4.5 Stars

Darryl Coombs wiped the dust off his pants, and left his hometown without looking back for the past ten years. His only regret was leaving his much younger sister behind.

And she's the only one who could make him come back. A call in the middle of the night has him leaving his girlfriend of several years and heading back to Kansas.

His beloved sister, Libby, has been arrested and charged with attempted murder. It was all caught on camera in front of 40 witnesses ... but she won't talk about it. Her lawyer is beside himself and she's going to spend a long time behind bars unless she speaks up about why.

Darryl is desperate to save his sister from prison, but first he must survive the descent into the rabbit hole of his past. And when he finds the reason why, he takes action that can only lead to a deadly outcome.

This is a riveting and moving with cleverly drawn characters that will remain unforgettable. Darryl is a sympathetic man, a man who has demons in his past. Secondary characters are as finely written as Darryl. The book is more mysterious than suspenseful. It's well-plotted and a real page turner.

The ending didn't stop with the resolution of Libby's crime. It continues on .....

Many thanks to the author / Fir Valley Press / Netgalley for the advanced digital copy of this gripping novel. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Exploring themes of dysfunctional homes and past trauma, B K Mayo takes an approach of present day combined with flashbacks to explore Darryl and his sister's past and present. This book definitely had my attention, but the ending seemed to come out of nowhere and to be very far-fetched.

I am giving this book a rating of 3 stars.

I received a digital version of this book from netgalley and Fir Valley Press in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

The Water Tower Club was an interesting look at how secrets and deceptions can affect people. I enjoyed the way the different events came together to connect the past to the present. Darryl finds out from his mother that his little sister has been arrested and is now in jail. He goes back to his home town to find out what has happened and to help her. He left his home town ten years ago and never looked back, escaping the traumatic events that occurred when he was younger. The only regret he has had since then was not being nearer to his sister. Most of the characters throughout the story have a connected past and knowledge of their youth. The story is about a small town and what goes on during the years. But there is also a dark sense that something different is now going on. Soon things will spiral out of control, and Darryl will be forced to face his past as he ends up in the middle of everything.

Overall, I would say that I enjoyed reading The Water Tower Club. It had enough of a mystery to keep me interested as well as several flashbacks to the narrator’s childhood that allowed me to slowly get to know him. The story was kind of slow and a bit frustrating in the middle. Additionally, I had issues with some of the language used. For example, a suicidal person was described as “some nutcase,” and I just think that’s awfully outdated language to be using in a book in 2019. There was also cheesy dialogue that wasn’t problematic, but laughable.
I feel that the story is a good idea but it wasn’t executed well.

Good story which kept me turning the pages. Thrilling plot full of twists and turns, would recommend to others.Ten years ago Darryl Coombs left the town of Grotin vowing never to return. And he doesn’t, that is until he receives a call from his mother telling him his young sister is in jail charged with attempted murder

What happene when you are afraid to go to your hometown, and they end up afraid of you? Nice light mystery with a character we will likely see agaim.

The Water Tower Club follows Darryl Coombs back to Grotin, the town of his childhood, and a past he'd hope to erase from memory. His younger sister Libby has been arrested on a charge of attempted murder. With Libby not talking, Darryl has to play amature private detective. His searches dredge up all his miserable memories of humiliation at the hands of Bobby Hobson, of the accidental death of a young boy thanks to a stupid challenge, of the crippling of a toddler by gunshot. Now there are new torments to fill Darryl's mind- why did Libby stab a Commissioner? What, if anything, does the Tolliver Estate have to do with the stabbing?

I fell in love with this book right away, staying up way past my bedtime reading. Darryl is easy for me to relate to, given his personality. I had a fair share if verbal abuse and emotional neglect growing up. Like Darryl, I felt that my opinions and desires, or even needs, were discounted, devalued. It took a 3000+ mile move, coast to coast, to begin being able to emerge from my shell. The only thing I didn't quite grok was the need for Charlotte's story. That's one part that didn't resonate with me. It felt a little unnecessary. That was just a small part , overall though.

The Water Tower Club is full of snappy prose that captures the imagination, playing upon the heartstrings of emotion as deftly as a virtuoso violinist, conjuring bittersweet nostalgia, heavy regret, flickering uncertainty. Darryl has a philosopher's soul, and his problems, worries, and fears are ones we can all relate to- past regrets, family pressures, the desire to bury our hurts and wounds, a longing to find who we really are. This is a book you're going to want to read!

***Many thanks to the Netgalley, the author and Fir Valley Press for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. SF Book Review.

A miserable childhood and many regrettable experiences suffered as a youth in small-town Grotin, Kansas, leaves young Darryl Coombs scarred. It's probably not a big surprise then, when soon as he graduates high school, he flees the town and seeks a new life as far south as his meager Greyhound ticket will take him. Having applied himself wholly in his new life, new state, and education, he has now become an accountant with a solid firm and enjoys the close companionship of his lady.

