or living rough. I was planning to give a 5-star rating until I came to the last chapter and an ending that has left me quite aggrieved. But I know I am rather ridiculous about such things.

This story follows siblings Bowman and Summer. Both raised by their father and two uncles on a remote ranch in Colorado, the two have gone their separate ways and haven't seen each other in years. But now, both in their 30s, they receive information that their grandfather left them a secret inheritance. One that, unbeknownst to them at the time, would bring new danger to their family ranch that they spent so long keeping safe.

I think the most stand-out element of this book for me was the prose. This is my first read from McLaughlin, but after skimming through some reviews of his other works, it seems like this writing style is one of his signatures. It had a more literary quality than I normally prefer in my thriller plots, but he found a good balance of when to really lean into that and when to leave it out. A lot of the more literary (dare I say even flowery) sections were surrounding a particular character who really leans into the more mystical or magical way of the natural world. It doesn't go far enough for this to feel like a fantasy but rather stays more grounded in reality and explores the ways humans can be more connected and attuned to nature. I think it is a good thing that this book is being marketed as a general fiction with a thriller plot because these more literary sections do drag down the pacing of that thriller plot but I think overall they really make this story stand out from similar works.

The pacing was also fantastic and really built up well over the course of the book. I loved the way we are just dropped into this isolated setting without any real introduction and the book just goes from there. We don't get into the thriller-y elements until around the 40% mark but once that plot kicks in, we are pretty much full throttle until the end. McLaughlin does a great job at increasing the tension bit by bit so that it is a gradual tightening as you read. The pacing in the last 25% was really fast and I wish it would have been brought down just a bit. I ended up having to re-read passages with the reveals because the connections and explanations were just coming a little too fast for my brain to process them. We do get a few wrap-up chapters after all the action to tie up any ends and flesh out a little bit of the fall out of the events.

There is a dual timeline element and while I normally love a dual timeline, in this case I felt like it was maybe used too much. I think if the past timeline chapters were shorter or overall we spent less time in that timeline, I don't think it would have detracted from the story. We get a good amount of a character mentioning a certain event off-hand in the present time and then seeing that event play out in the past but there often was such a long delay between that by the time we see the event in the past I wasn't really intrigued anymore. Most of the past timeline also focused on the interpersonal details and character development that, while interesting and well written, didn't quite hold my interest as well as the more thriller-y plot that was happening in the present. This is really going to come down to reader preference, because I can see readers who do enjoy more literary fiction to not be as bothered by these past timeline chapters.

The character dynamics are really great and it is interesting how relatively little backstory we get throughout the story. It feels like we don't have a lot of concrete details about these characters but their interpersonal dynamics really speak volumes. The POV in the story bounces around a fair bit so we get some inner thoughts of some of the characters which helped me not feel too disconnected given the minimal information. I do wish we could have seen more of these characters interacting with other people because of their unconventional upbringing and education. I found a good amount of this story focused on the relationship between Summer and Bowman and while I don't have a brother, I did feel like their sibling dynamic was authentic. I think McLaughlin finds that perfect balance of siblings being infuriated at each other one minute but then best friends the next.

Overall, this was a really fun read. The prose was more literary than I was expecting, but I loved the way that contrasted with a very action movie-esque plot. The characters were interesting and their relationships were dynamic. I enjoyed the dual timeline element but wished it was used just a tad less overall.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is April 4, 2023

PANTHER GAP
James A. McLaughlin

I am so excited to be a part of the blog tour for James A. McLaughlin’s latest environmental thriller-Panther Gap.

PANTHER GAP is about siblings Summer and Bowman. Raised in an extraordinary fashion, Summer was taught to follow her instincts, and Bowman to capture his, they grew apart as adults but now must come together to secure their inheritance. Bowman must travel far and wide in a hazy state and Summer must interpret the character of those around to navigate-both using those instincts.

I do not reach for environmental thrillers often, actually ever, but thought that this might be a good one to try and I was right. McLaughlin’s writing, specifically his way of describing people, places, and things is phenomenal. And in this book, he explores the interdependency of our human relationships and how we express ourselves within our environment. How our environment influences us and how we influence our environment.

Our symbiotic nature.

The entire reading experience felt like I was reading in color. McLaughlin has an interesting use of language. He used a few beautiful words I don’t come across very often and used one of my favorite words ever. This book makes the natural feel magical. And I’ll never think of my relationship with others and my environment as being independent ever again.

When he writes about animals and Bowman’s tenuis relationship with his species, it feels like we’re talking about more than just wanting to run wild and free. Perhaps we’re also discussing what it means to be an individual in an ecosystem where one change, changes everything. And how living your life in your truest nature, as you were meant to, is the only way to be free.

PANTHER GAP is for the animal in all of us and I highly recommend you add it to your list.


PANTHER GAP comes out on April 4, 2023.

Thanks to James A. McLaughlin, Netgalley, Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron Books for inviting me to be a part of the tour and for the advanced copies!

