This was an interesting book, the debut for the author, I enjoyed parts of it and other parts not so much. Will Seems has returned to his home town after a decade away to work as a deputy for the sheriff. He spots a fire at the house of his next door neighbor and runs over to investigate, once there he enters the fully engaged house and notices Tom on the ground, he drags him outside, though Tom is deceased, though not by the fire, he was stabbed. The Sheriff shows up and immediately decides that Zeke, who had been spotted running away from the house, is the guilty party, Will arrests him very reluctantly. Zeke's wife promptly hires a private detective to investigate who the real killer is. Will and the private investigator, Bennico, who is a former cop from Richmond, have different methods on how investigating, and they clash before Will tells her he'll do it himself. But the Sheriff doesn't want Will to investigate, he's happy with prosecuting Zeke, Will continues to investigate even after losing his badge. Will is also harboring an individual who is wanted in other counties for various crimes, he's also a drug addict and Will has been supplying him, trying to wean him slowly. Will eventually tracks down the guilty party, some of the sexual activity that person had gotten into is quite deviant, definitely not for the sensitive. Overall I found the book interesting, though at times overly descriptive, but would look forward to a future book by the author. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Atlantic Monthly Press for the ARC.

4.5★s
“People around here seemed to live in a cloud of defeat, self-wrought and inherited. Whites had the lost cause; Blacks had slavery.”

Holy City is the first novel by American poet, photographer and author, Henry Wise. After a decade in Virginia’s Holy City, Richmond, Will Seems returns to his hometown of Dawn and works as a Deputy with the Euphoria County Sheriff’s Department. He doesn’t share his reason for returning although some make educated guesses.

When he spots a fire at the Turkey Creek home of former high school football star, Tom Janders, he risks his life to drag Tom out of the burning house. When Sheriff Jefferson Mills arrives, he immediately rules it murder: Tom has been stabbed in the back. Sawmill worker, Zeke Hathom is spotted fleeing the scene, and Will reluctantly arrests him. The Sheriff has soon charged Zeke with Tom’s murder, but neither Will, nor the victim’s mother, nor many of the town folk, are convinced that Zeke could kill his neighbour.

Will finds Zeke’s story plausible and, while prints on the murder weapon implicate him, Will feels he owes Zeke and his family, so he decides to properly investigate despite the Sheriff’s lukewarm response. Zeke’s wife, Floressa has no confidence that justice will be served. She engages disgraced Richmond cop, Bennico Watts to solve the murder and exonerate her husband. And she insists that Bennico, a woman who always works alone, teams up with Will.

Will has a problem with the idea too: he’s harbouring a fugitive in his dilapidated old family home. And his opposition to the Sheriff’s attitude threatens his access to information about the case. There’s talk of a cash debt, and some disgruntled gamblers who lost big to Tom on the night he died. Will (and Bennico) are thorough in their enquiries, becoming steadily more certain that Zeke is innocent and someone else deserves their scrutiny.

The astute reader will wonder early on about the Sheriff’s motivation and, while the murderer is revealed to the reader at the halfway mark, the journey to this being generally acknowledged, and the aftermath, definitely keep the pages turning. Readers may appreciate a trigger warning: there are several explicit descriptions of deviant sexual behaviour, and the ambiguous ending may not be to everyone’s liking.

Wise’s characters are complex, and he certainly challenges them with difficult dilemmas. His protagonist is plagued with a long-standing guilt that affects his reasoning. Bennico has Will summed up fairly quickly: “wearing that badge just to carry out a personal vendetta you haven’t had the courage to complete.”

He does give them some wise words: “You have to ask yourself if you really want to solve a problem or if you’ve learned to use it as a crutch. Sometimes, we learn to savor our pain. Ask yourself if this is more about some guilt you feel than it is about bringing them to justice. No act undoes the past” and insightful observations “Things that don’t get said are just as true as those that do.”

He fills his debut novel with gorgeous descriptive prose: “They could hear, beyond the roar of wind through the open windows, the life buzzing and skittering out over the wide openness of the fields, ending in trees and vines thick and tall over the road, the sound of cicadas and other insects ebbing and searing, subsiding again when the land opened up to new fields where tall trees like explosions broke the sky” and “They drove, the sun long gone, the glowing headlights scanning the cowled land for whatever might emerge, the gradual highway undulating in serpentine curves and straightaways where you could see, far ahead, the gleaming road like a blade under the moon” are examples.

Atmospheric, haunting and beautifully written, this is literary crime fiction at its best. More of Henry Wise will be eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.

When Will comes back home and takes up a position as a deputy sheriff, he finds that the events of the past involving his friends and family are still relevant in the present and he must investigate to find out the truth. Overall, a dark murder mystery set in a small-town that has a complex history. Readers who enjoy dark mysteries with heavy topics will like this one, although the prose was a bit over the top at times.

