Nothing More Dangerous

Allen Eskens delivers another heart felt, coming-of-age, mystery with deep characters and plotlines. A strong addition to any collection.

Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens is on sale 11.12.19 and I devoured it this weekend, thanks to an #arc from @netgalley and @mulhollandbooks

A well-written story of the summer of 1976 when a white teenage boy is awakened to the racial and social tensions in his small Missouri town.

This is going to be a fantastic story for college literature classes and book clubs to discuss!

Boady Sanden is a 15 year old boy stuck in Jessup, Missouri in 1976. He has been raised in a community infused with racism, much of which he doesn't even recognize. What he does recognize is that he is an outsider. Put into a private Catholic school after getting in trouble in public school, he has no friends until a prominent black family moves in across the street and the local KKK knock-off group wants him to spy and torment them. From here, Boady starts to see the problems that plague his small town. Add to this realization, a missing woman and missing money from the local factory that employees a majority of the town. I love how Mr. Eskens did not force the issue of racism (or homophobia) on the reader but gracefully presented it all through the lens of young Boady. Between this and the beautiful richly written characters, this book was a joy to read!

This book is so much more than you think it is when you begin reading! I want everyone to have the same experience I did while reading, so I will only say this: you get so much more than you think you will. You will continue thinking about the characters longer than what is expected. This book is a quiet 5-star read.

I wish I could give this 10 STARS. 🌟 Movie-Worthy. 🎬 (or better a TV series). The author hits a home run and checks ALL the boxes. Eskens is at the TOP of his game 🎯! More, please!

Stay tuned for my fascinating upcoming Elevator Ride Q&A with the bestselling Author coming Nov 12, 2019!

Did you know this book has been in the making for twenty-some years? Trust me; the timing is perfect and worth the wait! 😎 Character-driven! Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent novel will warm your heart and confirm Allen Eskens' place among our nation’s FINEST writers.

Brilliantly told, a stunning literary, mystery, suspense, historical fiction, and coming-of-age combo that will blow you away. His best yet! My Top Books of 2019. 📚🙌 If you read only one book this year, choose NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS!

Evocative! An emotionally resonating coming-of-age tale of discrimination, guilt, grief, and redemption.

I have read all of Allen Esken's books (a master storyteller) and trust me; you will fall in love with these characters (the good ones). Good and evil. You will shed a tear or two. If you loved his debut, you are assured to devour this one. It can be read as a standalone; however if you have the time go back and start with #1. You will love Thomas and Boady and their friendship.

The setting and time for the novel: 1976—Jessup, Missouri, a small rural town on Frog Hollow Road. As most small towns go, most residents want to escape for better things or a more fulfilled life. The town holds dark secrets. People tend to know everyone’s business. They can be narrow-minded and either pull you down with them or provide you the strength to press onward to strive for something broader.


In NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS, the author tackles some highly charged tough and emotional subjects. From injustice, white supremacy, prejudice, racism, murder, class, privilege, police corruption, politics, bullying, discrimination, friendship, family redemption, guilt, grief, self-discovery, plus more. A timely and compelling coming-of age-tale that could be ripped from today's headlines.


From fear, grief, loss, and tragedy. To love, faith, resilience, and redemption. At the heart of the novel is family and the ties that bind. Unforgettable characters that jump off the page. You are drawn into every scene with vivid descriptions and lyrical prose. This is a classic. Every teen and adult should read this book.


Follow 15-year-old Boady (we met in book #1, an attorney) and his new neighbor (same age) Thomas (African American). Their entire street is targeted. They become best friends and come face to face with bullies and white supremacy groups. Not only the sons are part of the organization, but their father and uncle are the leaders. It is a matter of survival.

Boady is forced to go up against bullies: Jarvis and the Boob Brothers—both at school and away from school. They seem to follow him wherever he goes. It is tough being a freshman at the Catholic private school, and a teen trying to escape their wrath. Angus, the cousin, seemed to be ok. But still, Thomas and Boady must even contend with Jarvis' horrible father and uncle. He and Thomas are targeted as well as others on their street.

