One crazy ride.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A fiendish quest for revenge drives Gruley’s tense second thriller.” —Publishers Weekly
“Gruley has crafted a dark, complex novel with an equally complex and often empathetic villain. Perfect reading for cold, gray days.” —Booklist
“Any thriller in which the villain is motivated by the writings of Flannery O’Connor is not to be dismissed. And Purgatory Bay plugs neatly into the history of bureaucratic corruption, land schemes, dysfunctional families, and grudge matches Gruley has sketched out in previous efforts. The new novel beckons readers to come on in, even if the water’s not so fine.” —Chicago Tribune
“Gruley is a fine writer who flashes real talent at bringing his picturesque settings to life. A natural storyteller, his latest grabs readers early and pulls ’em in—and offers a few twists along the way.” —The Real Book Spy
“Jubilee Rathman is one of the most engrossing characters in recent memory.” —The Big Thrill
“An intense and powerful read. Very much worth your time.” —Kevin’s Corner Book Reviews
“An impressively original, deftly crafted, and thoroughly absorbing read from first page to last, Purgatory Bay is a compelling and highly recommended novel for community library Mystery/Suspense collections.” —Midwest Book Review
“Gruley combines the instincts of a journalist with the intuition of a novelist, skillfully contrasting the timeliness of technological advancements with the time-tested provocations for murder and martyrdom. This one is hard to put down—and even harder to forget.” —Criminal Element
“As always, Bryan Gruley’s characters are as complex as his plots—with no one being completely good or bad. It is the new character of Jubilee Rathman readers will find themselves drawn to—she’s multifaceted and fascinating, while never becoming a caricature.” —BOLO Books
“Bryan Gruley’s Purgatory Bay is a suspenseful and complex adventure filled with fascinating characters, including a cunning and vengeful villain who made my skin crawl. An exciting read with a satisfying ending!” —T.R. Ragan, New York Times bestselling author of the Lizzy Gardiner series
“Purgatory Bay is a knockout! Bryan Gruley has populated this eerie story with a cast of characters who range from menacing to heroic and together create a whirlwind of momentum that makes this one impossible to put down.” —#1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly
“A gripping contemporary story of revenge, with scenes accelerating like heartbeats from the grave to its emotional, pulse-pounding conclusion.” —Andrew Gross, New York Times bestselling author
“With the enigmatic skill of a guide returning to a place both mysterious and dangerous, Bryan Gruley invites readers back to the world he created in Bleak Harbor. Purgatory Bay is a complex, persecuting and captivating tale. Once again, Gruley creates a fascinatingly twisted family saga that braids the weight of guilt with the torment of grief and the glimmer of hope.” —Amber Cowie, author of Rapid Falls and Raven Lane
2019-10-14
Twelve years after a young woman's family is killed by the mob, she orchestrates an ambitious revenge plot in Gruley's (Bleak Harbor, 2018, etc.) action-packed novel.
Jubilee Rathman was just 17 when her parents and sister were murdered days after the Detroit Times ran a story implying that her father was a money launderer for the local mob. Former reporter Michaela "Mikey" Deming has carried the guilt for what happened to the Rathmans ever since. Twelve years after the hit, Jubilee lives behind protective walls on a private island in Purgatory Bay near Bleak Harbor, Michigan, where she has been remorselessly planning a complicated revenge scheme to punish all those she believes were involved in her family's deaths. Her mysterious partner, Caleb, has been trained to use a fleet of weaponized drones, and she's found a way to lure some of her targets to Bleak Harbor; Mikey and her family are coming to town for a hockey tournament. The night they arrive, Mikey's sister goes missing, and then someone kidnaps her daughter from the rink. The local police chief, Katya Malone, and investigator Gary Langreth must fight against the clock to save the Deming family—as well as the rest of the town—from Jubilee's wrath and to discover who was really responsible for the original tragedy. There's so much happening in this novel—every chapter situates us in a specific time, such as "Friday, 3:12 a.m.," and then there are flashbacks to explain the past as well—that it's easy to lose track of a few more resonant themes. Mikey's decision to take responsibility for her actions and stop being afraid is one of these, as is the power of compassion to combat violence. It takes a long time, though, for any of the characters to earn our sympathy because of all the driving action, so for most of the novel, there is little human depth or connection.
Give up all suspension of disbelief; this is one crazy ride.