PANTHER GAP…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

What's it about (in a nutshell):
Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin is a stunningly vivid thriller set on a hidden ranch near a small town in Colorado. Siblings Bowman and Summer Girard were living their own lives – Bowman in a remote area of Costa Rica's Pacific coast and Summer trying to keep the family ranch going in Colorado when news of an unexpected piece to their inheritance from their grandfather comes to light. But to claim it, they must join together as a family, the siblings and their two remaining uncles. They aren't the only ones who want this money hidden in an offshore account, though. Criminals feel they also have a claim to the money, and it is not only the location of their hidden ranch that's at stake but also their lives.

My Reading Experience:
WoW! Just wow! This book was such a treat to read, and I couldn't help but devour it in one sitting (minus the first 10% I read the night before). The cover doesn't scream thriller like I'm used to, but the story is just that and an excellent one to boot. From the interactions with the animals, which held thrills all on its own, as the animals are each incredibly dangerous, to the criminals that surrounded the Girard family unbeknownst to them and were closing in fast – I had plenty of thrills, twists, and turns to keep my thriller heart happy and my mind completely engaged.

I love the bit of mysticism in the story too. It added a chilling touch of paranormal to the otherwise very grounded story. Bowman believes animals can hear his thoughts and react to them, and he also believes that they consider him one of their own. And both siblings experience a mysticism (or magic) more on the line of premonitions. It makes my hair stand on end just thinking back on it.

The dark family secrets in the story are like the cherry on top of an already solid thrilling tale. Who doesn't love unearthing family secrets? I know I do, and I enjoyed that part of the story, too, as beliefs were debunked and new realities were put in their place. There is so much they didn't know, and I loved learning the secrets along with Bowman and Summer.

Characters:
The main characters are very different from one another. Summer is steadfast and dependable. After her father's death, she returned to the family ranch. She ran it instead of following her path away from her family home. On the other hand, Bowman is more of a free though troubled spirit constantly communing with nature. And they both are developed so exquisitely and painstakingly that they become as natural as the descriptions of their surroundings. I like Summer and could relate to her. Still, I was fascinated by Bowman and his feelings about nature and the natural order of things.

Narration & Pacing:
The narration is done in the third person but focuses on Bowman or Summer, as the story dictates.
There are two timelines – present day and the 1980s and 90s as Summer and Bowman grew up on the ranch. All these changes never once became confusing and instead flowed seamlessly as the story unfolded. I enjoyed the look back and getting to know their father, who reminded me so much of my dad that it was sometimes eerie.

The pacing was relatively fast. Still, when I went to post my initial thoughts about the book on an app I use, I noticed the two other reviews posted– one that described the pace as slow and one that defined the pace as medium. I find it fascinating that 3 different people who all loved the book had three very different perceptions of the pace. For me, the book read very fast. I read the eBook for the first 10%, but once I picked up the physical book the next day, I noticed that the pages flew, and I couldn't put it down. I read 90% of the book in one sitting.

Setting:
The imagery is so incredibly vivid. I was mesmerized by the natural beauty of the Colorado landscape and its inhabitants. Photos could not have described it nearly as well as McLaughlin does with his words alone. I loved the picture he painted in my mind with its dangers and power, both hidden and out in the open. For the first time, I wanted to visit Colorado and experience what I was reading about in this book. It felt so real, and unlike anywhere I have been before.
From the secret tunnels to the rivers and creeks, the forest, and the pasture lands, I felt like I explored it all in person. I was anxious to return to that area I had come to love in the book.

Read if you like:
Spine-tingling thrillers
Strong character development
Vivid imagery

In this great big reading world, I consider myself lucky to come across a book that holds me captive from start to finish. One that I quickly become totally immersed in to a point of becoming one with the characters and story. These elusive books are rarer than hen's teeth and yet, I finished Panther Gap satisfied in the knowledge I held one in my hands. Panther Gap is a larger than life story that defies genre and boundaries. One laden with a complex, multifaceted plot line and atypical characters refusing to be locked in a box. One that delivers a stunning message to humans residing on planet earth.

Panther Gap is a mesmerizing story featuring siblings Bowman and Summer whose early years are spent running wild and free on their father's secluded, off-the-map ranch, hidden away from public eyes in a remote location rich in the history of the "Others" with ancient hidden subterranean passages forming a honeycomb in the Colorado canyon walls. Since losing his wife, their radical environmentalist father appears to be slipping away in fits of paranoia, experiencing psychotic episodes in losing battles with ghosts from his past while guarding dark secrets with his life. His irrational warnings of unknown danger frighten his children, but even so both siblings absorb his lessons in survival skills and love for nature like a sponge as they grow into misfit teenagers.

Bowman is especially psychic when it comes to the wildlife living in the natural habitat surrounding their refuge, often venturing off for extended periods of time to live among the animals as one. At times, he becomes dangerously close to losing touch with reality as he often transcends space in a hallucinatory state during which time the fragile lines between his human form and animal counterpart merge. Much of the story, especially anything pertaining to Bowman, is engulfed in a surreal, phantasmal state. During these times, Summer fears she may lose her brother to the same apparent madness that drives her father.

