On his last day in power, with a blizzard threatening 18 inches of snow, Sheriff Bittersmithโs is called to the scene of a crime. A farmer has been stabbed clean through the neck with a pitchfork. Two sets of tracks lead from the barn, and the dead manโs frantic wife exclaims her daughter is missing. Convinced it was Gale GโWain, the orphan who worked at the farm, Bittersmith follows the vanishing footprints into the storm.
Three miles away, Gale GโWain is alone and close to dead. Heโs holed up in an empty farmhouse, half-dressed and nearly dead after falling through lake ice. Innocent, but unlikely to ever stand trial in a town as corrupt as Bittersmith, he loads his gun and prepares to defend himself against the dead manโs bloodthirsty sons and the Sheriffโs Department.
Set in small town Wyoming in the 70s and unfolding in a single day, Clayton Lindemuth's debut novel, Cold Quiet Country, explores small-town corruption and the lengths some people will go to exact revenge.
โLindemuthโs impressive debutโฆis a go-for-the-jugular country noirโฆ.Lindemuth carefully weaves charactersโ backstories into this thrilling narrative, and his visceral prose and unsparing tone are wonderfully reminiscent of such modern rural noir masters as Tom Franklin and Donald Ray Pollock.โ
Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Clayton Lindemuth was born in Royal Oak, MI, but grew up in rural western Pennsylvania. After serving in the U.S. Army he began a career in financial services, finished his BA at Arizona State University, and is now a sales manager at a prestigious firm. His interest include economics, woodworking, and running marathons. Cold Quiet Country is his first published work. Cold Quiet Country is Clayton Lindemuth's first novel.
Review
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"Lindemuth's impressive debut...is a go-for-the-jugular country noir.... and his visceral prose and unsparing tone are wonderfully reminiscent of such modern rural noir masters as Tom Franklin and Donald Ray Pollock." -- Publishers Weekly ( โ
Starred Review โ
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