Review: Masterful
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2014
I have had the privilege and pleasure to recently discover Joe Hart. I had only read two of his short stories before reading Widow Town. It is truly difficult to find the appropriate superlatives for this novel. It contains all the requisite ingredients that make this a superb work of fiction. It explodes out of the gate and does not let up until the last page. The increasing tension, mystery and suspense keep you hypnotically flipping the pages to uncover the “who and why” behind the plot. What I truly appreciated most, however, was his vivid writing style and emotion-driven character development. It seemed that the characters were real or 3-dimensional and felt like the reader was right there with them. I must admit that I found myself often drawing parallels with John Sandford’s novels. The character depth, the expert plotting, the rural setting, the good vs evil dynamic and the masterful writing is all there. I am definitely going to be reading his other novels and highly recommend his work. This author is clearly on the fast track to becoming an elite writer.