Bowman and Summer eventually become estranged when he leaves the security of the ranch to pursue the elusive panthers in Central America, with hopes of discovering his own true identity and place in the universe, and she is left to take over the running of the family ranch which is bordering on financial disaster. It's only in later years when their father's warnings prove to be sound and the much maligned inheritance from their late grandfather comes into play that they reunite to battle the crime and mafia drug forces threatening them and their way of life. The story that ensues is a dark, gritty, raw, sometimes heartbreaking thriller that this reader could not put down.

Panther Gap is a beautifully written, action packed thriller that swept me away. I love a story that integrates the surrounding environment into the plot line as an extra character as McLaughlin does in this one. Add a cast of nonconformist characters pushed over their physical and mental limits, and I'm one happy reader. Top that with a family drama - estranged, eccentric family members forced back together in the battle of their lives against bad guys coming at them from every direction in a multifaceted plot line, and I'm in book heaven. Panther Gap is rendered through the points of view of Bowman and Summer in riveting past/presence chapters. This allows readers to understand the radical upbringing that shaped them into the adults they've become in this place and time with an appreciation for the environment as well as the source of the deep sorrow they bear in the knowledge that many of the earth's resources and species are being depleted and destroyed by climate change in the name of progress. When it's all said and done, will they be able to say they made a difference? Can you?

Panther Gap has all the best of an old timey, shoot 'em up western - rugged setting, conflicted family, dirty money and a slew of bad guys gunning to claim a legacy. The action is swift, the characters damaged and the outcome in question until the final page. I was hopelessly and totally captured by the brilliance of McLaughlin's writing as he wove this tale of a family in crisis, of a man and woman searching for their identities as individuals - one that "fit" . . . or at the very least, one they can live with. I like that the ending is a bit open, not all wrapped up in a box with a bow. Yes, there's much needed closure and yet one is left to wonder, what if?

In reality, I haven't come close to conveying the magnitude and magnificence of Panther Gap in this review so I'll just say I highly recommend this entertaining book to fans of suspense thrillers, crime fiction and anyone who loves to get lost in a fantastic story that doesn't let you go until the end.

I had enjoyed Bearskin before and really enjoyed this book. It had the same great style that I enjoyed from the Bearskin book. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and loved the atmosphere of this. The characters were what I was looking for and were well written. Overall this was a great read and I can't wait to read more from James A. McLaughlin.

"She might be one of the coyotes he’d listened to last night. The notion gave him renewed energy, a feeling he was not alone, that he’d made a connection. Maybe Coyote was his power animal. The Trickster. He walked on. Time passed. He didn’t stop again, and when he finally reached the mouth of the canyon, the small cottonwood at the base of the cliff turned out to be a grove of ancients, and blocks of stone that he’d assumed were modest boulders towered several stories high."

On a ranch at the end of a road that can’t be found, deep in the wilds of Colorado, Panther Gap is a place carved out of time and imbued with myth.  Juxtaposed with the practical there is legend, taught to siblings Summer and Bowman by their father, created by their grandfather, and all tied up in secrecy which has brought danger to them in the Now.  A secret inheritance, a powerful Mexican drug cartel, and extra players who may or may not be friends all make for a dizzying ride.

Bowman, the brother, is bird, otter, wolf--more a part of Panther Gap and its history than his sister and father can ever be, but also tortured by his dual nature as a dweller in and destroyer of the land and the soul of Panther Gap.  Whether naked in the brush or riding in a pickup, he is carried by his senses and perpetually controlled by his dreamlike Other self.  Flashback scenes of his childhood and surreal life-training by his father, in which he was half-falconer, half-falcon, both predator and prey, and dizzied by the transitions, stand in stark contrast to present-day scenes as he makes his way back home to try and help unravel the mystery of his grandfather's inheritance and its fallout for his sister and remaining family.

His sister Summer’s experiences, in contrast, are rooted in the everyday--in the hard choices she has had to make as the one left behind to keep the ranch alive.  She is the first to be caught up in her grandfather’s complicated legacy. She is quickly in up to her neck—along with her two uncles, one of who is former Special Ops, and whose skills will be needed as they are suddenly thrown into a reality full of black SUVs and drugs and cartels.

While the transitions from past to present, and from magical realism to heist-movie vibes can sometimes make readers feel like they need a neck brace, there is plenty of action and mystery to keep you glued to the page—and underneath it all, a judgment on the human race and its devouring nature, and what, if anything, could stop the carnage. Can Whites, sitting on ancient land and sopping their conscience with thoughts of traces of native blood redeem themselves by turning the evil gains of the past into a path toward redemption? Or is that just the same old song--asking the cancer to heal itself?

James is definitely in touch with the natural world and his writing allows you to feel as if your right there in the same element as the characters. Along with exotic landscapes, and animals a story unfolds with mystery, suspense, and loss. After reading his debut, Bearskin, I was anxious to read more, and Panther Gap did not disappoint.