The Current: A Novel

Because it was only girls… In the river. It’s always been only girls.


The Current is not your ordinary mystery/thriller; in fact, I would strongly discourage those who enter its icy, frozen Minnesotan (and Iowan) world to read it solely for the mystery, or else dissuade altogether those looking for a fast-paced thriller.



What Johnston has written instead are immensely literary and exceedingly woeful, harrowing character studies of those who are trapped in present and past traumas—all of which collide when one college girl is assaulted on the way home to visit her dying father, the town’s ex-sheriff, and she and her friend go into the icy river. The opening chapter depicting this scene is claustrophobic and written so show more close-to-the bone that it’s hard not to keep reading when the book then splits into different characters—often simply beginning chapters with pronouns, so that it takes the reader a few pages to disengage from what came before and orient his or her way toward what’s taking place now, and with whom.

Johnston’s true skill here is his prose: this is masterfully written, almost with echoes of McCarthy, Robinson, Sam Michel, Schutt, Faulkner, and others, yet all the while in Johnston’s own undeniable voice. The prose is what carries one through the bleak world of The Current, and Johnston’s versatility is centerstage when moving between past and present, showing how interrelated they are for people stuck in their own individual traumas. I was very often awed by some passages’ abilities to evoke, to suggest, to reveal the deep winter in which the story takes place as it mirrors so acutely the characters’ dark interior worlds:


Did it fade with time, with age? Or did the thing you fought inside yourself just grow bigger, hungrier, until it took you over?

If this book doesn’t leave you feeling frozen, like you’ve been stuck in an ice-cold river in a Minnesotan storm, I would be shocked, floored. And if this book doesn’t leave you moved in terms of how it questions generational trauma, isolation, and sexual assault, then the tremendous empathy Johnston’s book holds up to the light of humanity is but a mirror for whatever demons you harbor inside you. show less

I don't generally read literary suspense or thrillers but one of my favorite booksellers knows that I have a thing for books with water on the covers and pushed The Current on me based on that (and his enthusiasm for the novel, of course). More properly, this has ice on the cover (and I tend to gravitate to running water rather than solid water) but since it's in shades of blue (another weakness of mine), it totally counts for my cover catnip. That J. said it was a great read convinced me to overcome my usual cowardly feelings about the genre and give it a try. Luckily this was not the heart pounding, keep me up at night hiding from bad guys kind of suspense novel that some are. Johnston's newest novel is a tense, slow build of a story show more that will leave you horrified and angry at the myriad ways that justice has treated woman in the past and continues to treat them, even as it acknowledges important nuances and imperfections in the law and in public perception.

Audrey Sutter's father, a retired sheriff in Minnesota, is dying of cancer so she asks her friend Caroline for bus fare to go home to see him before it's too late. Instead, Caroline chooses to drive Audrey from their Southern college all the way north. In the middle of the night, just before they get to Minnesota, the girls stop for gas and Audrey is assaulted in the gas station bathroom. Caroline rescues her and they careen out of the lonely station back toward the highway but Caroline loses control of the car on ice and they come to a stop on the verge of a frozen river. Then headlights appear in the rear view and another car pushes them out onto the unstable ice and both girls end up in the freezing water. Audrey comes to in the hospital but Caroline drowns. This tragic death, and the slow investigation into the two boys who assaulted Audrey and their possible connection to the car that sent the girls into the river stirs up the memory of another girl who drowned in the same river ten years prior and whose murderer was never brought to justice.

These two terrible river plunges and drowning deaths ten years apart weave in and out of each other as the narrative moves forward. In a small town, the intermixed connections, close and loose of the people are reflected in the characters and their individual ties to each case. No one is left untouched by these crimes, not the innocent, not the guilty, and the grief and tragedy resonate through the town and the lives of the townspeople forever. Because of the multiple narrative focuses, the twining of the two investigations, and the interconnectedness of the characters, it can be confusing to the reader to try and figure out which year in time the story is in in any given chapter, making it a bit more muddled than is comfortable. For thriller fans, this is not so much a thriller as it is a heavily descriptive and intricately written, character driven story with an unsolved crime (possibly two) at its core. As the denouement approaches, the myriad sub plots, secrets, and unspoken, unacknowledged truths start to come together in a surprising pattern. Johnston has done a very good job laying out bits and pieces that lead the reader in one direction, before turning her in another equally plausible direction entirely until quite late in the novel. Readers who want to feel the penetrating chill of an icy river, the rising tension of a cerebral whodunit, and experience the suffering of those touched by senseless crime will find this a novel to sink into. show less

Writing is easy. Writing well will make you question your life choices. It’s similar to, “My God. Why did I eat that entire burrito and the whole bowl of queso?” Writing seems like a good idea. Even a great one as you start. But then you realize your characters are dull, much like that bite that was mostly tortilla and sour cream. You’re gagging on trope-y plot points and your metaphors are cold, filmed-over goop not worthy of another chip.

I was in a slump. MAD MOON was finished, but I was feeling down about it. I kept wondering if I’d made the right decisions. I knew it was good, but I wasn’t sure if breaking the “writing rules” was something I could do and get away with it.

I did what I typically do when I’m show more creatively stumped or worried about my writing (or on a day that ends in “y”): I read. Reading helps me remember why I love a good story and why my stories are worth telling. I chose THE CURRENT, Tim Johnston’s follow-up to his bestseller DESCENT.

