In this excellent debut novel, hockey is a metaphor for life, so if you hate hockey and all the violence that skates along with it, this book may not be for you. That would be your loss, however, because this ice-bound tale of a failed hockey player turned failed journalist makes for unusually gripping reading. Set in 1998, Gus "Trap" Carpenter has scuttled back to the small northern Michigan town of his birth to edit a small newspaper that never prints anything negative about the locals. Trap's self-loathing increases when a snowmobile once belonging to his revered but long-dead hockey coach surfaces from a lake bed, bearing the unmistakable imprint of a bullet. He suspects that his coach was murdered, and not the victim of an accident, as was originally believed. But Trap, reluctant as usual to print the ugly truth, busies himself with harmless articles about a local Bigfoot museum and a proposed recreational development near the town's marina. Eventually, though, the once-gutsy journalist in him reemerges, and he risks what's left of his career to find out the truth.
Watching Trap get his spine back, both on and off the ice, is sheer joy. By the end of Starvation Lake, Trap has learned that life--just like hockey--may beat you up, but you continue to play.
"For me, the books I read were the call—the call to adventure, to thinking, to acknowledging other points of view. But to complete the ritual, I needed to respond."
I am surrounded by books. Every room, every space in my large, sprawling 1750s house is full of books...
Our history and experiences can define us, inspire our actions, and as writers impact our words and stories. Mine most definitely has: my father was a small-time gangster. Really.
"My ah-ha moment came when I read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.... That was it for me – I was off to the races."
Nietzsche once wrote, “There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.”
"Mystery books were daring and exciting, firing up my imagination and making me yearn to become a girl detective or even a secret agent. They also empowered me to make up impromptu ghost stories around the campfire for my Girl Scout troop and sneak into the cemetery at night on a dare."
Fire and Ashes, the latest Angela Richman Death Investigator mystery, is an exploration of a fatal fire. To research this novel, Viets delved into the devastating consequences of junk science and arson investigations.
