This book could have been a really great mystery thriller, based on its plot. Two college women driving back to one's home end up in a frozen river - was it an accident or was their car pushed? This incident is eerily reminiscent of a previous event 10 years ago in a nearby town, where a young girl was hit by a car and then ended up in the river, the same river running further north. The story weaves back and forth between then and now, a very common plot point in many current novels. The story would be great if the writing style did not ruin it. The author chooses to use a stream of consciousness style. He uses pronouns instead of proper nouns, confusing the reader. He also chooses to run all thoughts together, past and present events and different character voices, in the same paragraph, with no indication of the changes, not even spacing. At first I thought it was a part of the preprint process, and that the spacing would be adjusted in the final edits. But when the confusing process continued, I realized the style was the author's choice, and, in my opinion, a bad choice. 2 stars for the plot, but only 1 star for the writing style.

This was a new author for me. I needed a change of pace since I read so much romance. I was looking for a thriller, a little mystery to shake things up. I found the premise enticing, two girls driving home from college end up in an icy river, only one survives. The surviving girl returns home, searching for answers to another murder of girl in the river ten years prior.

This story had the makings of a great thriller. However, I found myself confused, even unsure of what was happening. There are so many characters, so many different perspectives running underneath what I thought was going to be the unraveling of who killed Caroline. Instead the story focuses on the murder of Holly Burke. I couldn't connect with any one character, as much as I wanted to. In fact, so many of the characters were really interesting that I wish more time had been spent developing their stories. I needed a more cohesive storyline for these two very distinctive stories. Yes there are parallels between Audrey and Caroline and Holly. However Audrey and Caroline's story is completely separate from Holly's. The Current is really Holly's story alone in my opinion.

With every page I turned, I found myself waiting. Waiting for the story come full circle, to connect all the dots, to answer all the questions I had. Instead I was left...incomplete. There's a lot of story in The Current, almost too much narrative. I almost felt bad for Audrey as the book progressed, it became less and less about the crime committed against her and Caroline and more about Holly Burke's murder. Where is Audrey's closure? Where is Caroline's justice? While I enjoyed some of the back story, it was still confusing putting it all together. I'm sitting here not entirely satisfied. I'm all for imagining what happened after the last page, but this is different. It's like I got part of an ending for part of the story.

In the end, the reader is left to make their own conclusions about what happened to Danny (who I didn't even mention), and about Audrey and Caroline's accident.

* I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book *

Beautiful prose, an addictive voice, and a slowly revealed mystery make The Current a hard book to put down. Any woman who has lived to adulthood has faced the menacing gaze of a stranger intent on doing her harm. That makes this a hard book to read, but also one that feels true.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Tim Johnston, and Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

In my first exploration of Tim Johnston’s work, the novel took a journey that may literally chill the reader to the bone. On their way back from college, two young women stop for gas in the middle of winter. A simple fill-up soon turns sour when one is assaulted by two men who prey on her solitude. After fending them off, the women rush to their vehicle and continue on their way, hoping the worst is behind them. Bright headlights soon creep up in the rearview mirror and the vehicle is bumped off the road, teetering on the edge of a body of water. In the moments before they lose consciousness, both women vow to get through this together. When Audrey Sutter wakes, she is in the hospital with significant injuries. Her friend was not so lucky, having perished before a passer-by called the authorities. Now, with her fractured memories (and bones), Audrey must relay what she knows to the sheriff, who tries to formulate a suspect list. Audrey’s father, Tom, is a former sheriff himself and will not stand idly by as he seeks to locate the perpetrators. However, this proves harder than it seems and leads go colder faster than the ice water in which his daughter was once submerged. With a cold case coming to the surface and the local sheriff choosing to run things at his own pace, those who sought to kill Audrey remain at large, but are they watching so that they can finish the job? Johnston weaves an interesting tale that seeks to control the reader’s experience like a strong-willed river current. With all the elements for a successful novel, I am not sure why this one missed the mark for me.