Unfortunately, ten years down the road Darryl is called back to help his beloved little sister after she inexplicably stabs one of his former classmates, now a city councilman. All those memories he'd worked so hard to crush and forget come flooding back and most in the little town do not help to squash the depressing atmosphere into which he's immediately immersed.

Continuing to dig, he finally gets enough of a story from his sister to piece together how the whole scenario came about and it's ugly. Far more horrid than he could have imagined, but he devises a way to ferret out the truth that will free his sister, Libby.

This well-plotted and fast-paced narrative follow a sympathetic protagonist line throughout the development of the plot. Darryl is a well developed sympathetic individual as are most of the support characters including Libby. But there can be no redemption for the morally bankrupt and this conclusion offers none.

I received this ebook from the publisher and NetGalley and appreciate the opportunity to read and review. This is a solid, page-turning novel with an obscured but scintillating message recommended for those who enjoy a different style of suspense and thought-provoking circumstances.

This book took me quite some time to manage to start, but once I began and really delved into the story, I found myself desperately wanting to know more and get to the end. It was a page turner, and left you with a lot of unanswered questions throughout that made you constantly want to know more. I'm an avid mystery reader and crime show watcher, so a lot of the secrets and questions were easy for me to sort out, but it didn't take away from how enjoyable the book was.

Also, as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, aspects of this book meant a lot to me and really hit home.

Another thing I really enjoyed were the authors word choices. The book was an easy read, but there were a lot of complex words along the way that made the read more interesting to me. Overall a good read, I wish I would've forced myself to read it right away.

This book is not bad, but is not the best I've read. The story is well written and starts with the issue straight away, in within the first 10 pages you already know the problem. I like books with good characters and plot but this book is character driven, and to be a thrillers is does a poor job with the suspense. I knew the resolution before the book ends and I found that all the back-story of the Darryl is interesting but it gives nothing to the story, at least for my taste. As mentioned before, the book is not bad but is not my cup of tea! Thank you Netgalley for giving the chance to read the book!

Darryl Coombs has to return to the small town he grew up to help her sister. He meet again with the small town prejudice, that he left behind. Nice story.
Thanks Netgalley for this copy.

Interesting story dealing with small town prejudice and rich men holding power over town. Intriguing characters that provide life to the little people and prove that justice can be had.

Thomas Wolfe famously proclaimed "You can't go home again." But Darryl Coombs, who fled his hometown of Grotin, Kansas many years before, find he has to do just that. His little sister sits in jail, accused of murder. Darryl returns to help her and finds himself embroiled with small town drama with big time consequences. Both Darryl and his sister are trapped by the past and the only way out is to confront painful memories from their past. Mayo is a powerful writer and delivers with this gritty, sorrowful story. It reminded me somewhat of Dennis Lehane's early novels (in tone, not character or plot). Very good read.

Ten years ago Darryl Coombs left the town of Grotin vowing never to return. And he doesn't, that is until he receives a call from his mother telling him his young sister is in jail charged with attempted murder.
Against everything he believes, he returns to see what if anything, he can do for his sister. He finds that nothing much has changed in the intervening years - the town and its inhabitants have just grown older.
His sister, Libby will not talk to him about why she stabbed a prominent member of the community and it is up to him to try to piece the story together, bumbling and stumbling from one place to the next,
What transpires is a horrendous tale of abuse and cover-up; immoral exchanges for promises made and a resultant murder.
This is a book that will keep you on the edge of your seat feeling for this bumbling protagonist who alone, succeeds in finding out the truth behind his sister's apparent attempt at murder.

Massively engaging thriller, the story kept me gripped and reading well into the night. Well written and will look forward to more from this author.

Good story which kept me turning the pages. Thrilling plot full of twists and turns, would recommend to others.

The Water Tower Club is a good story, with good plot zig zags. Darryl Coombs had a rough childhood growing up in a tiny town in Kansas. He moves away the day after he graduates from high school. He ends up in San Antonio, Texas and works hard to go to school and lands a good job in accounting.

Ten years later his younger sister is in jail for attempted murder and he feels he has to go back to help her. Returning is not easy for him – he must face many adversarial, nasty people from his past. In the end, he helps his sister, figures out the mystery of why she did what she did and learns to start letting the past go. The twist at the end was a little predictable, not the exact result, but I knew something weird was coming. I don’t want to ruin the end for anyone, so I will leave it at that. The book is entertaining and worth reading.

I started this book because I live in Kansas and the book was talking about a small town in Kansas. Turns out that town is a Fake but I do recognize towns mentioned.
Darrel Coombs is called Home to his Kansas Home from Texas where he escaped to after High School when his Baby sister Libby gets herself into big trouble. She is in jail . Darrel tries to get her out. He has lots of memory recalls from different people he runs into during his trip back to his Kansas home. not all good ones either.
This is a pretty good book . I will not go into much more detail so I do not give lots away. but its a good read.