In the mood for southern crime fiction?

Holy City takes us to rural Southern Virginia, where people are never truly free from their pasts.

The writing has a literary feel, vibrant and lyrical, immersing readers in the atmosphere and emotions.

This is a story that takes its time unraveling secrets and some heavy content, while showing us that no one is all good or all bad. Sometimes the only difference is in the intent behind the behavior.

Beautifully written and utterly heartbreaking, this is a classic southern mystery - set in Virginia, where I’m from, so I knew I wanted to read this one. Will Seems returns to his small hometown after living in Richmond, VA for a time, taking a position as a deputy under Sheriff Mills. Almost instantaneously a case crosses their desk that Will has questions about, but Sheriff Mills is intent on railroading a local black man, Zeke Hathom. This is troubling for Will because of his history with Zeke’s son, Sam, whom Will grew up with. As Will tries to discover the truth, he is hit with small town gossip and close mindedness from every side, as well as the ghosts of his, and the town’s past.

A creative work of literary fiction that unfortunately left me with some unanswered questions and a soreness in my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this title!

A well-written debut crime thriller. Readers who enjoy literary Southern noir grit-lit will surely be entertained.

Sadly this is a DNF for me. I didn't jive with Wise's writing style. I found myself lost within the narrative at times for what was happening because of the writing style.

A deputy sheriff must work to prove a man's innocence.

This one just wasn't for me. I think it really was the writing style, which is more of a personal preference, so maybe others will like it more.

DNF at 35%. I was sold by the SA Cosby blurb on this book and went into it with high hopes. Unfortunately the plot is too slow moving for me and the writing style is not for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook and audiobook to review.

Will Seems returns to his home town in rural Virginia where he becomes a deputy.
He attends a murder scene and an arrest is made quickly, but it seems the person in question is innocent.
The case is close to being wrapped up, but Will in all conscience can’t see an innocent man go down for something he hasn’t done.
At the same time a private investigator called Bennico Watts has been hired to find evidence, and it’s not long before there is fireworks between Will and Watts.
Can they work as a team to solve the case in this closed off rural part of America.
A wonderfully rich debut novel, with a great insight into rural small town America.
I love a novel like this, it grabs hold of you early on and keeps you reading late into the night. A superb novel and one I would recommend.

He returned to right a past injustice but instead stumbles into another.

Will Seems came back to the place he and his attorney father had left behind ten years earlier for Richmond (the “Holy City”), fleeing a crime committed but left unsolved by the local sheriff, a blessing for which Will’s father remains indebted to Sheriff Mills. Will is back in Euphoria County working as a deputy for the sheriff, and has a hidden agenda. In his youth he was good friends with Sam Hathom, but when Sam was violently assaulted one day Will stood by and did nothing. Sam’s life went off the rails, but Will escaped the small rural town for life in Richmond. Sam’s family cared for WIll’s mother years ago, so Will feels doubly in debt to the Hathom family. He intended to identify and punish those who had hurt Sam all those years ago now that he is back, but instead finds himself keeping Sam hidden at his house to avoid his arrest and tries to help him detox. When Will comes across a fire one night at the home of his friend Tom Janders, he runs inside and drags Tom’s body back out. Fortunately Ferriday Pace, mother of Tom’s child, and the their baby were not at home, but Tom is dead and it is clear he was murdered. Sam’s father Zeke is found nearby, and Sheriff Mills is sure that Zeke is the killer. Will knows that Zeke could not possibly be guilty, but is forced to arrest him regardless. Floressa, Zeke’s wife and Sam’s mother, hires former cop and current investigator Bennico Watts to find the real killer, since Sheriff Mills isn’t looking at any suspect other than Zeke. Bennico and Will form an uneasy partnership, trying to sort out truth from lies in order to see justice done.
If you like your noir novels gritty and dark, look no further…Holy City is definitely both of those things to the nth degree. Author Harry Wise wields language expertly to render a strong sense of place, and his flawed yet occasionally heroic characters are richly drawn and well nuanced. With a setting in a rural town in southern Virginia, it will come as no surprise that race plays a major role in the characters’ lives and in the plot, as do secrets kept hidden, guilt, grief, honor, anger and sadness. While I found that the story did drag a bit in places, the quality of the writing and the vividness of the people and their surroundings is powerful. Readers of S. A, Crosby (whose blurb for the novel was my reason for reading it), Greg Iles and Eli Cranor will want to add this novel to their TBR list. My thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press for allowing me early access to this suspenseful tale.

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on June 4, 2024

“Dark” doesn’t begin to describe some of the scenes in Holy City. Child rape mostly takes place offstage, but necrophilia plays a prominent role. Holy City — the latest entry in the genre of redneck noir — is not for the faint of heart.

