cover image REED'S PROMISE

REED'S PROMISE

John Clarkson, . . Forge, $25.95 (367pp) ISBN 978-0-312-87886-3

Writing a thriller on a small scale is harder than crafting a country-spanning tale of international intrigue, primarily because there's an inverse ratio between location and verisimilitude: the more international the setting, the lower the bar for realism. If the story unfolds in the reader's backyard, then it has to be anchored in reality—and there's reality in spades in this engrossing novel by Clarkson (New Lots). Bill Reed, a recently crippled ex-FBI agent with latent family guilt, intends to redeem himself through a renewed relationship with his retarded cousin, Johnny Boy Reed, who has been at the Ullmann Institute since he was a kid. Bill receives a distressed message from Johnny Boy, and after he is rebuffed by the sadistic director, Matthew Ullman, he drives to the institute in an upstate New York town where the sheriff is a paid lackey of the institute and thugs do his bidding. There's a money angle here somewhere, and Bill is just the right guy to find out what it is. He's a forensic accountant, someone who tracks illegal money back to its source, which is exactly what Ullmann and his wife, Madeleine, don't need, because there's money galore coming through the institute. As Bill engages in showdown after showdown with the institute staff, it becomes clear that the premise of this novel is in part an excuse for Clarkson to examine characters under stress and craft grueling scenes of physical effort. This engaging thriller is equipped with psychological depth and a solidly believable center. (Dec.)