You
always know when you're in Alice Hoffman territory. It's not that
she's predictable, but there are certain things that her fans
expect from her work. These include lots of atmosphere, suspenseful
plotting, lots of fierce and desirous lovemaking, and a hodgepodge
of characters thrown together in search of some unattainable truth.
So as not to disappoint those of us who have followed her career
from day one, Hoffman has brought us THE RIVER KING, yet another in
her ever-growing list of astutely passionate and fantastical
storylines.

The small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided in half,
right down the middle, thanks to a freak storm in its long-gone-by
history. This strange line, supposedly running down the center of
Main Street, separates the natives from the silver-spooned
attendants of the prestigious Haddan School. Those born in the
village loathe and fear the students, and the students are usually
far too self-involved to give the town much thought. However, as it
would happen, a Halloween night creates the perfect background for
a strange and unsolvable death. Thus, as the two sides of town join
together to try to figure out this puzzle, the town's own somewhat
complicated history is revealed.  

Carlin Leander, the 15-year-old girl who is as loyal as she is
proud, loses a friend and learns nasty life lessons; Betsy Chase, a
woman desperately running from her own destiny, yearns for escape
in the face of an impending marriage; August Pierce, a smart boy
with an overactive imagination, discovers a heroic side to himself;
Abel Grey, the police officer, refuses to let unspeakable actions
--- both past and present --- slide by without notice. It's this
set of characters, haunted individually and together by a town
whose past conjures up phantom smells of roses, that pulls together
to make THE RIVER KING one of the most delicious books Hoffman has
ever produced.

It is not just the elegant language, the fairy tale settings, or
for that matter, the fairy tale stories that make THE RIVER KING
such a dreamy, dreamlike novel. It is also the raging passion that
flows through the characters, much like the river flows through
town, that keeps the reader engaged page after page, even when the
going gets particularly gruesome. The great desiring of humankind,
the need for love, the sense of self, the tricks of the ego, and
the surrenders of the heart all find space between these murky-blue
covers. THE RIVER KING is a story that indulges in the romantic
nature of every reader's soul and the neatly plotted storylines
that make Hoffman's characters reflect so much of ourselves in
them.

THE RIVER KING is a fine return for Alice Hoffman to the novel.
This is the medium she belongs in, and we are happy to have her
here.