Great novel, highly recommend for those who enjoy the genre. Will be recommending for immediate purchase.

Dark, moody, and compelling.

From the bestselling international acclaimed author, Randall Silvis comes another gripping tale of family, revenge, secrets, desperation, and the ties that bind—FIRST THE THUNDER. A powerful story of love and betrayal.

Silvis takes us to the Pennsylvania mining town (where he is from). You can feel the despair of this family. Their urgent need to right the wrong.

Harvey is the oldest, a truck driver for Jimmy Dean. Harvey is married to Jennalee and despises his brother-in-law, Kenny.

Two years younger, the middle brother Will is married to Laci, a photographer for the local newspaper and they have a daughter named Molly.

Will and Laci purchased a bar, and they live upstairs in a small cramped two-bedroom apartment. The business was not going well due to the economy and a major highway taking the business. The golf business did not turn out the way he planned.

Will and Laci did not want to move back to this town from West Virginia but the pull of his brothers brought them back and now Laci and Molly were trapped, and Will was too attached to his brothers. She is concerned. Molly would be headed off to college in four years and they needed money.

Laci could not live like this. She had an affair but knew she had to save her family before they were sinker further into depth and darkness by Will’s brothers. She has her own secrets.

Harvey was always a problem and seemed to be angry and bitter all the time. He typically went from job to job.

The younger brother Stevie works odd jobs as a handyman and helps out at the bar. After a childhood accident on the off everyone treats him like he was brain damaged. They try to protect him. The brothers are guilt-ridden.

Kenny Fulton, Jennalee’s brother, and Harvey do not get along. An old grudge is simmering. Harvey wanted rid of Kenny so badly he was willing to risk losing Jennalee. Will couldn't quite figure out this triangle his older brother was immersed in.

Laci wonders about this life she had married into and the brothers who shared secrets. She decides to take on extra work, photographing crime scenes to get an air conditioner for their hot apartment or as an escape from this life.

If you read Silvis’ The Indian, you will catch up with the vintage motorcycle. They were restoring it for three years and Harvey thought the old man wanted him to have it. He told him so. But he died. Kenny refuses to give it to him nor sell it to him.

Now there is nothing to prove this wish. Nothing on paper or none that he can locate. Was Kenny jealous of Harvey’s relationship with Kenny and Jennalee’s dad? Or is Harvey jealous of Jennalee’s relationship with her mother and brother? What is the source of continued conflict between the brothers-in-law?

From this point on, Harvey would not leave the topic alone. He was determined to get this motorcycle when he knew Kenny did not have passion for the bike. Harvey and Kenny soon are in a war over the bike.

Harvey begins to scheme and plan how to get this bike, obsessed. Of course, brings in his brothers to assist. However, things go wrong and the plan backfires. Will is caught in the middle with his brothers, Molly, and Laci.

Stevie would do anything for his brothers. The bond must never be broken.

Laci must get Will to sell the bar to get out of this town to have more opportunities for a better life, but soon she is caught up in this web of deception as well and the entire family secrets soon will be unraveled!

You can feel darkness lurking and a strong sense of foreboding. A tragedy occurs, and the secrets are revealed. Everyone is sucked in by the other's behavior. You feel the despair and the darkness and the yearning for a better life. But how far will they go to achieve them? There is a slow burning twist you do not anticipate as the suspense builds.

As I have stated many times, trust me, when you once read a Randall Silvis book, you will want to read and learn more. His writing is addictive, and he adds a new twist to literary suspense. You will fall in love with his inspiring lyrical "prose" and memorable characters. He possesses a rare talent of combining literary, suspense, mystery with a strong sense of place, and well-developed characters, who make you think and feel.

The author has a way of bringing out the darkness, humans in search of a better life, and due to greed, envy, desperation, revenge or other selfish motivations, they dig themselves further into a hole with dire consequences and there are no do-overs.

I first discovered the author when I read Two Days Gone Ryan DeMarco #1 (2017) and since then became immersed in this series: #2 Walking the Bones (2018) and #3 A Long Way Down (coming 6/4/2019). Each book is captivating and unique. Another good one, Only the Rain (2018).

Look for my interview with the author, coming June 4, 2019, to learn more about this gifted author and his third in the Ryan DeMarco mystery series A LONG WAY DOWN I look forward to reading more of his essays and earlier works.

If you have not read this author, get started! Highly recommend his books. An excellent storyteller, rich in character and emotion! His characters are authentic and relatable and as a reader, you are fully engaged in his vivid settings.

A special thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy.

For fans of Silvis' THE INDIAN.

