The Water Tower Club

BK Mayo's new book is another little masterpiece of mystery and character.  When Darryl Coombs gets a late-night phone call from his mother back in Grotin, Kansas, informing him that his younger sister is in serious trouble, he finds himself compelled to return home after a decade of running away from and suppressing all memory of his youth, the "twisted wreckage of his past." Mayo's stories always grow from his characters, who are deftly realized with memorable and recognizable detail, sketched with vivid yet succinct depictions of people and the places they inhabit. Once again, as he did in "Tamara's Child," Mayo examines the complications that lurk beneath the surface and haunt the lives of very ordinary people. "The Water Tower Club" is written in the first person, with Darryl recounting the events that lead him from reluctantly trying to assist his sister, to unraveling the shocking secret that she withholds from everyone who tries to help her. Along the way we discover why Darryl has fled Grotin and his family, and why he was fearful of returning and facing the buried fears of his own childhood. But as Darryl discovers for himself, while the past cannot be erased, it doesn't have to define our future or limit its possibilities.

Massively engaging thriller, the story kept me gripped and reading well into the night. Well written and will look forward to more from this author.

Thomas Wolfe famously proclaimed "You can't go home again."  But Darryl Coombs, who fled his hometown of Grotin, Kansas many years before, find he has to do just that.  His little sister sits in jail, accused of murder.  Darryl returns to help her and finds himself embroiled with small town drama with big time consequences.  Both Darryl and his sister are trapped by the past and the only way out is to confront painful memories from their past.  Mayo is a powerful writer and delivers with this gritty, sorrowful story.  It reminded me somewhat of Dennis Lehane's early novels (in tone, not character or plot).  Very good read.

The Water Tower Club follows Darryl Coombs back to Grotin,  the town of his childhood, and a past he'd hope to erase from memory. His younger sister Libby has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder. With Libby not talking, Darryl has to play amature private detective. His searches dredge up all his miserable memories of humiliation at the hands of Bobby Hobson, of the accidental death of a young boy thanks to a stupid challenge, of the crippling of a toddler by gunshot. Now there are new torments to fill Darryl's mind- why did Libby stab a Commissioner? What, if anything, does the Tolliver Estate have to do with the stabbing? 

I fell in love with this book right away, staying up way past my bedtime reading. Darryl is easy for me to relate to, given his personality. I had a fair share if verbal abuse and emotional neglect growing up. Like Darryl, I felt that my opinions and desires, or even needs, were discounted, devalued. It took a 3000+ mile move, coast to coast, to begin being able to emerge from my shell. The only thing I didn't quite grok was the need for Charlotte's story. That's one part that didn't resonate with me. It felt a little unnecessary. That was just a small part , overall though.  

The Water Tower Club is full of snappy prose that captures the imagination, playing upon the heartstrings of emotion as deftly as a virtuoso violinist, conjuring bittersweet nostalgia, heavy regret, flickering uncertainty. Darryl has a philosopher's soul, and his problems, worries, and fears are ones we can all relate to- past regrets, family pressures, the desire to bury our hurts and wounds, a longing to find who we really are.  This is a book you're going to want to read!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley, the author and Fir Valley Press for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.  SF Book Review.