Having sampled no past work by the author, I am required to let my gut and first impressions steer me. Johnston utilised many of the needed elements to craft a decent novel, including a crime and assault to open the story. However, it would seem that there was a supersaturation of information that diluted much of the delivery. Audrey Sutter, who plays at least a partial protagonist character, proves to be somewhat likeable, though I did not feel a strong connection to her. She’s young and is forced to come to terms with much loss in short order. Still, I would have liked to feel as though her fate (and finding the person/people who tried to kill her) meant more to me. The same goes for many of the other characters who crossed the pages of the book, including the retired cop Tom Sutter. Instead, many of the names and their backstories blended together to form a giant wad of narrative goop. Johnston had some great ideas amidst the various tangential storylines, something that I think might better have been developed in a series. While the central crime does recur, there are so many people with insights on different plots that the reader is forced to parse through all the discussions and keep things straight. Johnston has a strong writing style and I applaud this, but I could not find a level of comfort to pull me through this piece. Best of luck for those seeking a story with lots to offer, but too much to digest.

Kudos, Mr. Johnston, for your efforts. Not my cup of tea, though the premise drew me in from the outset.

Caroline and Audrey were on a road trip. Audrey on the way to see her father, a retired small-town Minnesota Sheriff, who was dying of cancer. And Caroline running from an embarrassing encounter with a professor and a broken relationship. But a spinout on the way sent the car through the ice of the Black Root river, leaving one girl dead and the second badly injured. The incident was reminiscent of the death of another girl ten years earlier, found in the same river. The case was never solved, and it haunted the whole town, especially Audrey’s father. As the dying Sheriff started looking into what happened to his daughter, others started asking questions, too, about what happened years earlier to destroy not only the life of the girl found in the river, but the spirit of the town that lost her.
The Current is more than the title of the second adult novel by Tim Johnston. It is a theme throughout the book: the current of the river, the wind, of thoughts, a tingle in the air, even in “the wings of [the doctor’s] open labcoat riding his currents.”
The writing had a strong, free-thought, poetic flow, pulling the reader into the story, pushing characters from the past to the present in their quest to find the truth that has eluded the town for so long, that the ten years are anchored by the two deaths.

“Because life was organic and that was one kind of energy, ashes to ashes, but there was also energy between living beings, currents that traveled between them and outside of biology, and that energy could not be buried, and neither could it fade into nothing, because energy never just ended, it transformed and recycled and you felt it even if you didn’t believe in it…Whatever you called it there was a current and you were in it always and you couldn’t bury it.”

The Current is about regrets and shame, doing the right things, or sometimes the wrong things for the right reasons. A death ten years ago that a town, a parent, a sheriff never overcame, and a recent death that could offer them all redemption. Maybe the girl the current didn’t take could figure out what happened to the ones it did.

From the very first page, I could tell this was going to be an atmospheric read. There's country/small town and big city books. A lot of what we read in the mystery/thriller genre is based in larger cities such as London and New York. Then we get ones like this that are catered to that small town feel. A more intimate setting where people know each other and their families for decades and the sting is sharper and the reveal or overall coming is told in a more subtle, concise way that still leaves a mark. That is what this story did for me.

This book transverses from past to present and could be a little confusing at the beginning. I'm a big believer in using quotation marks for dialogue and the author doesn't for the past conversations but does for the present. It didn't quite bother me in this book as it has in others because at least there was a pattern to it - I think some of you know what I mean. The way this was written was absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed this style a lot - at times it felt (to me) like that narrator from the movie 300 telling me the story.. but then my mind is a strange place. 🤣

I felt great compassion for the characters - Johnston really brings out their raw emotions and makes you feel each and every one of them. From the girls and their skin crawling encounters, to the men and women who have lost their children. I'm a tad confused at the ending and would have like a little closure on one particular part... however, this is an extraordinary book. Absolutely solid in the somber feel from page one to the very last.

This book gave me a little bit of Reconstruction Amelia and Good as Gone feels but I couldn't tell you exactly why. Sometimes a book just reminds you of another one and they could have absolutely nothing in common but evoke a feeling.

Atmospheric, Emotional and Raw.