#JDCMustReadBooks

The tale of three brothers in a hardscrabble Pennsylvania mining town. When one of the brothers is bamboozled in a deal over an old Indian motorcycle, he looks to his brothers to assist him in getting revenge. Of course, their revenge plans go off track and the novel takes a dark, sinister turn. Silvis is a literary novelist with a crime fiction bent, and this is a worthy entry in the genre. I enjoyed the ride.

First the Thunder
By Randall Silvis

4 stars.

An engaging murder mystery that’s hard to put down.

From the first page, Silvis sucks the reader in to a mystery that is hard to put down. Both characters and the plot are believable, and a reflection to real life. The questionable decisions the brothers make, that put them into these difficult situations, flow from realism.

Products of their run-down Pennsylvania mining town, three brothers grapple with their lives in decline. Harvey drives a delivery truck; Stevie works odd jobs; and Will is a struggling bar owner whose wife, Laci, is edging toward desperation when her boss offers her more money…for a price. Then, in this tight circle where prosperity is rare—and hope, even rarer—comes a breaking point in a simple but indefensible slight…

When Harvey gets shafted by his brother-in-law in a deal over a vintage Indian motorcycle, he enlists the help of Stevie and Will to set things right. But the revenge plan goes awry, and the three men stumble upon a shocking secret that, if revealed, would upend their lives.

As they’re crushed under the weight of a nightmarish truth and the damning evidence in their possession, it’s up to Laci to save her family from the coming storm the brothers have wrought. And no one is prepared for the fallout.

A well written and thought out mystery, that will have readers coming back for more.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy in return for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

#FirstTheThunder #NetGalley

Reviewed by Heath Henwood
www.books-reviewed.weebly.com

FIRST THE THUNDER
Randall Silvis
Thomas & Mercer
ISBN 978-1503905481
Trade Paperback
Thriller

Randall Silvis is an author’s author. Those who write for a living and those who aspire to could hardly do better than to study his significant body of work, which has been critically acclaimed and recognized throughout the world. He is not as well known commercially as he should be. There is no good reason for his name and work to be relatively unknown among readers of both genre and serious fiction. His straightforward storytelling style does not meander or wander yet he gently nudges the reader into the story which takes place off of the printed page. While there is occasional violence in his work (as there is in his latest novel, FIRST THE THUNDER), it is neither gratuitous nor does Silvis rely on it to move the story through otherwise transitory passages. He rather relies on sharp characterization in real-world settings to immerse his reader into a story that demands to be read.

That brings us to the afore-mentioned FIRST THE THUNDER, a slow-boiling yet fast-moving rustbelt thriller that doesn’t have a lot of moving parts and doesn’t need them. The basic thread of the story is provided by three brothers living in a small Pennsylvania town that has seen much better days. Steve, the youngest brother, scrabbles through life picking up unskilled jobs. He is regarded as somewhat mentally deficient and treated as such, due to an accident in his early teens, but is, in fact, more plagued by underachievement occasioned by low expectations rather than anything else. He is quite content to go through life working odd jobs by day and eating pizza at night. Will, the middle brother, owns a bar which he envisioned would provide him with a comfortable living with minimal effort. He is wrong on both counts. The bar barely covers its own expenses, forcing his wife, Laci, to support the family (including their teenage daughter) by working as a newspaper and police department photographer. Harvey, the oldest brother, runs a sales and delivery route for a sausage company and makes a good living while being married to Jennalee, the woman of his dreams. Harvey on paper should be the happiest of the three but is far from it. His brother-in-law Kelly used to be his best friend but a series of incidents, most of which Harvey will not discuss, upended their relationship at some time in the past. Harvey is ostensibly angry primarily over a vintage Indian motorcycle which Kelly is selling and which Harvey believes by rights to be his. A good first half of the book is devoted to setting the mood of this piece, and a wondrous first half it is, as Harvey’s anger grows and he draws his brothers into a vague plan of revenge. A plot is hatched and carried out, but the execution of it by happenstance reveals a longstanding secret, which in turn ripples through the small community where the brothers have lived for their entire lives. The cataclysmic results are by turns tragic and uplifting, as an unintentional sacrifice results in what is, for some of those involved, unexpected redemption.

FIRST THE THUNDER is an impressive work --- one of the year’s best --- by an author who never disappoints. Set aside a long evening and start reading. You won’t want to stop, even at the story’s end. Strongly recommended.


Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2018, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

Randall Silver, the award-winning author, is one of my favorite writers.

First The Thunder is very different than what Silvis generally writes and I'm so glad that he stepped away from his comfort zone and has penned this book.