An African woman goes missing years earlier. Lida Poe kept the books at the local plastics factory. They say she left town and embezzled thousands of dollars. However, is there something bigger at play and did someone murder her to take the fall?

Thomas's family moves across the street from Boady's family. His dad is the new boss at the factory. However, the bad white men at the factory do not like him meddling in the affairs since he may overturn their misdeeds. They want him out. Plus they do not Boady befriending Thomas and the black girl at school.

Boady and Thomas do some sleuthing on their own and begin uncovering things, but when they report it to the local Sherriff he brushes them off and covers his tracks. How far does the corruption go and who can they trust?

Everywhere they go they are followed and tortured. However, will the strength of family and neighbors and friends win in the end?

In the novel, the author explores a group called CORPS—Crusaders of Racial Purity and Strength. White supremacy has been depicted in music videos, feature films, documentaries, journal entries, and social media. It is front and center every day in the news. We see the destruction it can cause and the damage to our youth when parents, leaders, and elders recruit their followers.

What an incredible and poignant story! I could not put this book down. I adored the relationship between the two moms and the friendship between Boady and Thomas.

The best surprise, the mysterious next-door neighbor older man Hoke Gardner (LOVE) is more than he appears. (think Clint Eastwood -Walt neighbor in Gran Torino -2008 movie). A lot of parallels here.

NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS is rich in character and place. From the Dixon Pond, fishing, the old oak tree, the woods, and nature. They also provide metaphors and symbolism.

I can only hope we see a series (both book and TV series). NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS is a "This is US" TV series in the making. More Hoke letters and more Boady and Thomas, please!! ❤ A continuation from high school, college, their relationships, and beyond. I want to see where these families go. What a journey!

If you are a fan of William Kent Krueger's Ordinary Grace or This Tender Land; Tom Franklin's Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, John Grisham's The Guardians, Delia Owens's Where the Crawdads Sing, or Diane Chamberlain's Necessary Lies and authors: Dennis Lehane, Randall Silvis, Tim Johnston, and Thomas Mullen —this book is for you!

Order it NOW and move to the top of your list!

My Reviews: (see blog)

The Life We Bury (Joe Talbert, #1; Max Rupert, #1) Top Books of 2014

The Shadows We Hide (Joe Talbert, #2) Top Books of 2018

The Guise of Another (Detective Max Rupert, #2)

The Heavens May Fall (Detective Max Rupert #3)

The Deep Dark Descending (Detective Max Rupert, #4)

Nothing More Dangerous Top Books of 2019

PS It appears we get more Lila next! "Likely" sounds good enough for me. She deserves a book of her own, right? From Allen's website: Lila Nash—a supporting character in novels 1, 3 and 5, will likely be the protagonist of novel number 7.
A special thank you to Little Brown & Co and Mulholland Books for a print ARC and Netgalley for digital.



#JDCMustReadBooks

Topping my TO READ list is Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens. Just from the description, I knew I’d love this novel. It has everything I like in a book from sympathetic characters to a rural setting, a coming-of-age story, plus the book takes place in 1976 so it has a nice historical fiction element to it.

Here’s what you need to know:

After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn’t being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him.

Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady’s life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins—a black family settling into a community where notions of “us” and “them” carry the weight of history—forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he’s taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who carries the wounds of a mysterious past that he holds close, the quiet boss who is fighting his own hidden battle.

But the biggest secret of all is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. Although Boady has never met the missing woman, he discovers that the threads of her life are woven into the deepest fabric of his world.

As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town—and he will be forced to choose sides.

The author, Allen Eskens, is so talented. His novel, The Life We Bury received over six thousand positive reviews and this one is bound to receive just as many, if not more.

This one is due out on November 12, order it now.

Nothing More Dangerous


A haunting yet deeply moving coming-of-age story swirled in prejudice, guilt and grief.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
Boady Sanden is a freshman at St. Ignatius High School in Jessup, Missouri. For the most part Boady is invisible, that is until he became a target of bullies, because he stuck up for an African-American girl in his class. When he is not at school or at work Boady loves to escape in the woods near his home on Frog Hollow Road fishing and exploring. Boady has no real friends, until Thomas Elgin and his family move in across the road and his life is changed forever. Boady soon come to realize the stark lines of race and class that divide his community and he is force to choose sides.


