Monday, August 23, 2021

{ Deer Season by Erin Flanagan - GIVEAWAY and Tour }


Publisher: NEBRASKA (September 1, 2021)
Paperback: 320 pages
 

It’s the opening weekend of deer season in Gunthrum, Nebraska, in 1985, and Alma Costagan’s intellectually disabled farmhand, Hal Bullard, has gone hunting with some of the locals, leaving her in a huff. That same weekend, a teenage girl goes missing, and Hal returns with a flimsy story about the blood in his truck and a dent near the headlight. When the situation escalates from that of a missing girl to something more sinister, Alma and her husband are forced to confront what Hal might be capable of, as rumors fly and townspeople see Hal’s violent past in a new light.

A drama about the complicated relationships connecting the residents of a small-town farming community, Deer Season explores troubling questions about how far people will go to safeguard the ones they love and what it means to be a family.

Purchase Links

University of Nebraska Press | Amazon | IndieBound

About Erin Flanagan

Erin Flanagan is a professor at Wright State University. She is the author of two short story collections, The Usual Mistakes (Nebraska, 2005) and It’s Not Going to Kill You, and Other Stories(Bison Books, 2013).

Connect with Erin

Website | Twitter

 

Review:
If you're looking for a good suspense story, this is it.  I wasn't sure if I would like it, you know I'm not a huge suspense or thriller/mystery genre kind of book reader, but it intrigued me.
 
The blurb on the book caught my attention, and I love a good crime story, hence my constant watching of crime videos and such on TV and Youtube.  
 
So deer season has just kicked off, and all the avid deer hunters are really excited to get going.  Alma's farmhand who is disabled, has gone off hunting with some of the locals.  Nothing wrong with that, except that while they are out hunting, news starts circulating about a missing teenage girl.
 
Once Hal, the farmhand, arrives back at the farm, Alma and her husband start finding his behavior a bit odd.  There seems to be blood on his truck and a peculiar dent that he can't seem to explain.  The couple does not want to think that Hal could have been involved in any way, but nothing he says makes sense and he isn't exactly helping his own situation by the way he keeps talking around the issue.
 
The girl goes from missing to possibly murdered and as always, the town locals turn their attention on the main suspect, which in their opinion is Hal.
 
Alma and her husband try very hard to defend their farmhand, but even they start wondering if there isn't something more sinister going on, and if Hal could in fact be responsible for the girl's disappearance, or even been present or know more than he is letting on.
 
The story moves a bit slow at first, but I didn't mind at all because Erin Flanagan does a really good job of developing each character and weaving a story of friendship, suspicion and mystery.
 
Great read!!!
 
Thank you TLC book tours and Nebraska, for providing me with a review copy. 

GIVEAWAY:
Contest is open to US residents.  I will draw a winner on this Friday the 27th.
 
Leave a comment down below and let me know if you enjoy mystery/suspense/thriller books.


5 comments:

Christy said...

I love them! The storyline sounds like some of my favorite detective shows!

Melissa said...

Sounds like a good read. 😀. Yes, I do enjoy some mystery/suspense.

Kimberly in NC said...

I do enjoy a good mystery! Especially if you can't guess the outcome! I love a good surprise! Have you read Kate Morton's The Secret Keeper? BIG twist at the end that REALLY surprised me! I also think you'd enjoy Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. It's a very good story with humor and mystery and an overall great read. One of my very favorites!

Lou said...

I love suspense! I lose sleep when reading because I have to know what happens.

Sara Strand said...

I'm excited to get into this one myself! Thank you for being on this tour. Sara @ TLC Book Tours