In THE CURRENT Audrey, a college-aged woman, and her friend are traveling home to visit Audrey’s dying father. On the way, they are attacked and driven into the icy waters of Black Root River close to their destination in Minnesota. This particular river holds local significance. Ten years earlier in those same waters, another young woman was murdered.

As Audrey is processing what’s happened, she feels a connection to the girl murdered the decade before and begins her own investigation, stirring emotions in the small town and angering locals who want their marked history left alone.

Johnston’s formatting choices are bold. We’re taught to use quotation marks for dialogue, but not using them is a stylistic choice that some won’t agree with. I loved it. There’s a freeing quality to this choice, especially for a writer. It’s also a way to highlight the narrative, to allow the natural flow of storytelling instead of breaking it up visually or conceptually. Johnston switches points-of-view and moves from the past to the present depending on the chapter, which makes the forward movement of the story highly important. Discovering plot details, character traits, and clues that create suspense keep the chapters and voices connected, successfully creating a seamless and captivating story.

It is beautifully done.

I think readers know when they’re reading something superior. Maybe we can’t all describe why we feel that way or pin-point the thing that makes the writing so wonderful. For people who love a good story, it will make them want to pick up the next book or slow down their reading so that the end doesn’t arrive so quickly. I remember holding this book, stopping mid-sentence, and thinking, “I can do this.” In some way, Johnston’s book gave me the permission I needed in order to go ahead with my own writing and the courage to break a few rules while I was at it. It wasn’t an acknowledgment that I could write like Johnston or a book just like THE CURRENT. It was a reminder that what readers want, myself included, is just really good storytelling.

“Truly, it is that simple,” I say through a mouthful of burrito. show less

THE CURRENT by Tim Johnston is a completely absorbing mystery that I stayed up late into the night finishing. Thanks to the author and Algonquin Books/Workman publishing for the opportunity to read this one prior to publication.

In the middle of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, two young women are pulled from a river. One survives, and in her grief over losing her friend and someone else close to her, she realizes that her accident is linked to an unsolved murder that happened 10 years before.

First thing to know about this book: the author has used a sentence structure writing technique that really works to make the reading experience propulsive. It takes a little getting used to, but after that, you just hang on and enjoy the show more ride! There are also quite a few characters, and the POV of the narrative switches frequently. This can be challenging, at times, but I personally like to be challenged as a reader and appreciate it when authors take risks that work. And it does work!

More than a mystery, THE CURRENT is also a meditation on love and loss and grief and memory. It will stay with me a long time. This reader has been in the hands of a master. Really well done. show less

As two college girls, Audrey and Caroline drive North from Tennessee to Minnesota to visit Audrey’s dying father, they hit a patch of ice and spin out on a lonely Iowa bridge. Then another vehicle comes along and pushes them into the icy river below where one girl survives and one does not.

To label this gorgeous work a thriller is to do it a great injustice. Johnston has crafted a literary mystery of the highest order, while audiobook narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen imbues each sentence with the unspoken emotions of the characters who are grappling not only with the current incident but also a similar unsolved death from ten years ago. Many times I found myself tearing up, not because of the words themselves but because of the show more feelings bubbling just beneath the surface, which were so eloquently conveyed by the narrator. Perfect for fans of Louise Penny’s mysteries and Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River. show less

“And down they go, fast and easy in the snow, toboggan-smooth, hand in hand, their grips so tight, the grips of girls much younger, girls who will not be separated, their faces forward, watching the surface of the river, the black glistening ice as it rushes up toward them, larger and larger, until there’s nothing in the windshield but the ice, dark and wide as an ocean and they are going to it. . . ."

I liked this dark second novel from Tim Johnston. THE CURRENT is a sort of slow-burn thriller that adds layers of suspense bit by bit, quietly building in tension and power. It's not really a classic thriller or a classic whodunnit mystery, but it's a thriller and a mystery all the same. It's dark and edgy and moody -- and it works.

In show more some respects, this reminded me of his previous novel, THE DESCENT. But, for me, THE CURRENT is more successful. The character development is much better, and the pacing is more confident. It's a better story he tells, and it's a better book as a result.

This is profound fiction that explores some very dark places. It's a bleak view of human nature indeed. But Johnston paints his picture with subtlety and sensitivity, and his prose takes us to surprising places. He's given us a great character in Audrey, and many of his other characters are also interesting and fully realized.

And yet. It's another thriller that has at its core violence against young women, as did Johnston's first novel. I just can't help wishing for successful novels that explore some of this same territory without going to that place. I won't call that a knock against Johnston's work but a personal preference.

The audio narration by Sarah Mollo-Christensen was smooth and competent, but it didn't knock my socks off either. Something about her pleasant voice and delivery didn't always seem quite suited to the bleakness of the story and the prose. Also, given how the story is told alternately through different characters, multiple narrators might have added something extra to this audio production.

Well worth reading (or listening to).

(Thank you to HighBridge Audio -- and Algonquin Books -- for a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review.) show less

I found it a bit difficult to keep track of who the characters were and what they were to each other…but once the plot kicked in it was still difficult…but difficult in a different way...difficult to put down. The thing that I found a little hard to believe was the fact that one of the characters fell into a river in the middle of a Minnesota winter and actually survived. I live in Michigan and I have read accounts of people unfortunate enough to encounter any of our lakes and rivers in the middle of a Michigan winter. They can pretty much start forgetting about being rescued and just start planning for their eternity. I think that Minnesota might be the same if not worse. I like this author...loved his book Decent. He hasn’t ever show more written a bad story …and he didn’t this time either if you overlook the river incident. It had enough going for it to make the reader want to see the outcome. show less