The Bramble and the Rose

Henry Farrell #3

by Tom Bouman

When Henry Farrell took a job policing Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, he was recently widowed and still trying to find his feet.His first big cases put Officer Farrell face to face with Wild Thyme's encroaching demons. Now, he's got the lay of the land and he's newly married to a local girl.

Then a body - headless and half eaten by a bear - is discovered in the woods. With the help of a local biologist, Henry tracks the bear, hoping to catch him before any more lives are lost, but when his nephew disappears into the same woods they realise they may be facing a far bigger and more sinister threat.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Mystery Thriller, Crime

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 10, 2020

About the author

Tom Bouman’s first Henry Farrell novel, Dry Bones in the Valley, won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He lives in upstate New York.

Reviews

[Tina Loves To Read · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a thriller, and this is the 3rd book in the Henry Farrell series. I love the first little bit, but then their was a weird flashback about his wedding. I have to say I was very lost during some of this book. I really wanted to loved this book, but that was not what happen. I won an ARC of this book from this book from goodreads giveaway. (*)

[Athena (OneReadingNurse) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bramble and the Rose is a mystery/thriller set in rural PA. Officer Farrell is on the case and at first it seems like a bear attack occurred, or was it a brutal murder?

I really enjoyed the plot and mystery, it was interesting to see the small town ties and history tie into a larger national picture. There were plenty of facets and side stories including troubled families, strained marriages, a kidnapping, and more.

I liked the characters too. At first I didn't realize that this is the third in a series, but it reads perfectly well as a standalone. I am interested in the first two to have a little more background in the characters. Henry Farrell is embracing many changes in his life in this book and seems to be settling into the married life. I liked his father and the Stiobhard family as well as the lawyer, and his llamas. The side characters are great additions.

Lastly I think the setting is also really well done. Bouman does a great job describing the most rural backwoods haunts, abandoned farms and forests. Wild Thyme seems like it could be any small town in the area, which I thought was cool since I spent a little time in NE PA and can relate to the layout of the area.

I would totally recommend this for fans of murder mysteries, small town law enforcement, and thrillers in general.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bramble and the Rose (great title) starts out strong with a gruesome discovery in the woods and the initial scene of the investigation. To all appearances a man has been attacked, mutilated, and killed by a bear. Once the investigation gets going things become much more complex.

The plot quickly devolves into a confused flashback to a recent wedding that introduces too many characters who are little more than a jumble of names thrown out in quick succession. I was eventually able to sort out exactly who was who as the story progressed but there were several important characters that never really "came to life" in any significant way. I spent the first half of the book trying to play catch up.

That plus several long stretches of stream-of-consciousness narrative that reduced everything to a snail's pace had me seriously thinking about not finishing. Then around the halfway point the story focused more on what was actually going on, some decent plot twists dropped into the mix, and my interest was renewed.

I suspect those who have read the earlier books in this series (I have not) will enjoy this book much more than I did.

For me it was just okay. The Bramble and the Rose doesn't make me want to search for other books in the Henry Farrell series but if I just happened to pick one up I'd probably read it.

***Thanks to NetGalley, author Tom Bouman, and W. W. Norton & Company for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

After struggling a bit with my last read, I really looked forward to this new Tom Bouman book and was not disappointed. This is the third book in a series and the unique voice and complicated character of Henry Farrell continues to interest me. The story is set in the vividly described Southern Tier area of the NY/Pennsylvania border and has a satisfying plot involving lies, bears, family difficulties and a murder or two. I enjoy rural crime tales and settings so this was a good fit for my reading preferences.

[Amy Pickett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to snag an advance copy of Dry Bones in the Valley at a conference a few years ago, and I’ve been a fan of the series ever since! The first installment is still my favorite, but Tom Bouman’s latest is a great read for anyone who enjoys rural crime novels. And for anyone playing Amy’s Book Bingo along with me, we have our small mountain town in Pennsylvania, a potentially man-killing bear, and one of my all-time favorite plot points: the use of a motion activated game camera to solve a crime. I definitely recommend reading this series in order to track all of the characters and how they are connected. I’m already looking forward to the next one!

