Starvation Lake

Through the eyes of Gus Carpenter, editor of the Starvation Lake Pilot, Bryan Gruley tells the story of tiny Starvation Lake in upstate Michigan, a town that has seen more than its share of opportunities fail to materialize. One of those missed opportunities was a shot at the state hockey championship that that ended badly due, in the minds of many, to a critical goaltending error on Gus’s part. From that moment on nothing seemed to go right for Starvation Lake. When the popular coach that turned the ragtag team into a legitimate contender dies in a tragic snowmobiling accident on a frozen lake the town goes all out to honor his memory.

Now twenty years later part of the snowmobile washes ashore at a lake different from the one it show more supposedly was lost in. What could have happened? This question in itself wasn’t compelling enough to make me read the book when I first got it but when it started garnering award nominations I finally picked it up and started reading it and I’m glad I did. The story quickly gets a lot more complicated as Gus attempts to find out what really happened.

Back when I was in journalism school my professor was fond of saying ‘The devil is in the details’. Gruley, a bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, must have had the same professor. In ‘Starvation Lake’ he deftly spins multiple thin threads together into a thrilling story that threatens to turn Starvation Lake upside down. I highly recommend this book and am looking forward to the sequel due out in August. show less

An alternate title for Starvation lake might have been "Living With Failure". Perhaps not as grabby, but certainly more descriptive of our protagonist and the richly detailed background that introduces all the characters. The story takes place at the town of Starvation Lake in the Lower Peninsula, Michigan. Gus Carpenter, both reporter and on-site management for The Pilot is well known in town for the goal that got past him in the crucial game, dooming his love as well as his career prospects, if not for good.....well, we don't know the rest, even at the story's conclusion, since there is a sequel already out. The plot and subplot are very intersting, very twisted in more than one sense of the word. Until close to the very end, the show more reader is very uncertain as to what the crime here actually is. I enjoyed this and will read Satrvation Lake #2. My only criticism of this book is that the resolution of the sub-plot, dealing with Gus's time in Detroit, is rather abrupt and a bit too pat. show less

A remarkable debut mystery full of reminders that small town life on the east side of Lake Michigan isn't all that different than small town life on my own west side of it. Of the many plot elements that I'm almost always a sucker for, being a reporter for a modest local newspaper ranks high on the list, so the protagonist in this one really works for me, and he's surrounded by all sorts of interesting folks, many of whom have secrets of their own. And even though hockey is way down my list of sports interests, Gruley makes that aspect of the story extremely interesting, as well. Heck, I may even have to add hockey to my existing list of baseball, college football and college hoops. A central element of the main plot of this one might show more make some people squeamish, and I won't reveal it since I don't want to spoil the story. Suffice it to say that it is handled as delicately as possible, but no one will confuse it with a Disney movie. As usual, there are some aspects to the story that didn't work well for me, in particular the collective level of denial in a small town and some of the things surrounding a female character who seemed to be forgotten in the end. But there will always be things to question in any story, and taken as a whole, this was a great outing. And after reading the author's comments at the end of the book, I'm convinced that Gruley is a guy I'd enjoy sharing a PBR or two with, whether on his side of the lake or my own. show less

Coach Blackburn was a beloved hockey coach, in Starvation Lake, a small town in upstate Michigan. He was killed, when his snowmobile plunged beneath the ice, during a drunken night-time reverie. His body is never recovered. Ten years later, pieces of his snowmobile rise to the surface, but on a different lake five miles away.
Gus Carpenter, the editor of the local paper, has had a shaky past with this town. He recently returned from a job at the “Detroit Times“, after a disgraceful scandal and is trying to put his life back together. He was also a popular goalie, under Coach Blackburn and decides to start his own investigation into the mysterious death of this legendary coach. This leads Gus down some dark dangerous avenues, that show more include both family and friends, the past and present and shocks him with some shattering revelations.
This is an impressive debut novel; a perfect snap-shot of small town life, a glimpse into some very flawed characters, a nice dose of hockey, all captured in a frigid wintry setting. This is the first of a series and I’m looking forward to returning to Starvation Lake. show less

I used to read mystery novels incessantly. If you had looked at my reading list a decade ago it would have been chock full of John Sandford, Lawrence Block and Stuart Woods. I have to admit there was even a James Patterson novel or two thrown in there. I was also a sucker for true crime books.

However, when my first child was born I found it harder and harder to read stories about crime and murder. To read about a parent meeting their demise or a child coming to a violent end was just too much for me. I need a break from the genre.

As of this past week I am responsible for ordering mystery novels for the library. Hence a return to the genre I once loved. Starvation Lake, a solid debut by Bryan Gruley, was a great place to start. This is a show more solid thriller set in the northern part of lower Michigan. A disgraced reporter returns to his hometown to edit his local paper. Years ago, as the goalie for the local hockey team, he had allowed the winning goal in the state championship. He subsequently became the town goat and had a falling out with his coach. Years later his coach died in a snowmobile accident. The resurfacing of that snowmobile brings question to whether or not it was an accident.

Worth a read if you like mysteries. show less

WOW! What a debut work. Gruley has absolutely captured a small Michigan town, and it's inhabitants. If you are not a fan of hockey (as I am not), you'll learn a lot about it. But the best thing about Starvation Lake is Gruley's absolutely spot on inhabitants of this book. And I use "inhabitants" rather than "characters", because they come alive. I personally hate a book with 2 dimensional characterizations. I can't wait until Gruley comes out with the next Starvation Lake story. I'd be willing to bet that it won't be a direct to paperback, but a real hard-cover for Gruley next time. I wonder what Gus, Darlene, Dingus and Soupy will be up to then.

Gus Carpenter has come crawling back from a failure in journalism in Detroit to work as editor of his home town paper. A glutton for punishment, it seems, he also returns to playing hockey in an adult league, despite the fact that the town and his teammates have neither forgotten nor forgiven his failure to block a goal that cost his youth team the state championship. But the past is revisited when a snowmobile belonging to that team's creator, Coach Blackburn, drifts to shore. The problem is, Coach had broken through the ice and drowned while driving the snowmobile ten years earlier--on a different lake. Now Carpenter balances remaining legal problems in Detroit with the job of pursuing a mystery that must involve friends and family, show more including his mother. What really happened ten years ago, and what is happening in the small town politics of Starvation Lake today?

Gruley deftly invokes the sort of hometown in which no one forgets who you dated in high school or what your nickname was. The plot twists and turns, as Gus and his star reporter struggle to find facts and town leaders work to keep the past under wraps.

This novel was a finalist in the competition for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel of 2010

http://ritasreviewsandruminations.blogspot.com/ show less