The Sorrow Hand

A Nick Drake Novel, Book 1

For Vietnam veteran turned wildlife ranger Nick Drake, the war at home proves just as deadly.

Harney County, Oregon, 1968: Nick Drake has a chest full of medals and enough demons to fill a duffel bag. He's been trained to kill but was never retrained to rejoin society. Drake flees to the lonesome high desert in search of redemption and takes a job patrolling wildlife refuges where the only conflicts are keeping out stray cows and ticketing poachers. But then he stumbles across a girl's body ritually placed in a gully.

Her murder is only the beginning, and Drake must face humanity's heart of darkness once again if he's to stop a killer from turning even more gullies into graves.

©2018 Dwight Holing (P)2019 Tantor

Great story poorly narrated

This first novel has all the elements I look for in a book. 1st, a solid lead character. Nick Drake is struggling to put the war behind him. His PTSD is fairly realistically portrayed. Flashbacks weave through the story and are momentarily confusing at times, but help the reader understand what the character is going through. He’s flawed and relatable. 2nd, a setting you feel immersed in. The high desert setting is well described with lots of small details that make it seem like a real place. 3rd, a good supporting cast. Jemma, Pudge and November are all well rounded and interesting. The mystery is not all that compelling but the story as a whole is still well worth a listen. The only negative for me was the Narrator. At times, several characters sounded so similar that it was hard to figure out who was talking. His reading of the story was fairly flat and he often sounded like a newscaster from the 1960s, so as the action built, his voice and manner stayed the same, taking away from the building suspense.

Wow, what a find!

This soulful, deep, honourable protagonist is worth knowing and spending time with. His respect and openness to other people’s ways of seeing, seeking, and knowing are key to his ability to act quickly to save lives.
This is the most compelling book I’ve read in ages, but I admit it is partly due to the fact that it mirrored so much of my own story as a teenage girl in 1968 frequently hitchhiking through Oregon on my way to and from San Francisco & Seattle. I too had close calls with predators, stayed at an ashram, knew the same movies, books and song lyrics as Nick Drake, and had male friends wounded spiritually by their experience in Vietnam.
The story would be exciting to those readers who do not share the era, though, as it is so gripping and well written. I intend to read more of this author.

Disappointed

There are a lot of people liking this, but, wow. I am pretty filled up with the 'woe is me'. C.J. Box, he isn't. Craig Johnson, he isn't. William Kent Krueger, he isn't.

Do not pass this book up!

I really enjoyed this first book in the Nick Drake series. The time setting for this series is the late ‘60s Vietnam era. Nick is a damaged veteran, recovering heroin addict. He’s been given a second chance and he can’t blow it. Either become a game warden in some out of the way county in Oregon and give up heroine for a year or go to a psych hospital indefinitely. Nick also suffers from PTSD and has flashbacks.
Shortly after beginning his new job Nick comes across the body of a young woman partially buried. Only days later another body is found. Other young people are going missing but is it foul play or are they draft dodgers? Worse yet, maybe a serial killer is at work in this remote neck of the woods.
Because of the time period there is no technology, there are radios and landlines. Star Trek was a new TV series and the BEATLES had just released their WHITE ALBUM.
There are some very likable and believable characters. The setting is vividly described and the plot is plausible.
Steve Marvel does an excellent job narrating.
This book has my HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.
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A great surprise.

Excellent story, great character development, and a perfect performance. Already bought the next three, right up there with Craig Johnson and William Kent Krueger.