The Current started off fine. Two roommates who don't get along until suddenly they do and then they become good friends. A road trip to bring one of them home to her dying dad changes all that when the car ends up in a river. So do the friends.
After that, there is suddenly a large list of other characters and the reader doesn't know yet what is connecting all of them except for the location.
That is where the book started dragging for me. Who were these people and why should I care about their stories? After 20% of the book I didn't care to finish.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

Tim Johnston's The Current is poetic and beautifully written. Johnston's setting is sometimes dreamlike and otherworldly, but always true and gritty. His characters are emotive and, while sometimes one-dimensional, believable and complementary. The balance of the characters and plot in the book is truly masterful, the river itself becoming a compelling and powerful character. The final result is a gently suspenseful, psychological novel that leaves the reader thinking about the story long after finishing the last page.

I read Tim Johnston's previous novel Descent prior to reading this title. I enjoyed both titles, but The Current soared above Descent. Johnston takes risks in style, and the exploration is a success. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance reader's copy.

Audrey's dad, the former sheriff is dying of cancer. She asked her friend if she can lend her some bus money so she can travel back to Minnesota so spend time with him, her dad says she needs to stay at school. Instead, Caroline offers to drive her back to Minnesota. As they are crossing the Minnesota/Iowa border they stop at a gas station and Audrey gets attacked. She was able to get free thanks to Caroline unfortunately with the icy roads they go into the the ditch and land just outside the river but suddenly there are headlights and a bump and the girls go flying into the river. This case is eerily familiar to the folks in Audrey's small town, because it was 10 years ago another girl was found dead in the river and it was the one case her dad could not solve. Now Audrey is determined to figure out what happened to her.

I read an unproofed galley provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I mention that up front because one of the issues that prevented this being a 5-star read was the very abrupt, like in the middle of a paragraph, change in POV that I'm not sure was deliberate or a formatting mistake with my proof. And even if it wasn't deliberate, I felt like there were definitely too many POVs deployed, and too rapidly. However, each one was compelling which is no small feat. It almost felt like a few novels jammed into one, there was so much going on. However, I was definitely interested throughout, and I really like Johnston's writing style. He's descriptive without being over the top. There was one major storyline that wasn't really wrapped up to my satisfaction, but other than that and the abrupt switches, it was an excellent novel.

I don't know if there is a category for books called "lyrical thriller" but if there is, that's what I would call Tim Johnston.

The current is a multi-level story which is set in motion when a car carrying two college-age friends enters an icy river on a dark night. One girl lives and the other dies.

In a strange twist of fate, Audrey, the girl who lives, was on the way to visit her father who is dying of lung cancer, and who also used to be the sheriff when, several years ago and in another state upriver, another young girl went into the river and drowned. Her attacker was never caught.

The current is about the ways life flows and changes in a small town. It's about the interconnectedness of people and places and stories. It's about the dark secrets we keep and how those secrets can pull us under and drown us without any warning.

Tim Johnston doesn't rely on gimmicky twists or unbelievable plot devices to manipulate emotion, He creates an exquisite tension which slowly ratchets higher until it's so deep you could drown.

More literary fiction than mystery thriller, this is a slower paced novel of the effects of crime on a great many people. The crime seems straight forward: girl(s) drowning in a Minnesota/Iowa river with no one arrested for the crime as of 10 years later. The writing is beautifully descriptive and easy to follow even tho the use of punctuation seems sporadic. Once I realized that a character's thoughts were written along with the actual dialogue, it was even more meaningful. Loved the "feel" of the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Algonquin Books for the ARC to read and review.

Marketing this book as a thriller is going to do this book a disservice. It's a solid literary fiction book, but thriller it is not, and readers going into this story expecting the suspense of a thriller are going to be disappointed (I'm not generally prepared for literary fiction style structure when I am reading a thriller). About 2/3 of the way through this book I finally became pretty invested in the story and found that the pacing was more like a traditional mystery vs. literary fiction, and the last third of the book was a fairly quick read. However, readers who have a better relationship with DNF'ing books might not make it that far, so I'd be cautious in who I recommended this to and how I talked about the book.
Excellent setting and sense of place and intriguing, interwoven and complicated characters were this story's backbone.

She's going home to see her father, who is suffering from cancer. She asks a college friend to give her a ride to the depot for her trip. The friend offers to take her home and make a road trip out of it. She accepts and everything is fine until they stop for gas. Someone tries to rape Audrey and her friend helps her escape. But it's not over yet.

