The Mercy of the Tide

Rosson has woven an enthralling read creating an alternate reality/history of early 1980's in the small coastal fishing community of Riptide, Oregon and its citizens. Grief is a poignant and overarching emotion which Rosson accompanies with the dark, rain-filled atmosphere anyone who lives on the Pacific West coast knows to expect during the winter months. The town has a poor, almost destitute feel to it, fitting well with the Armageddon-like news of the Cold War era. The twist that I really like is how Rosson entwines the very human tragedy with local aboriginal/First Nations mythology, exposing his fictional community and its grief-stricken residents to a nightmare that is both horrific and spell-binding. The plot and the show more slow-building reveal has the depth of a seasoned writer. Rosson's character build is first rate. The crimes and grisly discoveries are described in good detail but I like how Rosson tempers their focus and instead focuses on delivering his characters to the reader, and what excellent characters they are! These are not cookie-cutter,
two-dimensional puppets pantomiming the author's wishes. These are characters that one can envision encountering walking down the street. My heart really went out to all the characters, although I have to admit that Nick is a character that dances a little to close to that fine line between brilliance and insanity, and the bed and breakfast owner/operator is just one very creepy strange dude.

Overall, a stunning debut novel and a perfect example of a story that defies being categorized as fitting into a single, ore-determined genre. show less

Dave Dobbs, Nick Hayslip, Sam Finster, and Trina Finster live in the tiny ocean-side Oregon town of Riptide in 1983. The four of them are connected by recent deaths in a two car collision; in that collision, June, who was Dobb’s wife of decades, and Melissa, mother of Sam and Trina and also the adulterous girlfriend of Hayslip, were killed. Each chapter tells the evolving story- and the past- from a different characters point of view. Sam is a senior in high school; his little sister Trina is 9 years old, deaf, and dealing with the death of her mother by concentrating on the news of worsening relations between Russia and the USA and worrying about nuclear annihilation. Dobbs is the head of the police department; Hayslip is one of his show more officers. Dobbs is dealing with his loss in a pretty normal way; Hayslip is losing it rapidly- in part because no one knew about his relationship with Melissa and he doesn’t want it getting out. Meanwhile, birds are being found torn apart, and Trina has found a human skeleton in the park.

The book is billed as horror, but it’s also an alternate history thriller. You’re given a few clues about the difference in the timeline fairly early on, but you don’t get to find out how different it is until the end. The horror, it seems (and there is a little bit of supernatural horror), is only a lead up to the thriller part. Mainly it’s a story about how different people deal with loss- no two people deal with loss in the same way- and it’s done very well.

Despite the horror element, this book is character driven. The main players are well drawn and deep. I loved young Sam, who paired regular teen punk rocker angst with taking a lot of responsibility on after his mother’s death. I felt so sorry for Sam and Trina’s father, trying to keep the family from falling apart after his wife’s death. While all the characters are flawed, they are all good people, just trying to get through life, even when (especially when) life throws some really weird shit at them. It’s sort of Stephen King meets Ray Bradbury.

The ending was… odd. I’m not sure if this is the start of a series or if that was, indeed, the rather abrupt end. It’s dramatic and stunning, either way. show less

I love reading my favorite authors early books because you can see so much of their greatness developing. As with all of Keith's books, this is very much a character driving tale. While it has a bit of supernatural elements, they are the sub-plot.

This book tells the stories of various families in Riptide, and how they are all connected to each other through various misadventures. This six degrees of Kevin Bacon but with tragedy instead of movies.

The use of multi-POV adds elements to the story that draw you deeper into the grief of the cast. Many of them have no idea why they are connected, but seeing their lives unfold from all angles make the last few chapters hit harder. I 100% had an oh shit moment towards the end. All of the pieces show more slipped into place, in a way that was foreshadowed, but still completely unexpected.