Centered around 3 brothers in a small run-down mining town, one of the brothers is screwed over by his brother in law. What comes next is a journey down a path that they try to stop before secrets are uncovered and lives are ruined.

Silvis is a master storyteller and his narrative description is excellent. The setting for this novel is almost a metaphor and character unto itself and gives depth to this story of family, honor, secrets and truth. Highly recommended to all.

I was disappointed in the book First the Thunder. Maybe the characters are representative of some types, but I could not get into it, though I tried. I have really liked other books by Randall Silvis and was hoping for another good one, but alas, not this time, not for me.
3 brothers- dumb & dumber and the other one, have unhappy memories of childhood and seem to have never grown up. The use of "me and her" etc drove me nuts, though it was probably in character for these three. The dumb ideas they come up with for revenge were too much for me and I gave up 35% of the way into the book. There are so many good books out there that I so no reason to continue.
Thanks NetGalley for the chance to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

First the Thunder by Randall Silvis

Three brothers and family drama in a depressing story that includes cheating, murder, suicide and then trying to pick up the pieces ~ I never really got into the story and had trouble relating to any of the characters. I think I had hoped for something a bit different and though not a book that I tend to gravitate to see that some truly loved this realistic look into the lives of people wading through difficult times.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC – This is my honest review.

2-3 Stars

Good story which kept me turning the pages to the end. Would recommend to others, and was a very easy novel to read.

2.5
A story of three brothers who are struggling and trying to make sense of their lives. Times are tough and when one of the brothers (Harvey) feels cheated out of a motorcycle by his brother-in-law, he is so enraged that all he wants is revenge.

I really enjoyed this author's novel Only The Rain that was published in 2018 and I had high hopes for this one, but it wasn't a good fit for me. I do enjoy novels that focus on family dynamics, but in this case it was too distressing that the plot even seemed to be suffering from depression. The violence was uncomfortable for me and this was ultimately too dark.

He is no doubt a talented writer and this was a thought=provoking story, but it sadly didn't work for me. I would recommend his Ryan DeMarco series or his stand-alone Only The Rain.

I'm not sure I could recommend this one, but check out some of the more favorable reviews.

I absolutely love Silvis' Ryan DeMarco series perhaps because I also adore Ryan DeMarco as a character. I was certain that a novel by Silvis, rather than a thriller, would be equally as good especially considering that Silvis is an award winning writer - books, plays and more. Sadly, First the Thunder fell short of my expectations. 

Set in mining country Pennsylvania, this is the story of three brothers whose lives have not quite gone according to plan. Harvey drives a truck, Stevie does odd jobs here and there after he was in an accident that made him a bit "slow," and Will owns a bar that is struggling after a new highway came through on the other side of town. His wife, Laci, is a crime scene photographer who is struggling to keep her life together for the betterment of her daughter. It is, however, the Rust Belt and there is not a lot of hope to be found. The situation worsens when Harvey, believing he has been "slighted" by his brother-in-law, convinces his brothers to help him get revenge. Matters go from bad to worse for this trio and a secret, long buried, threatens them all. 

I really do like reading stories set in the new America - the nation with a southern region steeped in poverty and racism, a Rust Belt that is decaying and/or dying and overflowing with too much machismo and running rampant with drugs and a west that is slowly running out of water and heating up too fast for its people to combat the issue. This is America today and the authors who are addressing these issues should be commended for tackling ugly, depressing topics that no one really wants to think about much less read. But they do write about them and, generally, weave tales that are mesmerizing, if not utterly depressing and hopeless. 

Silvis captures all of those feelings and more. He nails the characterization of the white male whose pride is gone, whose dreams are shattered and who turn instead to being the testosterone laden bully that many of us have come to know far too well. So why did the book fall short for me? It was, simply put, too dark, too depressing and too full of idiotic men doing incredibly inane things just because they are men. When we, as women, have to live with this type of stupidity day in and day out, when it is the fabric of our country right now, reading more of it is a strain; finding any redeemable quality on which to grasp and resonate was simply asking too much. I'm sick to death of these people in real life and I was sick of them in this book too. I honestly did not care one whit what happened to these three brothers and, when that is the case for any book character, there really is no point reading. I don't expect happy endings, but I do expect to have some thread, regardless of how tenuous it may be, that will keep me involved. With First the Thunder, I never found that thread. For the record, I just finished Bone on Bone by Julia Keller that also is about the failing rust belt and mining towns gone bust. I highly recommend that book to those looking for books in this genre. 
*I received an advanced ebook from the publisher via Netgalley. A review was expected in return.

