The Grove

Spare and evocative as a cornfield in autumn, The Grove marks the arrival of a haunting, powerful new voice in contemporary fiction. John Rector writes with deceptive grace, spinning out irresistible prose with a dark pulse between every line. This is psychological suspense at its most seductive. I loved it.-Sean Doolittle, award-winning author of Dirt, Burn, Rain Dogs, The Cleanup, and Safer.--The last time farmer Dexter McCray went off his medication, someone wound up dead. So, after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, things look worryingly familiar. With no alibi and a creeping suspicion that he might indeed be guilty, Dexter decides to investigate the crime himself. He can’t tell anybody. Not his friend, the sheriff, who keeps offering to help him winch his tractor out of the ditch. Nor his estranged wife, whose love he’s desperate to win back. And certainly not the Tollivers, his redneck neighbors. Fortunately, Dexter’s not entirely alone. He has some help. In the shape of the dead girl herself. In This Gritty Noir Novel, John Rector Weaves An Intensely Sinister Tale. Dexter Mccray Is A Farmer With A Dark Past That Continues To Haunt Him. As A Man Struggling With Alcoholism, He's Used To Being Looked At With Pity And Suspicion In His Community. So, After Waking From A Blackout To Discover The Body Of A Teenage Girl In The Nearby Cottonwood Grove, He Can't Be Entirely Sure He's Innocent. With No Memory Of The Previous Night, He Sees No Choice But To Investigate The Crime Himself. Fortunately He's Not Alone. He Has Some Help ... In The Shape Of The Dead Girl Herself. In The Grove, Readers Are Treated To More Than A Warped And Imaginative Mystery. With Plot Twists On Every Page, Rector Breathes Life Into A Story That Pits Reality Against Hallucination, Truth Against Improbability. Is Dexter Motivated By Guilt Or Insanity, Reason Or Folly? And How Will The Young Victim Provide The Help He Desperately Needs? This Is A Novel About One Man Haunted By The Reality Of His Failed Life.