You'll love this book if you love light plot, but heavy character reads that mix in just enough paranormal to make you wonder if it really was paranormal or the eyes playing tricks. show less

It is late 1983 in Riptide, Oregon, a small, depressed coastal town suffering the effects of a recession; the tourists have all gone and the rain seems relentless. The crime rate in the town isn’t high, usually nothing more serious than underage drinking at a Wolf Point bonfire. However, when the hundred year old skeleton of a Native American girl is exposed after heavy rainfall, when mutilated animals are starting to turn up on the beach and when there are sightings of a vicious, shape-changing monster, believed to be responsible for the attacks, fears grow that this is the “tah-kee-na-the”, the “sorrow-eater” legend of the Coastal Indians. Alongside the investigations into these disturbing, supernatural events, the townsfolk show more are still reeling from the recent deaths of two women who were killed in a head-on collision. June, the popular town-librarian and Sheriff Dave Dobbs’ much-loved wife of more than thirty years, and Melissa Finster, reportedly driving whilst drunk. She was the wife of Gary and the mother of high school senior, Sam and his nine year old, profoundly deaf sister, Trina. Another character deeply affected by the deaths is Deputy Nick Hayslip, who had been having an affair with Melissa.
This story follows the very different ways in which Dave, Nick, Sam and Trina deal with their loss and their grief in the aftermath of the accident. Sam is a typical teenager, passionate about his music and full of plans for his future, particularly his desire to escape his small town life and to embark on a road trip with his best friend, the wonderfully rebellious Todd, also known as “Toad”. However, his mother’s death and the fact that his father is working long hours, immersed in his own grief, mean that Sam will need to put these plans on hold because he has to take responsibility for Trina. Trina can’t deal openly with her grief so externalises it by becoming obsessed with a fear that as relations between America and Russia worsen, a nuclear confrontation, with its apocalyptic effects, is inevitable. Sheriff Dobbs feels utterly bereft but deals with his grief in a stoical, taciturn way; continuing to do his job but in a less tolerant way than usual. Nick Hayslip, a Vietnam veteran is still struggling, through nightly, vivid dreams, with unresolved feelings about his wartime experiences. This struggle is exacerbated because he is unable to grieve openly about the death of Melissa. With the burden of an additional secret, which is revealed much later in the book, he starts to slowly disintegrate, both mentally and physically.
This is one of the most engaging and moving novels I have read this year. I feel in awe of the skill with which Keith Rosson integrated the political background of Reagan’s America, the tensions of the Cold War, influences of Native American culture, historic crimes against the indigenous population, magical realism and alternate history in such an impressive way. His descriptions of the Oregon coastline, the relentless rain, the mud, the rundown town, its people and their mixture of despair and hope, were so evocatively powerful that I felt I had occupied their world and their struggles for a time. He captured the way in which a community reacted to and coped with external events and threats, whether in the form of tragic deaths, the threat of an imminent nuclear war or a mythical beast, apparently intent on destruction. His reflections on the political manoeuvrings of the time were thought-provoking, as were his depictions of the ways in which society deals with anyone who is different – the tendency towards an attempt to homogenise people! I also loved his reminders of what was a rather less complicated era, when mobile phones and the internet were not central to people’s lives; when music was still played on cassettes and listened to on a Walkman – vivid memories indeed!
However, for me the novel’s real strength lies in the author’s characters, all of whom, even the minor ones, come across as three-dimensional, complex, flawed and vulnerable and, therefore, fully relatable to. The story is told, in the third person, from the alternating viewpoints of the four main characters, with a number of “brief aside” chapters which add depth and background to the story-telling. All of this means that it slowly becomes a coherent whole as the reader traces the very different ways in which they deal with bereavement, grief and the mourning process. I very quickly felt totally invested in these characters and wanted life to turn out well for them. Sam and Trina in particular quickly wormed their way into my heart and I found it very hard to live with them through their struggles and heart-break; their stories offered some wonderful insights into the world of childhood and adolescence. They remain vivid in my memory and I know that they will be difficult to forget. The very different dilemmas faced by both Dave and Nick had almost as much of an impact because of the empathy with which the author portrayed their experiences.
Keith Rosson’s beautiful, literary prose was an extra delight and certainly added to my enjoyment of this wonderful novel. There was so much richness of detail in the descriptions and yet at no time did I feel that there was a wasted word in the narrative. I found myself savouring the quality of the writing, often re-reading passages in order to enjoy them again. The way in which he managed to capture the rawness of recent loss and the process of mourning was poignantly accurate and very affecting; his descriptions of how Sheriff Dobbs was affected by the aching loss of the tiny, every day, shared routines with his wife were, at times, almost unbearably painful to read.
In addition to being a memorable personal read, this would be a wonderful choice for reading groups because of the range of themes incorporated and the highly original voice of this author.
I am aware that Keith has previously written lots of short stories but this is his first published novel and, in my opinion, it is a truly remarkable debut. show less

I almost put this book down after a few pages. The clarity and precision of the sentences and word choices, the focus on the inner worlds of people struggling with loss, the suspicion that nothing much seemed to be happening. I thought, oh my, this looks like beautiful writing, but I don't feel in the mood to read a pitilessly realistic novel about people making bad decisions and stewing in grief and regret.

