The Quiet Streets of Winslow

Troy’s first novel since 1999’s From the Black Hills is a quiet, intelligent literary whodunit set in two small towns in Arizona. A crime and its aftermath is shown from three perspectives: those of high school student Travis Aspenall; his much older half-brother, Nate; and Sam Rush, the matter-of-fact, careful deputy sheriff who patrols an impossibly wide swath of this bleak, rugged terrain. The story opens in Black Canyon City, when Travis and his younger brother, Damien, find the body of Jody Farnell, a troubled young woman who had been fitfully employed as a waitress and loosely connected to Nate (he was in love with Jody; she didn’t return his affections). Troy slowly and methodically unfolds the story of Jody’s murder, as well as the stories of her three narrators and a large supporting cast. As in small towns everywhere, the locals all seem to know each other’s business, but at the same time, as Travis puts it, “There was always a way in which people in general were sort of strangers to each other.” At times the narrators sound overly insightful, but the prose has a poetic sensibility that allows the novel to transcend the mystery genre. Agent: Georges Borchardt, Georges Borchardt Literary Agency. (Feb.)