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The Reservoir (2011)

by John Milliken Thompson(Favorite Author)

3.29 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1590514440 (ISBN13: 9781590514443)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Other Press

review 1: I wanted to read this book after hearing the author read the beginning pages at the National Book Festival in DC. I generally do not like mysteries. I am curious about novels that base themselves in fact and use a novelist's perogative to invent everything that the historian can't know. In this case, there was an awful lot of material that the historian had to work with and it was genuinely interesting. The mystery at the center of the story--the degree of Tommie's involvement/responsibility for Lillie's death--is never fully resolved but the twists and turns of his mind, feelings, rationalizations, memories, and character are given full realization by the author. Brother Will, his opposite and foil in many ways, devotes himself to saving the life of his remaining bro... morether, his third and youngest brother having died as young child largely due to his and Tommie's negligence. It is guilt and how the brothers deal with it that truly informs the novel.
review 2: Ever read a historical tidbit and wonder what REALLY happened? Thompson wrote this book after becoming interested in an actual murder case in Virginia in the 1880s. He took the information he could find, then extrapolated the story from that. He takes us from the scene of the crime back in time to when the characters first met, and then forward again to the police investigation and the trial. In the end, even with all of the information and the outcome of the trial known, it's hard to be sure what really happened on the night a young, pregnant woman died floating in the Richmond, Virginia, reservoir. But this is probably as good a guess as you're likely to get. less

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