A truly diabolical premise with tension crackling off every page. A must-read for all who enjoy intelligently-written stories with great characterizations, and who enjoy surprise twists at every turn. A great addition to this genre, and highly recommended. I'll be reading more from this author!

*My sincerest thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me the privilege of reviewing an ARC at no charge.*

A teenage girl is found brutally murdered half submerged in mud by the river. Sheriff John Gaines starts looking into missing persons reports since she cannot be recognized. What a shocker to find out that this girl has actually been missing for 20 years! But, it looks like it's been only days. How can that be?!

As he begins his investigation, Sheriff John Gaines finds there is so many lies and secrets that have been buried.

I have to say I was not that impressed with this mystery. I feel like it was something that I could have bypassed and another thriller to put on top of the pile. I don't like history in my novels at all and I feel like more then half of this book was about the Sheriff's time in the jungles of Vietnam. This was just too much and don't understand how this was part of the story. I wish the author would have just focused on the missing girl aspect.

I felt the book was very long and some of the sentences I felt kept running on and on? Again, I feel like I've been seeing a pattern in thriller/mysteries lately with being too LONG. The story can be quiet good without it dragging on! :(. In this case also, I feel like the author focusing so much on Sheriff Gaines previous experience in the Vietnam jungle took away from the actual plot. This was a bummer.

This feel short for me and overall 2 stars on this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Overlook Press for granting my wish and providing an advanced arc in exchange for my honest thoughts.
Publication date: 3/6/18
Published to GR/Amazon: 3/17/18.

On a summer evening in 1954, a sixteen-year-old girl named Nancy Denton walked into the woods near her home in Whytesburg, Mississippi. Twenty years later, on July 24th, 1974, a heavy rainstorm caused the riverbank to crumble revealing Nancy's almost perfectly preserved body... so begins The Devil and the River by R. J. Ellory.

The main focus of the story (at least in the first half) is Sheriff John Gaines, something of an outsider, trying to piece together what happened long ago. Trying to separate fact from fiction, legend from truth. Becoming more and more convinced that his investigation is turning into “a Southern f**king melodrama...that would put Tennessee Williams to shame.”

A battle hardened veteran of the Viet Nam War, Sheriff Gaines has seen some things, disturbing things, things he can't forget no matter how hard he tries, but nothing has prepared him for the discovery of the body of young Nancy Denton. Even after twenty years there are obvious signs of a brutal murder with ritualistic overtones.

In this small community not far from New Orleans where belief in the mystical, the unexplained, and the occult are strong the locals whisper of voodoo... grisgris ceremonies... sacrifices. There are some, the true believers, who feel “the devil has come to Whytesburg, Mississippi to collect a long owed debt.

About every fourth or fifth chapter of the book is told in the first person narrative from the point of view of Nancy's best friend, Maryanne Benedict, grown now and recounting the events of the summer that Nancy disappeared.

Sheriff John Gaines suffers from what we would today call PTSD. The initial focus of the investigation centers on a WWII veteran who has suffered even more than the sheriff from trauma experienced both during the war and since his return to civilian life. The author does a fine job of getting into the mindset of these men, painting a vivid “word picture” of their experiences and the resulting effects. The problem is that it becomes extremely redundant, redundant to the point of boredom. It's as if the writer is trying to drive home the point with a sledge hammer. How many times must we be reminded of “the nine circles of hell that was Viet Nam”?

At heart this is basically a good mystery novel.

The first half, which I almost gave up on and quit several times, is written in an almost stream of consciousness kind of way that gets downright mind numbing at times. Then...

Somewhere around the halfway point the story just comes alive. The characters - the same characters who have been there all along - suddenly become more real, people you can actually care about rather than just cardboard figures being moved about as needed. This novel is really like two books, the first half and the second half are so different it's almost as if there were two completely different writers at work. I have to wonder if the author intended it that way, as a way of showing how these long damaged people living colorless lives were somehow brought back to life by the horrible circumstances they are forced to confront. I don't really know.

I firmly believe that there is a five star book somewhere within these existing pages if a sharp eyed editor could get at it with an eye towards streamlining the overall story. If you manage to slog through the first half of this book you won't regret it, and if you give up on the book before you get there I wouldn't blame you a bit.

***Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this title.

The Devil and The River is very hard reading. I can see R.J. Ellory try to reach the almost poetic heights of A Quiet Belief in Angels, but it seemed more of a struggle for him this time. The Devil meanders more than it should, and perhaps fewer characters or fewer murders might have helped him focus. This is surely not the Ellory who enthralled me in Angels and following stories. I have finally finished The Devil and The River, and gosh, I am sorry to say that it does not captivate, and that almost poetic beauty in his writing seems a bit forced. But I will say this: I hate the thought that the Ellory who enthralled me is gone. I will read his next novel and hope that it finds a good editor, more focus, even fewer pages if that's what it takes to get our author back on track. River gets three stars from me, and that was not a gift. It does deserve them as a good story is here. It's just not a great story, and R. J. Ellory is an author from whom I expect greatness.

I have been an avid fan of Mr Ellory for years and have enjoyed every one of his books that I've read, but this one is just insanely exceptional. This is one of those books that I will never forget ands it will immediately be added to my favorite books of all time. Wow! I don't have adequate words to describe how much I love this book! Simply amazing.