This book. This is why I read -- in hope of finding a story peopled with interesting, complex, believable characters, who are confronted with events that test them to their marrow. First the Thunder may not be a typical thriller, but the sense of dread intensified from very early in the book, as we follow Will, a bar owner in a declining town, his wife and daughter and his two brothers through a few fateful days in their unexceptional lives.

The complications of love -- between siblings, spouses, and parents and children -- are central to Randall Silvis' story. The characters' relationship to money (having it or not) is also paramount. The writing is spare yet lovely.

But back to that dread: we know that something chilling is ahead for Will's extended family. How horrifying it will be, and who will survive it -- Randall Silvis handled these elements so skillfully. I'm now on a search for the rest of his books.

I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley.

What happens when economic prosperity comes to a halt? That's the dilemma facing these brothers- Harvey, Stevie, and Will. They each have different pressures and are in different spots in their lives but they are each affected by a bad decision. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Dark and in many ways quite sad.

So while I thought this book was good it didn't get GOOD until the last 30% or so the beginning was a lot of background that while helpful wasn't necessary, there was a side 'plot' left unfinished involving laci and her boss that had nothing to do with what the book was about, a smaller 'plot' about Molly and a boy she liked that while it was kinda finished it had nothing to do with the book and the main plot itself. At first it was hard keeping all the characters and their relations straight but it was a good read, maybe not something I'd read a second time but definitely a good read.

First the Thunder is the first book I have read by Randall Silvis and I am glad I did. This thought provoking thrill was a good read centering around three brothers. I enjoyed the characters, the storyline and the unraveling of secrets throughout. I look forward to reading more by this author

I was excited to have the opportunity to obtain an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book on NetGalley.

FIRST THE THUNDER is the story of three brothers, who live in a town hit hard by economic downfall. Will, the middle brother, worked hard in the strip mines to save up to buy a bar so he could own his own business. A business that slowly sucks the money and joy out of his life. In order to make ends meet, his wife brings in extra cash by shooting crime scene photos. A job, which proves to be emotionally devastating. Harvey, the oldest, has a great job and adores his wife, but resents her constant need to spend most of her free time with her mother and brother. Stevie, the youngest, was never quite right after a childhood accident. He lives in a trailer and does odd jobs. The brothers work together to avenge a wrong. In the process, a secret is revealed and all of their lives are forever changed.

The book examines the deep bond and natural tension between siblings. Each brother has a different approach to life, yet similarities between them abound. Harvey is easily angered as is Will when he feels protective of his young daughter. There are glimpses of Stevie’s happy-go-lucky attitude in Will as he fantasizes about traveling the world with his family. All three men share a love of women.
Everyone has dreams, but must settle for whatever life brings. Reality relentlessly pummels the brothers. They go round after round, until the inevitable knockout punch comes.

The characters are authentic, and full of the blessings and curses of humanity. Like all of Silvis’s stories, FIRST THE THUNDER is full of lush prose, providing the perfect balance between a literary work and a thriller novel.

Great story about three brothers living in the small town they grew up in. The town is drying up and the brothers are each struggling with the dissatisfaction of their lives. Powerful and thought-provoking, this was another good book by Randall Silvas.

Unfortunately I was really disappointed with this book.
For starters it is extremely wordy, long chapters with rather long descriptive passages that go nowhere.
The blurb on the cover made the novel look like a gripping psycho-thriller with a revenge plot that set in motion a chain of terrible secrets. Sounds promising I guessed. However, I was hugely let down by tedious ramblings by the characters. I mean how many times do we need to be reminded of how stifling the weather is, or how dire Will's financial situation is, we get it.

I slogged till 60% of the book and nothing happened just more ramblings and too much talking inside the characters' heads. No surprises, or twists, that's when I started skipping whole chapters without losing anything.

Besides, worse than the never going anywhere plot, the three main male characters made me question how really grown up are they. Without spoiling anything the whole "revenge" plot was triggered by a laughable reason and some suppressed childhood resentments, that no sane mature adult could hold on for that long. Really those are supposed to be adult males but their way of thinking doesn't go beyond stupid little boys.

The other supposedly "big twist" that the "revenge plot" unraveled wasn't really that shocking since this rather gross twist was used more than once in other novels. The ending for me fell flat, and I was left puzzled as to what was the point of all this to begin with. Also, I got really tired from the shallow sexual fantasies reminiscent of male mentality. It also beats me as to why authors throw violence against animals into their plots. As an animal lover, I was angered by a senseless act of violence against a poor dog towards the end of the novel and the description of the scene made it worse for me. Please dear authors leave the poor things alone.

I hate to leave such a negative review but I was really disappointed by this novel and found nothing redeeming about it. Thanks for the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy of the novel for review.