LOST RIVER is the latest crime thriller from J. Todd Scott, concerning the effects of the opioid epidemic on a small Kentucky town. Great care seems to have been taken to portray the impact the opioid crisis has had on rural Appalachia with startling realism. Each detail oozes with authenticity, helping portray the fictional Angel, Kentucky as a living, breathing town tormented by drugs. The actual story largely concerns Trey, a local EMT and Angel resident, Casey, a hard edged DEA agent, and one day of overdoses and violence that intersects their paths with the local kingpin of dealers, Little Paris.
Scott’s strength as an author lies in how he is able to set up a mystery and delicately peels away the layers, always giving enough to keep the reader hooked. Lost River’s pacing immediately grips the viewer not just with its story but with its character. Each feels lived in and almost tangible, as Scott slowly unravels the trauma of their past. The secrets of these characters' past go hand in hand with plot, making sure that it almost never feels like one is taking away from the other. The slight detours he takes when delving deep into who they are do halt the pace at one or two points, especially when the book is barreling toward the climax and Scott begins to characterize one of the main villains in a lengthy backstory. It does feel like this particular bit of development could have been moved to midway through the novel, instead of the end. But overall it doesn’t take away from the novel’s tense and carefully crafted plot. That plotting is completely electric, utterly capturing the reader's imagination.
Scott creates this invigorating pace by framing the novel through the perspective of each of its main characters. It brings to mind authors like Faulkner and R.R Martin, but avoids the usual pitfalls of this storytelling device by keeping it to a small number of characters. This allows the reader to experience the plot with the same amount of apprehension as the characters; making the novel feel brief yet impactful. This is a four hundred page novel that somehow flies by with frantic speed, making you relish every page as you drink in each moment of action.
If there’s anything that might turn off potential readers, it’s the looming cloud that the opioid epidemic casts over the story as a whole. The effort put into portraying it authentically can be downright depressing, which one would have to assume is part of the point. This may be a fictional story, but the opioid epidemic is all too real. The deaths and suffering it causes can’t even be fathomed. Lost River offers up no solution for this plague on the nation, but it is more than keen to make it’s reader aware of the problem.
LOST RIVER may not be for the faint of heart, but for those who love a well written crime thriller that captures your attention and never lets it go, it’s easy to recommend. Its fire and brimstone characters will stick with the reader long after they finish the story.
A blistering crime novel of the opioid epidemic--and its cops, villains, and victims--written by a twenty-five-year veteran of the DEA.
Angel, Kentucky: Just another one of America's forgotten places, where opportunities vanished long ago, and the opioid crisis has reached a fever pitch. When this small town is rocked by the vicious killing of an entire infamous local crime family, the bloody aftermath brings together three people already struggling with Angel's drug epidemic: Trey, a young medic-in-training with secrets to hide; Special Agent Casey Alexander, a DEA agent who won't let the local law or small-town way of doing things stand in her way; and Paul Mayfield, a former police chief who's had to watch his own young wife succumb to addiction.
Over the course of twenty-four hours, loyalties are tested, the corrupt are exposed, and the horrible truth of the largest drug operation in the region is revealed. And though Angel will never be the same again, a lucky few may still find hope.
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