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE is a dark, blinding joy to read. Author Tom Bouman writes neither long nor frequently; when he does, he makes every sentence --- every word --- count. This newly published work, the third entry in his series, is impossible to put down when you start reading it and impossible to forget when you are finished.

Henry Farrell is a police force of one in Wild Thyme Township, a blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet tucked into the Endless Mountains of northeast Pennsylvania. It is the type of place where police jurisdictions shift among Farrell’s patch, the Holebrook County sheriff’s department, the Pennsylvania State Patrol, and the occasional quasi-administration of a state agency. All come into play with the grisly discovery of a headless body on some acreage near the shared border of two properties whose owners maintain an uneasy peace. The corpse has been mauled by a bear, and it is eventually determined that the creature happened upon this unfortunate individual post mortem.

The victim is Carl Dentry, a licensed private investigator. The reason for his presence in the back end of nowhere, along with the identity of his client, is unknown. Farrell concludes, not unreasonably, that the answers to those questions will lead him to Dentry’s killer.

As one might expect, Farrell has a life outside of law enforcement, and Bouman’s delicate and elaborate construction of this, which is beautifully described here, is as interesting as the quietly riveting murder investigation. Not the least of which is his marriage to Julie (he refers to her as “Miss Julie” throughout his first-person narrative), and the fallout, which includes his parents, as well as his sister and her children, moving into the newlyweds’ homes while they take residence elsewhere. The couple is newly pregnant as well, understandably regarded as a blessing by both.

What keeps Farrell up at night, though, is an affair he had with a married woman named Shelly Bray. That relationship preceded his meeting Julie and for a short time overlapped with their pre-engagement relationship, a detail that Farrell never mentioned to Julie when it would have been more opportune. Shelly subsequently divorced her husband, Jay, and left the area. Jay is still around, but it is Shelly’s return to town that is a source of anxiety for Farrell on several levels.

When Shelly is found dead after being seen talking to Farrell at a local tavern, he immediately becomes a suspect in her murder and must go on the run to prove his innocence at a time when his family needs him most. There is a climax, and then a conclusion that seems full of uncertainty. However, Bouman, in the most subtle of ways, lets readers know that everything turns out okay. Maybe better than okay.

THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE is beautifully conceived and written from beginning to end. I do not know if there will be another Farrell novel, but it is my fervent hope that Bouman will revisit Wild Thyme, its inhabitants and the surrounding environs frequently and, if possible, often.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

[Julie Stielstra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really liked Bouman's first novel, Dry Bones in the Valley. I liked his second less. And this one, not at all. I was already shaking my head as I slogged through the early pages (and pages...) of Farrell's singularly cheerless wedding and minute descriptions of every guest and their family connections. A body has been found, which has been fed on by a bear. And of course, soon afterward, the bear attacks Farrell in the woods, only to be fended off by the instant and convenient appearance of Farrell's father. More meandering episodes of gas station robberies, Farrell brooding about the obnoxious woman he had an affair with, and a snotty rich couple who complain about the "hooligans" who swim in a nearby creek. Does anyone really use the word "hooligans" any more? I was done. Dreary.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a serious step backwards in quality. I’m not opposed to sub-200 page novels but in this instance it sort of adds weight to the feeling that the previously brilliant and compelling Bouman had hit a wall. Hopefully now this is out of his system he can return to writing superb novels of place and character masquerading as noir.

[Shereadbookblog · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first I have read in the Henry Farrell series. I found it to be disjointed and had to force myself to finish it and it did not make me want to go back and read the prior novels in the series.

[Linda Haas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this rural mystery confusing at first. First we’re in present time. Then, we’re in the past.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third book of the Henry Farrell series starts off with a gruesome discovery but also with glimpses of a more hopeful life for Henry. Henry Farrell is an easy hero to like but, although the basic facts of his backstory are clear, each book reveals more depth to that life. The setting for these books is a depressed rural community that is reeling with many of the problems present today as it deals with opioid addiction, access to too many powerful guns, unemployment, and just bad people. As the sole law enforcement agent, Henry (and the reader) is exposed to too much of these. The Henry Farrell books are not cozy mysteries.

