Publishers Weekly
01/29/2024
In this accomplished debut mystery, Flaherty revitalizes the familiar trope of old secrets threatening to resurface with sinewy prose and well-tooled suspense. In the present, plans are underway to dredge Gibbs Pond in Macoun, Conn., after a yearslong silt buildup. Developer Lily Rowe, who’s leading the project, hopes it will increase property values in the area, but also fears new light may be shed on dark secrets from her family’s past. Her father, Abe Rowe, physically abused his wife and children, including Lily’s brother, Ray, whose resulting behavioral issues—including violence and classroom disobedience—led the neighborhood to label him a dangerous pariah. Abe and Ray both disappeared in 1993, not long after the death of Eli Casey, who once tried to intervene and protect Abe’s wife, Bonnie, from her husband’s violent outbursts. Casey’s sons, Cale and Ambrose, who knew Lily growing up, have concerns of their own about what violent secrets the dredging might expose, leading Cale to return to Connecticut from Hawaii so he can convene with Ambrose. The past and present unfold gradually from the vantage points of Flaherty’s well-drawn leads, keeping readers on a knife’s edge as the full scope of each character’s history clicks into place. Admirers of Eli Cranor’s Ozark Dogs will be riveted. Agent: Duvall Osteen, United Talent Agency. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
Flaherty writes with stealthy acuity, his prose seemingly simple yet full of coiled power. . . . Multiple hauntings emerge in 'The Dredge,' and you’ll be contemplating them after the last page.”—Sarah Weinman, The New York Times
"[The Dredge] is deep in characterization and entertaining in its narrative; it makes a very philosophical point about how well we are aware of those we consider ourselves close to and how time changes them." Toni V. Sweeney, New York Journal of Books
"Two brothers with a secret and a woman with a job to do (and traumas of her own to reckon with) converge at the site of a Connecticut pond scheduled to be dredged, in this powerful new novel. Flaherty deftly conjures up an atmosphere of dread and suspense, with all roads leading to the pond, and all concerns pointing toward what lies at its bottom. This is an assured, compulsively readable debut."—Dwyer Murphy, CrimeReads
“In this accomplished debut mystery, Flaherty revitalizes the familiar trope of old secrets threatening to resurface with sinewy prose and well-tooled suspense. . . .The past and present unfold gradually from the vantage points of Flaherty’s well-drawn leads, keeping readers on a knife’s edge as the full scope of each character’s history clicks into place. Admirers of Eli Cranor’s Ozark Dogs will be riveted.”—Publishers Weekly
"How these well-drawn traumatized characters and their secrets collide in the present day, permanently changing the course of their lives, is the theme of Flaherty’s beautifully written debut. His Connecticut is not the monied suburbia of Rick Moody and John Cheever, but a rural working-class community more reminiscent of Daniel Woodrell’s Ozark mountain towns . . . this sad novel about the corrosive effects of family trauma and pain will linger in readers’ minds."—First Clue Reviews
“The Dredge probes the conventional American myth: the past can be reformed and even suppressed so that one can turn a new page in the American Eden and become a new Adam or Eve. The intense story dramatizes how the past always shapes and determines the main characters’ quotidian existence and mental activities. An ambitious, splendid debut.”—Ha Jin, National Book Award winning author of Waiting
“It’s clear that Brendan Flaherty is not here to f*ck around. With his debut novel, The Dredge, he catapults us right away into dark family dysfunction with tight, athletic prose reminiscent of seasoned masters like Elmore Leonard and Harry Crews. This novel could’ve been twice as long, but this author knew to stick to the plan with not a wasted word. So, remember the name, Flaherty, folks. He’s here to stay.”—Brian Panowich, International Bestselling Author of Bull Mountain and Nothing But The Bones
Kirkus Reviews
2024-02-03
Estranged neighbors dig up childhood trauma in a New England town.
“For such a small town, it feels like we’ve had more tragedy than most,” says Joan Gindewin, a lifelong resident of Macoun, Connecticut. Indeed, the families portrayed in Flaherty’s debut novel are defined by misfortunes large and small, sudden and slow burning. The Rowes, for example, are known for their erratic behavior, inherited from an alcoholic father with a temper “like a river coming down on you”; quiet and sympathetic Lily Rowe is the exception to the family’s cycle of violence. The Casey boys, Cale and Ambrose, are haunted by a series of family accidents and disappearances stretching back to an infamous nor’easter before they were born. The novel bounces between these characters’ 1990s childhoods and the 2020s. Still in Macoun, Lily is a recluse, devoted to her work as a property developer. Cale is in Hawaii, a hotshot real estate agent with intimacy issues; “I’m afraid you have secrets,” says a girlfriend before they break up. Meanwhile, Ambrose, who runs a construction company in Macoun, feels he’s “been forced, stuck, to stay behind and protect” a secret that his brother fled so far to escape. The three characters’ property-adjacent professions highlight questions around ownership and change, especially as they each become embroiled in the fate of the muddy pond abutting their childhood homes. With so much history buried in its murk, what claim do they have for preserving or disturbing it? Although the stakes are weighty, Flaherty’s unadorned writing holds the drama at a remove. Childhood events are told haltingly but given great psychological significance, while characters are mostly left sketched. Readers might agree with Joan: “First, you don’t know people…then you do, then you realize you don’t.”
A plot-forward depiction of family history—and how it can haunt for life.