I'm very glad that I did not put the book down. What looks at first like lack of momentum is just the author carefully arranging the set, and slowly raising the curtain. Before you realize it, you're caught in a story that you didn't expect, and things pick up pace, eventually to the speed of a thriller.

The telling of the story is show more done with surprises, so the less said about the plot, the better. I'll just mention that the book rewards careful reading and attention to details.

Some things I like about the book, which I don't think will spoil anything for anyone: wonderfully accurate depiction of a 1980s working class town on the Oregon coast (I'm old enough to remember that period as a young adult); characters who had depth and felt like real people to me; the author's mastery of pacing in his storytelling; the previously mentioned precise word choices.

It makes me want to find more books by this author, and to keep an eye out for new ones. show less

In Reagan's America, the Cold War is a palpable threat. But as the year 1983 nears to an end, the impending nuclear doom of the mutual assured destruction doctrine isn't the only shadow to darken the small coastal town of Riptide, Oregon. Mutilated animals start appearing, ancient remains are found that bring back memories of a violent past, before the town is shocked by the grueling death of a young man. Battling with demons on their own, the local sheriff and his deputies soon find that the key to what is happening might not be found among the living... And the rain never stops falling.

I was instantly grappled by this novel, which follows the lives of a handful of characters as they become more and more intertwined. Navigating in turn show more grief, boredom, lust, coming of age and raw guilt, each story is told with great sensibility and detail, slowly building the wider narrative, which grows progressively darker until the final climax. The result is a fascinating tale of loss and aching. A family ripped apart by a fatal accident, teenage angst, lust and love, the banal horrors of everyday life are soon replaced by more threatening elements, signs that Rosson's version of 1983 might be a bit different than the one from our memories.

As much as I enjoyed the dark side stories, I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed by the main plot. The major story twist that is happening towards the end of the book could have been strong enough on its own without the extra supernatural and alternate history elements of the final chapters. But aside from this minor weakness, this is a strong story, of a quality that I've never before seen in the titles I've reviewed for the Early Reviewers program. I'm looking forward to more titles by this author. show less

Set in the Pacific Northwest in the early 80's, THE MERCY OF THE TIDE brought home a robust sense of time and place.

In a small Oregon town, tragedy strikes in the form of a drunk driver. In towns like this, with an event like this, nearly everyone is affected as the ramifications ripple outward. Then, other things start happening. Dead, mutilated birds appear on people's doorsteps. A skeleton is found in a local park. One deputy thinks he knows what's happening: it's related to an old native American legend. Can the goings-on in town be attributed to the legend, or are they attributable to humanity? You'll have to read this to find out!

I very much related to the characters in this book. There's one named Toad, (a nickname for Todd), and show more I knew a Toad when I was growing up, which was about the same time period as in this book. I also remember being afraid of the Russians and nuclear war. There's a young girl in this book who is obsessed with nuclear annihilation. The music mentioned: Motorhead, The Ramones, and others-they formed the soundtrack of my teen years. I remember Ronald Reagan being shot as well-so all these things were perfectly drawn as far as I'm concerned.

The writing here was very good, especially the character development. The powerful themes of guilt and grief abound, and the reader cannot help but feel for these people. However, I did have a few issues. I can't get too deeply into what those issues were because SPOILERS, but I can say I felt let down regarding the native American legend portion. I wanted more! I thought the denouement was perfect though-it shocked the hell out of me, but it also made me so mad I'm gritting my teeth just thinking about it.

Overall, I was impressed with this author and the book. The narration was excellent, as I've come to learn-Joshua Saxon's work always is. I recommend this book-especially to those readers who came of age during this time period in American history. If you're like me, you will feel the powerful rise of fond nostalgia.

*I received an audio version from Meerkat Press in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!* show less