I found The Bramble and the Rose to start off as the best of the Henry Farrell mysteries but I admit that I had to reread the last few chapters to follow the storyline to the the conclusion and I'm still a bit foggy on what happened, but so, I believe is Henry. I think this is Bouman's plan. Henry has guesses about what occurred and so does the reader. The thing is I think I'm guessing at some things that Henry might actually know, indeed, that the entire town may know, and I find that a bit frustrating. I do enjoy Bouman's excellent writing and I've grown found of Henry. I look forward to the next installment.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book lagged a bit at the beginning, but rapidly became a page-turner.

Henry Farrell is literally the entire police department in Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania. So, when a dead body is found in the woods, he's called in. What initially looks like a bear attack is revealed to be murder, and it seems that there are a whole slew of folks in the little town who don't want that looked into. Both Henry's nephew and an old girlfriend disappear in the course of the tale as people try to stop Henry from getting to the bottom of the murder.

The book is a complex fair play puzzle. Everything is laid out for you, but there are so many actors (good, bad, or indifferent) that it's easy to fall for a red herring. The author has done a great job of creating believable, complex people across the spectrum of heroes and villains; no one is a two-dimensional caricature of perfect good or perfect evil.

I enjoyed it.

[Clinton Greaves · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a slow burn despite the presence of a headless dead man in the early pages. Set in Wild Thyme, a rural town in Pennsylvania, the first-person narrator, Officer Henry Farrell, takes the reader on a journey that starts out as a simmer and ends in a boil. The aforementioned dead man is at first presumed to have been killed by a wild bear, but once his head is discovered high up in the hollow of a tree, it becomes clear that foul play is involved. The rest of the story is a race to determine who the dead man is, who killed him, and why. The story branches off in an equally compelling direction when an old-flame of Officer Farrell's ends up dead. Prime suspect: him. This is elegant writing, labyrinthine and interconnected plots, and characters the reader will hear and feel. In other words, the best kind of crime fiction. Highly recommended.

[Larry Fontenot · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a great book. I've never read any of Bouman's work and this is the third of his Farrell series but I surely will read the first two. There is a precision to the prose that is laconic and yet enervating. It seems full of inhibited anger or sorrow, something digging deep into Henry Farrell's soul. Maybe I'll know more after reading the first two books, but this book had enough of his backstory to keep a fever going. It has a slight twist about two-thirds in, where the narrator, Henry, begins to spin the book as a story told to someone else (I won't reveal that person). It's just a slight change from the first person account that we're getting from Henry all along, but it's a clever move. And overall this is a fine book, and an author I'm so glad I discovered in BookPages.

[Janice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not finish this ARC to preserve my sanity and to continue my enjoyment of reading books. To me, this story did not have a flowing plot. Flashbacks and back stories could have been separated better. Also, the grammar and sentence structure had me translating passages in my head to understand the story. Maybe if I read #s 1 and 2, I would have been more prepared for #3.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This ARC is a publisher' giveaway.

This is my first read of the Tom Bouman series on Henry Farrell. I agree with other reviewers that starting with the first of the series would be rewarding. There is not much back story on the characters and their relationships. I did enjoy the setting in an area of the country with which I am not familiar. It's fascinating that such an isolated wild area remains in a part of the country surrounded by development. The characters are reminiscent of people in other isolated parts of the country, especially in Appalachia.

Henry seems a somewhat hapless character, who does his best to balance his priorities of family and the law, which is a little problematic for a law enforcement officer. Family is definitely his first priority. I did not find the movement between current events and flashbacks particularly confusing, as it was easy to distinguish between the two. I wanted more character development or backstory on some of the secondary characters. I liked Bouman showing and telling us about the complicated friendships and relationships in isolated areas. Family is the strongest loyalty and the line between lawmakers and law breakers is fluid. Henry generally comes down on the law side of the line. He has a sure understanding of the difference between justice and the law. Also, Henry learns how little he knows the neighbors and friends he known all of his life. Poverty is one of the driving motivations for this fluid line. The opioid crisis is present in this isolated community. Greed is the driver for the higher-ups in opioid creation, but desperation is the main reason for lower level distributors. In either case, fatal violence is prominent. The stark poverty of one family, once their primary provider is forced to flee is obvious. The money that supports his family comes from his job as lethal enforcer for this cartel. Mostly his victims are others in the drug trade but he makes little distinction between the characters of his victims. He does draw the line at killing friends.

