North of the Tension Line

by J.F. Riordan

Overview

Fiona Campbell is a newcomer to tiny Ephraim, Wisconsin. Populated with artists and summer tourists, Ephraim has just enough going on to satisfy her city tastes. But she is fascinated and repelled by the furthest tip of Door County peninsula, Washington Island, utterly removed from the hubbub of modern life. Fiona's visits there leave her refreshed in spirit, but convinced that only lunatics and hermits could survive a winter in its frigid isolation.   In a moment of weakness, Fiona is goaded into accepting a dare that she cannot survive the winter on the island in a decrepit, old house. Armed with some very fine single malt scotch and a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Fiona sets out to win the dare, and discovers that small town life is not nearly as dull as she had foreseen. Abandoning the things she has always thought important, she encounters the vicious politics of small town life, a ruthless neighbor, persistent animals, a haunted ferry captain, and the peculiar spiritual renewal of life north of the tension line.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780825308291
Publisher:	Beaufort Books, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/06/2016
Series:	North of the Tension Line , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	478
Sales rank:	203,439
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

J.F. Riordan was born in New Jersey and first moved to Michigan, then Wisconsin as a child. At the age of 14 she decided to become an opera singer, and was fortunate in the aftermath to have been able to sing. At 16, after two years of high school, she went to the University of New Mexico to study voice, continued her music studies in Chicago and Milwaukee, and ultimately became a professional singer. Homesick after years of travel, she came home to the Midwest, finished her college degree, and became certified to teach high school. She taught for three years in the inner city before taking a position as a program officer for a foundation. She lives in exile from Washington Island with her husband and two dogs. North of the Tension Line is her first novel.

Editorial Reviews

06/22/2015
A remote island in northern Lake Michigan provides an evocative setting for Riordan's clumsy but well-meaning debut novel about a young woman who settles "north of the tension line" on a whim. Freelance writer Fiona Campbell delights in the "pristine serenity" of picturesque Ephraim, Wisc., a time capsule from the 1850s, and decides to buy a rundown house on nearby Washington Island. Soon she's fixing the place up with the help of Elizabeth, an old college friend who just happens to run a gallery in Ephraim, while her spiteful neighbor Stella schemes to get rid of her. As Fiona vacillates between enjoying the isolation and feeling cut off, the author adds the story of Elizabeth's budding romance with a misanthropic coffee shop owner. While the landscape is lovely, Fiona and Elizabeth seem much older than their stated early 30s, and the ending is rushed, leaving both women dependent on others for their happiness in this quiet story of characters tethered by inertia. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

2015 Gold IPPY Award in Great Lakes-Best Regional Fiction — Independent Publisher Book Awards

From the Publisher

Riordan tells a story simply and with straightforward charm. In these pages the reader encounters people living their lives as Americans do—bumping into each other at the store, tending to their animals, going to church suppers, worrying about invisible rodents in the ceiling and scary noises in the woods, yearning for love in the subtle ways we do. It is life lived as it should be.

Riordan is also a great observer of human nature: Her characters are real people, totally human, totally believable. As I read her first book, I felt as if I knew Roger, the unapproachable coffee shop owner, Stella, the neighbor from hell, and other familiar characters. There is a special pleasure in meeting them again in a second book—like a reunion with old friends. Seeing their stories continue and their characters unfold makes for extraordinarily satisfying reading. Pali, the ferry captain, is developed in astonishing depth inGoats.

Part of what makes Riordan’s work so enjoyable is what it lacks: In her pages you will not find angst-ridden self-examination, emotional fulminations and ventilations, boring and predictable fleshy passions and their consequences. There is no breathtaking drama, life-threatening horror, or clash of ideologies.

The Human Life Review

2015 Gold IPPY Award in Great Lakes-Best Regional Fiction

Independent Publisher Book Awards

One of the qualities necessary for a successful novelist is the ability to deftly craft an engaging story populated by memorable characters and unexpected twists and turns to an ultimately satisfying conclusion. In "North of the Tension Line", author J.F. Rioradn amply demonstrates just such a talent. Fully engaging from beginning to end, "North of the Tension Line" is a terrific read and certain to be an enduringly popular addition to community library General Fiction collections.

The Midwest Book Review - Margaret Lane