Thief River Falls

by Brian Freeman

Overview

Harrowing loss, psychological trauma, and a deadly mystery test the human will to survive in this electrifying novel from award-winning author Brian Freeman.

Lisa Power is a tortured ghost of her former self. The author of a bestselling thriller called Thief River Falls, named after her rural Minnesota hometown, Lisa is secluded in her remote house as she struggles with the loss of her entire family: a series of tragedies she calls the “Dark Star.”

Then a nameless runaway boy shows up at her door with a terrifying story: he’s just escaped death after witnessing a brutal murder—a crime the police want to cover up. Obsessed with the boy’s safety, Lisa resolves to expose this crime, but powerful men in Thief River Falls are desperate to get the boy back, and now they want her too.

Lisa and her young visitor have nowhere to go as the trap closes around them. Still under the strange, unforgiving threat of the Dark Star, Lisa must find a way to save them both, or they’ll become the victims of another shocking tragedy she can’t foresee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781542093385
Publisher:	Thomas & Mercer
Publication date:	02/01/2020
Pages:	318
Sales rank:	93,054
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Brian Freeman is an Amazon Charts bestselling author of psychological thrillers, including the Frost Easton and Jonathan Stride series. His books have been sold in forty-six countries and translated into twenty-two languages. His stand-alone thriller Spilled Blood was named Best Hardcover Novel in the International Thriller Writers Awards, and his novel The Burying Place was a finalist for the same honor. The Night Bird, the first book in the Frost Easton series, was one of the top twenty Kindle bestsellers of 2017. Brian is widely acclaimed for his vivid “you are there” settings, from San Francisco to the Midwest, and for his complex, engaging characters and twist-filled plots.

Brian lives in Minnesota with his wife, Marcia. For more information on the author and his books, visit http://bfreemanbooks.com.

Editorial Reviews

12/23/2019

Thriller writer Lisa Power, the heroine of this strong standalone from Thriller Award–winner Freeman (the Jonathan Stride series), hits the jackpot with her latest book, Thief River Falls, the success of which allows her to move to a house near her hometown of Thief River Falls, Minn. Then an amnesiac little boy appears one autumn night, claiming that he witnessed a hideous murder. He says he’s being chased by the killers, who include the local police and Denis Farrell, the most powerful man in town—who already was Lisa’s mortal enemy. Her attempts to flee with the boy are thwarted by bad weather, and they can’t hide because everyone in the area recognizes the famous author. Besides, all Lisa’s allies seem determined to betray her, as she strives to act as heroically as her novel’s lead character. Readers will admire the skillful way Freeman plays tricks with thriller conventions. Agent: Deborah Schneider: Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

An Amazon Best Book of the Month: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

“[In] this strong standalone from Thriller Award–winner Freeman (the Jonathan Stride series),…Readers will admire the skillful way Freeman plays tricks with thriller conventions.” —Publishers Weekly

“Brian Freeman’s new stand-alone psychological thriller, Thief River Falls, [is] a twisty story that keeps the reader off balance until the surprising conclusion. First you’ll read it, then you’ll go back to see how the heck he did it.” —Pioneer Press

“This page-turner has more twists than Duluth’s Skyline Parkway or even San Francisco’s Lombard Street. It’s a helluva journey, and it has an I’m-not-crying, Shutter Island-like shocker surprise at the end.” —Duluth News-Tribune

“A thrilling, nonstop adventure…” —The Real Book Spy

“Thief River Falls reads like a whirlwind and ends way too soon for readers like myself who wanted to remain glued to these pages. The finale is brilliantly crafted and even brought a sniffle to my nose. This is highly recommended for those who enjoy their psychological thrillers infused with plenty of smarts and non-stop action.” —Bookreporter

“Freeman does a masterful job creating a nightmare scenario of never-ending darkness, roads that go nowhere with bogeymen at every intersection. A disturbing yet compelling thriller.” —Booklist

“Smart, wickedly suspenseful and full of truly shocking twists, Thief River Falls is also a moving tale about family—and with a thriller writer at its center. How could I help but love it?” —Alison Gaylin, Edgar-winning author of Never Look Back

From the Publisher

Narrator January LaVoy does a masterful job of portraying Lisa Power, a writer of psychological thrillers. The plot revolves around a boy who mysteriously shows up at Lisa’s isolated home in rural Minnesota on a rainy night. His story parallels the plot of Power’s bestselling novel. LaVoy carries the listener down many paths, with truths revealed slowly and the heroine taking risky steps to uncover the boy’s history. Golden Voice LaVoy is among the star category of female narrators who can expertly perform male characters. This audiobook truly rests on the strength of her narration. A heads-up to listeners: The plot is relentlessly sad—there is no variety in its emotional tone. E.Q. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MAY 2020 - AudioFile

2019-11-25
After a runaway boy shows up at her home in rural Minnesota, thriller writer Lisa Power is pulled into a murder plot that is eerily similar to the one in her breakthrough bestseller.

The frightened boy, who is about 10 years old, is unable to say what he is running from because he can't remember anything, including his name. A former nurse, the now famous Lisa takes him in, naming him Purdue (it's from a French word for "lost," she explains). She also gave that name to the boy in her bestseller, in which bad guys bury him alive after he witnesses a killing. As bits and pieces of the real-life boy's memory return and the threat to him becomes clear, Lisa encounters cops who are not good and friends who are not trustworthy—including one who tells her not to make things hard on herself because "all they want is the boy." For Lisa, there seems to be no escape from the "Dark Star" she has been living under since two car accidents, a stroke, and a suicide claimed everyone in her family but her twin brother—who hasn't been heard from in years. Even if Lisa does give the runaway boy and the boy in the book the same name, she seems largely oblivious to the ties between her fiction and her reality. That's odd considering the pains Freeman (The Crooked Street, 2019, etc.) takes to link them via excerpts of Lisa's novel. His own plot is both shaky and stale, characterizations are not his strong suit, and he seems to have little understanding of how young boys speak.

A workmanlike thriller ruled by clichés and missed connections.

Kirkus Reviews