REVIEW
NOTHING MORE DANGEROUS is part murder mystery, part coming-of-age story swirled in prejudice, guilt, grief and self-discovery in the mid 1970’s. The story is haunting yet deeply moving. It’s a perfect blend of characters, setting and story.

The main characters were delightful and totally drive the narrative. You will fall in love with Boady and want to protect him, you will cheer when his friendship with Thomas develops, you will wonder about his elusive next door neighbor Hoke, and you will despise the bully’s that taunt him.

My favorite part was when Boady and Thomas dropped through a pine tree. Not exactly sure exactly how that worked but that exhilarating escapade should come with a warning—folks do not try this at home!

This is the third Allen Eskens book I have read and they have all been wonderfully descriptive and fabulously written. Eskens is the best-selling author of six novels including The Shadows We Hide (2018) and The Life We Bury, (2014) which is being developed into a feature film. Eskens lives in Joely, Minnesota where he has practiced criminal defense law for 25 years

Thanks to Netgalley for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.


Publisher Mulholland Books
Published November 12, 2019
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

In Nothing More Dangerous, Allen Eskens explores the racial tensions that exist in the Ozark Hills of Mississippi during the summer of 1976 through the lens of Boady Sanden, a 15 year old white teen with plenty of problems of his own when a black woman disappears and is accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from the manufacturing company she works for, which also happens to be the largest employer in the small town of Jessup. Through some odd twists of fate Boady becomes far more involved in the woman's disappearance than he ever would have bargained for.

First off, this book is compulsively readable - I finished it in less than 24 hours. The beginning of the novel almost reads like any young adult coming of age story, until the plot starts to thicken and the reader finds themselves immersed in a very adult thriller. Eskens develops some great characters - Boady is an incredibly believable 15 year old boy; even the "bullies" are fully explored and complex characters.

My favorite thing about his novel is the way the author approaches race. Eskens, a white man, acknowledges in his author's note at the beginning that he began this novel to reckon with his own misconceptions on racial issues. You can see this reckoning through Boady, who, while not overtly racist, does carry with him much of the discriminatory rhetoric common at the time. Eskens does not rely on the black characters in this novel to educate Boady's ignorance, but rather his white neighbor Hoke, who carries much of the morality for the entire novel. The Black characters in the novel exist on an equal plane and are as richly drawn as every other character.

This novel thoroughly entertained me... it made me laugh, it made me cry, and most importantly, it made me think.

This book was magical. I give it a big 5 stars any day. This book was the epitome of coming of age meets mystery meets small town south. I loved the main character, Boady, so much. I laughed, I cried, I hurt. What was so masterful about this work to me was the way that I felt for all the characters. Coming from small town Mississippi, I understood a lot about the setting of this book in small town Missouri. The things that happened through the course of the story had you moved but also made you ponder about this time period in our history. How hard it was and still is for some people. I just love a book that makes you feel. The setting was perfect. The diction was phenomenal. I can't rave about this book enough. I will be picking up more of Eskens work for sure. 5 BIG FAT STARS.

A mystery tale that pulls the heart strings with a great bond of friendship with two young men amidst a fierce pull of injustice and murder.

There will be problem solving and things that make the heart move with this fine small town poignant mystery with at its core people in a web of good and evil.

There is a life buried within the story with the likable and memorable character Hoke, Boady, our young main protagonist of fifteen years of age, is set upon on a task in finding answers.

With all the injustice and crime, matters smouldering in Boady’s chest he is on the path to finding courage and some things just worth fighting for.

Lucid and clear storytelling using right technique and revealing to have you captivated.

Fine memorable characters with Hoke, Boady, and Thomas, ones forged and crafted in this tale, to be quoted and remembered by readers for many to years to come.

This was my first book by Allen Eskens and I was blown away! Wow, what an emotional book with so much depth and a many serious topics (racism, bullying, hate crimes, assault, death, grief). This is a coming of age story set at a time when racism was at it's peak! I loved the main character Boady and felt SO sad for the things he went through. But through it all, he was a strong character. He was such an endearing boy, and I loved the relationship he had with his neighbor Hoke, and I loved watching his friendship with Thomas build. The mystery, the suspense, I loved it all!! This book really just pulled at my heartstrings! This book is most definitely one of my favorites of 2019! Pick this book up, you will not be sorry! I can't wait to read more by Allen Eskens!! I love his writing!!