Tom Janders was stabbed to death, his body left in a burning house. He was living there with Ferriday (“Day”) Pace and their child, but they weren’t present when the fire was set. Deputy Will Seems happened to see smoke coming from the house and managed to retrieve Janders’ body before it was consumed by the fire. He saw Zeke Hathom running from the back of house. Sheriff Mills gave Will no choice but to arrest Zeke, even though Will has a history with the Hathom family and doesn’t believe that Zeke is a killer.

Like the sheriff, Will is white. Zeke is black. Zeke’s son Sam was Will’s childhood friend. Will has long blamed himself for not taking action to protect Sam from a vicious assault when they were both kids. He also feels that he owes the Hathom family for trying to take care of his mother. His guilt and sense of obligation seem a bit overblown to me, but they form the motivational background that explains many of Will’s actions during the novel.

Will and his father, an attorney who committed an unsolved crime that keeps him indebted to the sheriff, moved to the Holy City of Richmond more than a decade before the novel begins. Will recently returned to Euphoria County against his father’s advice. He took a job as deputy sheriff after the last deputy was encouraged to resign. Will hopes to obtain revenge against the people who assaulted Sam, but his quest is delayed by Tom Janders’ murder.

Zeke’s wife hires Bennico Watts, a private detective, to find the true killer. Bennico is a former police officer who was kicked off Richmond’s force for conducting warrantless searches in her zealous belief that catching lawbreakers is more important than obeying the law. Bennico seems out of place, contributing little to a novel that would be just as good without her.

The story eventually circles back to Sam and to the people who assaulted him in his childhood. Family secrets complicate the lives of several characters, either by burdening their lives or by changing their lives when they discover hidden truths.

The story’s darkness assures that not every character will survive. Yet it offers glimmers of light in unexpected places. One character decides that he is fated to perform menial jobs for the rest of his life, “knows this emptiness is the life he was born to complete, is soul, is what he has always known he would follow like a blood trail.” Yet he finds a measure of peace in that certainty, in achieving the daily goal of sobriety, in making vague plans to eventually reunite with people who helped him.

Another character thinks “What is life if not one unheroic sacrifice after another, until all you saw was your own failed selves like trees against the horizon.” Yet those sacrifices define his character and his memories give him comfort.

Redneck noir is often characterized by strong prose that offsets the rough dialog of characters who lack refinement. Holy City is a pleasure to read simply because the story is well told. Characters have a satisfying depth of personality and the plot is interesting, even if the killer’s surprising relationship to Will is a bit forced.

RECOMMENDED

A murder, a cover-up, and a disinterested police force combine to finally force one man to look at his past and attempt to right a wrong. The problem is the current crime isn't about what happened in Will Seems' life as a teenager. But this is where he will make his stand, particularly when a childhood friend is found dead in a burned out house.
Drugs, babies, racism, loyalty to friends and family all come into play in a raw manner. Mother's bent on finding justice for their children come together even when it looks like they should be enemies. At times it came across a bit disjointed for me especially when the police captain is involved. On the other hand, when an out of towner is hired by the grieving mothers, Bennico a female ex-cop, brings a lot of sass and I don't answer to you vibe to the investigation. Loved it.

The blurb by S.A. Cosby had me signing on to read Holy City as fast as I could. I appreciate that Grove Atlantic and Novel Suspects provided an early e-copy. All opinions are my own.

In Holy City, Virginia, Will Seems is a deputy sheriff who has returned to his hometown after some cryptically described tragedy in his youth. An old friend is stabbed to death and his home is burned to disguise the murder. Another old friend is arrested for the murder, even though he is an unlikely murderer. Will and a private investigator try to find the real guilty party. This was aiming for Southern grit lit, but it was a complete miss for me.

I did not care for the writing style and thought the book was over-written, the author was trying too hard, and he was too wordy for me. For example:

“… could barely hear his boots on the brick walkway against the night sounds, amid fireflies like electrical inconsistencies, like thoughts unbroken or some meaningless code, glad to be able to blend with the night like a secret within a secret.”

“The pond, where the bold cypresses grew like old, distorted skulls, the mud becoming water covered in a skin of bright green algae, water still and thick as coffee. Capturing, trying to capture, the raw blazing glow of midday.” (Not only are these over-written, I don’t believe they are even sentences. I would not have been as annoyed by the writing if the plot and/or characters were more engaging.)

Then came the results of the postmortem. This was without a doubt one of the nastiest murder descriptions I have ever read. I would truly like to erase it from my memory And the story got worse after that and took a really disgusting turn. I finished the book only because the truly disgusting part was close to the end of the book. After the murder is solved, the book just rambles on. The book needed an editor.

