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Cypress Grove
Reviewed By Steve Nester "Like much of life, a murder investigation consists mainly of plodding along, circling back and waiting, considerably more cleric than high adventure." So opines Turner, the one name ex-detective in James Sallis? latest noir, Cypress Grove. Turner is a complicated fellow whose retreat from himself and society is interrupted by a small town sheriff who needs his help in a murder investigation. After serving his time for the accidental death of his partner and for a self-defense jailhouse killing, Turner buries himself in anonymity in a tiny hamlet in the Mississippi Delta. He talks to no-one and no-one talks to him. Turner has lost his trust of humanity. When the mysterious and hideous death of a drifter leaves the local constabulary stumped, Sheriff Lonnie Baker asks for assistance. Turner assents and, finding himself in the middle of the life he wanted to forget, begins a slow re-assimilation back into life. There are no heroics in the solving of this murder. Turner begins his return to the world by being introduced to the local townspeople as he investigates the crime. The narrative is interspersed with flashbacks showing how Turner came to become a psychically pained hermit. As the past is remembered, Turner moves on, reacquainting himself with the details that comprise life for plain speaking people in the workaday world. Told in the hushed tones of quiet observation, Cypress Grove carries a sustained mood of aloofness and disengagement. The book is a tone poem of redemption. In the end, Turner gets men: the murderer and a new chance at life for himself. |
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