“…sometimes when you look down at the surface of a pond, all you can see is your own reflection, not the depth of what’s on the other side.”

– Hoke Gardner, Nothing More Dangerous

The diversity movement in crime fiction over the last year has largely focused on #OwnVoices which makes sense since the community is justifiably wanting – demanding – to hear from the under-represented minorities in our midst, but it can be just as important to recognize the contributions from the current crop of published authors who strive to be more inclusive in their own narratives. Nothing More Dangerous, the new stand-alone from Allen Eskens is a fine example, one in which the author uses his vantage point as a straight, white man to illustrate how a young, white boy in the south must navigate what he has been taught about people who are different from himself (in terms of race, class, sexual orientation, et al.) and reconcile that with what he himself observes within the real world. Needless to say, this young boy is in for a rude awakening, but Allen Eskens presents it in a way that feels authentic to this boy’s story without minimizing the truths of those groups this boy previously misunderstood.

It is 1976 and the boy at the heart of Nothing More Dangerous is Boady Sanden, a fifteen-year-old living in Jessup, Missouri and attending his first semester at St. Ignatius High School. Boady’s dad has died and Boady’s mom works at the local factory, where Boady also picks up a few hours of labor after school in an effort to save enough money to escape this small town as soon as possible. But when the large, long-vacant, house on his street finally gets new residents, Boady’s life is turned upside-down. The affluent, African-American Elgin family is relocating to Jessup because Charles Elgin – the patriarch – has been hired as the new foreman at the Ryke factory. Along with his wife, Charles brings along his son Thomas, who is about the same age as Boady. Although their first meetings are tense and the two boys struggle to relate to each other, both Boady and Thomas forge ahead with friendship despite the distrust of many of the town’s citizens.

Like many Midwestern/Southern small towns in the 1970’s (hell, even today), this town of Jessup has a large population that aspires to white supremacy. Allen Eskens creates a group called the CORPS – Crusaders of Racial Purity and Strength – that works around the fringes of society to make sure their ignorant views are acted upon in an effort to maintain the control they have wielded for generations. Those beliefs are about to come into direct contradiction to the truth that Boady begins to understand – things he learns as he gets to know his neighbors, both old and new; his family and few friends; and most importantly himself.

Nothing More Dangerous is many things, but at the core it is a coming-of-age story about a boy who refuses to settle for the status quo when he realizes that inequality has existed for far too long. Woven around that are several extremely well-developed mysteries: what happened to Hoke Gardner that left him scarred both physically and mentally; what is Hoke Gardner documenting in all those journals he writes in everyday; why did Lida Poe, the African-American bookkeeper run off with thousands of dollars; why has Boady’s mother turned inward when faced with widowhood; whose body was discovered near the CORPS meeting hall, and more importantly, who is responsible for that murder? Allen Eskens addresses all of this in beautifully-crafted prose that unspools like the finest gossamer weaving webs of secrets, deceit, hate, and retribution alongside unforgettable moments of tenderness, understanding, and acceptance. The multiple mysteries within the text bring Boady and Thomas closer, turning them into a pair of mixed race Hardy Boys, intent on finding the answers even as they place themselves at greater and greater risk.

Nothing More Dangerous is told in hindsight, so readers are presented with Boady’s recollections of that summer. Fans of Allen Eskens may remember that Boady Sanden appears in a more minor capacity in some of Eskens’ earlier novels. It is nice to see how this future attorney came by his moral compass. In a forward to this novel, Allen Eskens tells readers that he has struggled to write it for decades and it is clear that this was a author who was aware of the potential risks in telling such a story, but who also recognized the value in its being told – and told correctly. There were many places within Nothing More Dangerous where things could have gotten derailed, but thankfully they never do. Mr. Eskens should be commended for taking this chance and for allows both his characters and the reader to dawn their own conclusions organically without any type of forced judgment. Well done indeed!