The narrator of the audiobook did not differentiate voices at all, so you have to work to figure out who is talking.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. However, you could not pay me enough to read another book by this author.

A stunning and compelling debut novel from Henry Wise. It reads very much along the lines of William Kent Kruger and that’s high praise. Descriptive and intriguing literary crime fiction at its best. I found I got to the point where I couldn’t put it down but also didn’t want it to end!

Highly recommend and I hope we see more of Henry Wise in the near future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for my eARC and this excellent read.

I was initially interested in this book based on the SA Cosby blurb. I found this book to be super atmospheric. The author wrote with such vivid, beautiful language that it was easy to be right in this plot. I found the characters to be complex and not always likable. The mystery was intriguing and also infuriating. I did find the middle of the story to drag a bit, which left me wanting to speed through some. However, this will be a great book for fans of southern fiction that love complicated small town dynamics.

A sly mystery that comes at you slowly as the story of Will, Joe, and Tom unfolds. This is steeped in atmospherics which at times might feel almost overwhelming. Will, who returned home from Richmond and is working as a deputy sheriff, pulls the body of Tom from his burning home and it's quickly apparent that he was murdered before the fire started. The Sheriff arrests Zeke, who was at the crime scene and whose fingerprints are on the murder weapon but Will and the rest of town doesn't think Zeke did it so Will risks his career (and his life) to uncover the real villain. Will feels a debt to Tom and guilt about Sam, who is hiding in his home. No spoilers but know that this is a tragedy wrapped up in redempti0n. It does feel overwritten in spots (especially at the end) but I couldn't put it down thanks not only to the plot but also to the compelling characters. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A terrific debut and a great read.

This one was very atmospheric and you could feel the south in the story. The mystery slowly unraveled and the partnership between the two detectives helped to make the story. It was slower in the beginning but picked up.

“If he had learned anything, it was that there was no going back to a thing except in your mind. Everything changed, and instead of doing so in cycles, time continued moving through a strange territory, a road that just kept going.” This is just one of the multiple passages I highlighted in Holy City, a novel that I consider to be one of the finest books of the year. I was totally blown away. I haven’t been sucked into a novel in a really long time like I was by this one.

Will Seems leaves Richmond, VA, and returns to his boyhood home in rural south Virginia, taking on a job as deputy sheriff. He stumbles upon a murder scene, and soon an innocent man is arrested for the crime. It is against this background that the author brilliantly fashions a story, with its own twists and turns, in which the sins and abuses of the past impact on the present, and where guilt and corruption eats at men’s souls. The writing is absolutely phenomenal, and I found myself re reading passages multiple times as I just savored their beauty. The characters are real and completely believable. The Virginia setting is so well developed that I consider it a character in its own right. I hated that the book had to end.

I highly recommend Holy City, and can’t wait for Mr. Wise’s sophomore effort.

My heartfelt gratitude to Atlantic Monthly Press and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this incredible novel.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

“Holy City” by Henry Wise is a novel that delves deep into the heart of Southern gothic tradition, presenting a narrative that is as dense as it is captivating. Set against the backdrop of a Virginia town, the story follows Deputy Sheriff Will Seems, who finds himself embroiled in a murder investigation that hits close to home.

Wise’s debut novel is a masterful blend of mystery and detective genres, with a strong undercurrent of police procedural elements. The protagonist, Will, is a complex character, haunted by past events and driven by a sense of guilt and duty. His return to his hometown is marked by personal demons and a determination to right the wrongs of his past, particularly concerning his friend Sam Hathom, whose life was altered by a violent incident that Will witnessed but did not prevent.

The murder of a local man and the subsequent wrongful arrest of Sam’s father set the stage for a story that is as much about crime as it is about the setting itself. Wise’s prose is rich and evocative, painting a vivid picture of a town plagued by its history and the scars of racial tension. The narrative is imbued with a sense of place, where the environment plays a crucial role in shaping the events and the characters’ actions.

Bennico Watts, a strong-willed female investigator with a checkered past, enters the fray, hired by the victim’s mother to uncover the truth. Her dynamic with Will is fraught with tension and mutual distrust, yet their partnership becomes central to the unraveling of the mystery. Together, they navigate the murky waters of the Snakefoot, a wilderness that has harbored outcasts and the forgotten for centuries.

“Holy City” is a novel that challenges the reader to confront the uncomfortable realities of America’s past and present. It is a story of redemption, resilience, and the enduring impact of history on the present. Wise’s writing is both lyrical and gritty, with a narrative drive that keeps the pages turning.

In summary, Henry Wise’s “Holy City” is a haunting and profound exploration of the human condition, set against the backdrop of a Southern town struggling with its identity. It is a novel that deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone who appreciates a well-crafted story that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.