Algonquin Books and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published January 22nd.

In their haste to get away, they slide off the icy road and end up next to the river. A truck eventually shows up and they hope they will help them get back on the road. Instead, it pushes them into the river...

This is a story full of ghosts from the past and a death that has not been solved. A girl drowned ten years ago in the same river. Was the one that pushed them into the water the same killer?

One lives, the other dies. The surviving girl is trying to find the killer. The story weaves between the past and the present. It's hard to tie a wrong doer down when there is no evidence and the victims won't testify against them.

This is an interesting story but it was just a little too sad for me. Everybody has sad moments in their lives but they also have happiness. There wasn't much happy in this story but it did keep your attention and make you wonder who was killing the girls and why.

Two college friends set off to visit Audrey's dad who is ill with Stage 4 lung cancer. Caroline offers to drive, so Audrey doesn't have to come up with the bus fare. They go to school in Minnesota. Caroline is from down south and not used to driving in heavy snow. Something tragic happens, and the narrative takes us through the stories of all the lives affected by what happened that snowy night.

Audrey's father is a retired sheriff, who lost his wife when Audrey was very young. Father and daughter are close and care for each other more than anything else. Audrey begged her dad to let her take a semester off, but he insisted that she keep moving forward in her young life. Now, she had to see him. He was getting weaker by the day.

Audrey's decision to go home, through no fault of her own, creates collateral damage that ripples through families and won't quickly be forgotten or repaired. TJ's novel moves at a good pace, and the clues of this mystery sent me in many different directions. There is a lot of empathy needed for the characters of this story. Living in a rural area isn't easy, and when people have a fixed opinion of you and your children, life can be a continuing nightmare.

I enjoyed the story, the characterizations, and the bravery of the women demonstrated through TJ's writing skill. I recommend this book if you can take in the predator/prey character of a man who should be trusted.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

As a lover of all suspenseful television shows and novels, The Current just isn't quite there. In the beginning, it's difficult to differentiate which characters to pay special attention to and which don't make frequent reappearances. With that said, about 250 pages in, the story picks up with twists and turns that I didn't see coming. Johnston frequently refers to his characters by only last name, only first name, or Mr./Mrs. Last Name, which makes it a bit more tricky for readers to step into this small town vibe he's created when the ways to refer to the residents isn't consistent. With this many characters brings just as many suspects on these two similar cases that happened more than five years apart. Are they connected? Was it just a fluke? The Current keeps you on your toes, but be patient in the beginning!

Lovely, thought-provoking, relevant and deeply moving. This is a harrowing story that manages to explore a difficult (and extremely) timely topic--the exploitation of girls and women--while offering a glimpse of people's innate humanity and their drive toward connection and community, In elegant and unadorned prose, Tim Johnston writes a tale of lives lost, sidetracked and threatened, in which misunderstandings and missed opportunities abound. It asks us to think deeply about our assumptions, and our tendency to form snap judgments in the desire for simple outcomes. It's a complex story, multi-layered and told from a number of different viewpoints, which grips the reader and doesn't let go to the very end. Highly atmospheric and immersive.

I loved this author's first book. However, I found this second one to be difficult to follow. It may have been the way it was formatted, I don't know. But I didn't find the story compelling at all. I was very disappointed.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of The Current. I enjoyed this book. I do agree with other reviewers that there were a lot of characters and plenty of past and present plot points to keep track of, but I did okay. The book felt like it twisted and turned and it kept me wondering where we were going to end up. I enjoyed the depiction of Audrey's dad (the sheriff) and the father who lost his daughter 10 years earlier. They were real in their grief and despair and in the end I wanted to see how it turned out for all the main characters.

Well I find myself thinking of The Current and it is like a force of something powerful that reminds me of sitting in high school English reading something that is supposed to be profound about mankind or nature or life or maybe all three but all I was thinking about having to work later and how long could this book be would it ever end and how could so many words that were supposed to mean something be so tired?

The Current reads just like that word salad.

It is trying to be deep but it's so busy filling in every space with words and thoughts that aren't half as clever as the words it wrap them in that it forgets things like character development and plot.

The Current is a meandering ride to nowhere.