The Homeplace by Kevin Wolf

First Sentence:  If you listen, you will hear the wind.

      

Chase Ford left the small Colorado town in which he was a basketball star, to play for the NBA.  Injury, divorce and drugs ended his career and now he’s home.  Not all homecomings are joyful; the murder of a present-day basketball star, who was very similar to Chase, causes the law, and Chase, to wonder why now and why him.

      

There is a very real sense of tension and suspense from the very beginning of the story.  There are grievances and relationships we don’t quite understand, but know will be revealed.  One-by-one, we meet the characters.  And, as if pieces of a puzzle, we begin to see how they fit together. 

      

Wolf’s characters epitomize people everywhere.  They are a microcosm of humanity; the best and the worst of us.  He makes the observation that while we tend to focus on our shortcomings and sins, other may see the good in us, and the positive things we’ve done.

      

Wolf has a very lyrical style, almost poetic at times—“Quiet slipped into the room and took the empty chair at their table.”  At other times, it’s understandably real—“Weather coming in.  And, God, the country needed the moisture.  Let it snow.  It was a prayer, not a curse.”

      

“Homeplace” has plenty of suspense, danger and excitement.  Although one may suspect the killer, the resolution is startling and the ending very well done.  Wolf harkens back to classic authors whose books of less than 300 pages—259 in this case—are still complex and engrossing. 

 THE HOMEPLACE (Susp-Chase Ford-Colorado-Contemp) – VG

      Wolf, Kevin – 1^st book

      Minotaur Books, Sept 2016