Jan 13, 2019 6 min read

Flawed people and a forceful look at an area ravaged by an economic downturn and a rising opioid epidemic meld in the character-driven “Sugar Run,” Mesha Maren’s novel debut.

At 35, Jodi McCarty is getting her first taste of freedom when she’s released from prison after being convicted at 17 for shooting her girlfriend, Paula Dulett. Before Paula, the only person who had been kind to Jodi was her grandmother, Effie. The aimless cross-country trek, including a dip into Mexico with Paula, was the closest to happiness Jodi had known, savoring the “delicious, unfamiliar risk” of each day. The couple supported themselves with petty crimes and Paula’s skills as a poker player. Paula’s intoxicating talks about how a good poker hand is a “sweet sugar run” has Jodi remembering her West Virginia home, and how she wants to return to the landscape of “flashing mountain creeks that appear out of nowhere after a good rain.”

The relationship with Paula – and its violent end – preys on Jodi’s mind as she begins her new life, hoping she can fulfill her dream of settling on the land once owned by her grandmother. Then Jodi meets and falls for Miranda Matheson Golden, who is separated from her husband, a country music star “of receding fame.” Along with Miranda’s three sons, the new couple heads for West Virginia, where Jodi remembers “even the air around her had felt right.” Along the way, Jodi hopes to find Paula’s younger brother, Ricky, who was abused as a child.

“Sugar Run” gains its strength from Maren’s uncompromising storytelling and her insistence on showing even the most painful realities, especially when Jodi finds her grandmother’s land “ripe with disuse.”

Maren seamlessly moves “Sugar Run” from 1988 as she describes the deteriorating romance between Jodi and Paula and the present as the newly released Jodi, who always considered herself a victim and is now desperately trying to make better choices with her life and her heart. Jodi is constantly weighed down by her past, and her future with the complicated and unstable Miranda.

Jodi fears her grandmother was correct -“the future was only a parallel of the past.” Jodi’s salvation will be if she can rise against her past.

‘The Widows:

a Novel’

The atmosphere of an old-fashioned Western permeates this intriguing debut that mixes workers’ rights, corruption, Prohibition and women’s rights set in the harshly stark Appalachian Ohio coal-mining country during 1925.

Beautifully plotted and filled with believable characters, “The Widows” explores an era and an area struggling to be a part of the modern 20th century, yet constantly pulled backward to its unsettled past. Jess Montgomery, executive director of the Antioch Writers’ Workshop, draws on actual historical incidents that richly explore the people behind events in the launch of this series that shows much potential.

“The Widows” are Lily Ross, married to Bronwyn County Sheriff Daniel Ross and pregnant with her third child, and Marvena Whitcomb, a moonshiner and union organizer whose common-law husband John was killed trying to rescue trapped miners.

On the surface, the two women have nothing in common, but a connection is revealed after Daniel is killed when escorting a prisoner who was a miner. The women meet when Marvena, trying to find Daniel and unaware of the situation, shows up at his funeral to ask if Daniel has found her wayward daughter, Eula, or her brother, Tom. Reluctantly, Lily and Marvena begin an uneasy alliance, spurred on by their mutual grief over Daniel.

Both women prove their strength and intelligence and that they are capable of standing up to men who routinely dismiss women. Marvena’s union activism has long set her apart. But Lily, appointed acting sheriff by men who think they can manage her, shows her mettle by taking her new position very seriously. This often puts her at odds with Daniel’s nasty half brother, Luther, and the Pinkertons he hired to control, with violence if necessary, the mine workers.

Montgomery skillfully explores the residents whose lives are ruled by the coal corporation that keeps them bound to their dangerous jobs and in poverty because of the high rent of the company-owned housing and rules about using the company store for all supplies. Many of the coal miners were World War I veterans, returning home only to find few opportunities and a home-grown war between the miners and the coal company. Lily and Marvena are just two of the widows who have lost their husbands to the mines, violence or disease; there’s a reason why one mine is nicknamed The Widowmaker. “The Widows” also shows how class differences influence how the residents deal with each other – manifested in Lily, who came from a well-off family, and Marvena, whose family was poor – and how this is overcome.

Lily is based on the life of Maude Collins, Ohio’s first female sheriff. While Marvena is based on activist Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, though Montgomery takes a more fictional approach with that character.

Montgomery’s storytelling skills and historical research in “The Widows” make this new series one to look forward to.

‘Hunt Them Down’

Pierce Hunt has returned from a six-month forced leave after a reporter is injured during a bust even though it’s not Hunt’s fault.

On his first day back, he’s assigned to assist the transfer of a high-profile drug cartel target named Vicente Garcia. It’s personal for Hunt since he’s responsible for bringing Garcia to justice at the cost of his marriage. He also fell in love with Garcia’s daughter. When the convoy is ambushed, Hunt barely survives. Then he learns that the people responsible are not only attempting to take over the lucrative drug business, they have also kidnapped Garcia’s granddaughter and a friend of hers who happens to be Hunt’s daughter.

The new head of the cartel could not be more ruthless, and if it means killing the girls to have her demands met, so be it. Hunt has to not only work with Garcia’s daughter, the woman he tried to forget and who loathes him after his betrayal, he also has to work against the very principles he swore to uphold.

In “Hunt Them Down,” Gervais has crafted an intelligent and thoughtful thriller that mixes family dynamics with explosive action. Heroes who fight impossible odds while being likable characters are always welcome in the world of genre fiction. The possibilities are endless in this new series, and this will easily find an enthusiastic audience craving Hunt’s next adventures.