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I have this recurring dream wherein I sit with a net on some boulders in the middle of a rapidly flowing stream. My task is to use the net to catch items that flow by on either side of me. I feel generally as if I am doing a humdinger of a job, yet I have an uneasy feeling that I am missing an object here and there. Indeed, this dream is (I believe) my subconscious trying to tell me that tasks are floating by me, going undone.
One real world object that I almost missed is IMMORAL, Brian Freeman's debut novel. It was published in September, and if not for the grace of good friends I might have missed it. This would have been a personal tragedy, as I was reaching one of those (rare) low ebbs of energy for reading. A few pages into the book and --- boom! --- the batteries were recharged.
IMMORAL takes place, for the most part, in Duluth, Minnesota with a short but important sidebar trip (make that two trips) to Las Vegas. The catalyst, Rachel Deese, is a teenage Mata Hari whose sinister sensuality is too smoldering to be contained in relatively provincial Duluth. When she suddenly vanishes, the occurrence mirrors the disappearance of another beautiful teenager the year before. Duluth police lieutenant Jonathan Stride is under pressure to find a killer, a task made more difficult by the inability of the authorities to find Rachel's body as well as Stride's residual grief over the death of his wife. When Rachel's bracelet and a blood-splattered article of her clothing are located, Stride is able to bring a suspect to justice. But the story of Rachel, and the people she has affected, is only beginning.
Freeman's surefooted narrative leads through a deceptive simple plot, spoonfeeding the reader characters who, within a few pages, seem to be intimately familiar. Indeed, IMMORAL has the comfortable feel of a long-running series as opposed to a debut novel that introduces an entire cast of characters. The subject matter, however, is anything but settling. By the last third of the book one has the feeling that anything can happen --- and indeed, it does. Freeman saves the last 100 pages to introduce some of the book's most interesting, and important, characters. The result is that while it is possible to guess part of the novel's conclusion, it is highly unlikely that one will figure out all of it.
IMMORAL and its author are not to be missed. This one will keep you up all night. Start early, read late.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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