I'm sufficiently interested to search out and read this series from the start. This story is more than a little bleak. Hope is not a strong factor in this community. The Bramble and the Rose is not for readers who don't like bleak, hopeless, and somewhat graphically violent tales.

[Paul Sand · Rating 2 out of 5]

[Imported automatically from my blog. Some formatting there may not have translated here.]

Another book in the "Wish I'd Liked It Better" class. The mystery reviewer in the WSJ, Tom Nolan, really liked it, putting it on his Best Mysteries of 2020 list. So your take could be different from mine. (And, as I keep pointing out, the Goodreads folks encourage me to provide my subjective views. Did I like it? Not that much.)

It's the third book in Tom Bouman's series with narrator Henry Farrell. He's the one-man police force in semi-rural Wild Thyme, Pennsylvania, an area (seemingly) filled with boozers, drug abusers, and sad losers. Henry's pretty morose, too, even though he's getting married to his pregnant girlfriend. What sets things off here is the discovery of a much-abused body in the woods, a private investigator who's been murdered, decapitated, and left for Purina Bear Chow. (Where's his head? Ah, over here in this hollow tree!)

Eventually, Henry finds himself in peril: from that bear who's acquired a taste for people; from people threatening to reveal his past illicit affairs to his new bride; and then there's the folks who just want to kill him, framing him for another murder.

I will repeat things I said about his previous books in the series: there are a lot of characters to keep track of. Bouman often breaks into some very nice, evocative, prose in describing people, places, and things. Just wish I cared a little more about what happened.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Farrell, rural Pennsylvania police officer, has been called to the scene of a grisly murder; at least one more killing takes place, and Henry becomes a suspect – and then a fugitive.

I normally try to choose books that are the first in the series for the A to Z Mystery Tour, but the first Henry Farrell book was not available so I went with #3. I was a bit sad, upon reaching the end of the book, to find that it may be the last in this very short series, because the writing is beautiful – almost lyrical in places. The characters, including Henry, are flawed and unapologetically human.

This is not a five star book because the timeline is confusing. Since this is not the first in the series I want to be sure to avoid spoilers, so I’ll be vague: there is one ongoing event that Henry occasionally references. The way he does so seems to imply that weeks or months have passed, but then he comes back to the murder investigation and it’s clearly been only a few days. It feels almost like the author is working with two timelines, which he is not.

I alternated between my library copy of the hardcover and a Scribd audiobook. I regret not sticking to the hardcover, because the narration of the audiobook doesn’t begin to do the writing justice. I hope my suspicion that this is the series finale is incorrect.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Bramble and the Rose is the third in the Henry Farrell series. I have not read the first 2. It is a very quick read. Finished in 5 hours.

Being the third in a series I felt there was a first novel building of the characters, with Henry Farrell being the main protagonist. Basic information seemed to dominate the Henry character. The balance of characters were somewhat flat or missing. The first 1/2 was a very leisurely winding river of a story. Most of the action takes place in the second 1/2.

One of the upsides is the area where everything takes place. Reads very small town and is a character unto it’s self. I really enjoy when an author takes the time to build a sense of place. A downside is characters being introduced to late in the story. I feel the interaction between the protagonist and the antagonists to be missing. Another 50 pages or so may have the effect of a more complete story.

A more complete review will be given when I take the time to read the first 2 installments.

Wish to thank the author, the publisher, and Goodreads for my copy in exchange for this review.

[Drew Goodman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bramble and the Rose is a short, but beautifully written mystery set in rural northern Pennsylvania. Henry Farrell, the only police officer in a small town is called to a local property when a headless body is found. While first thought to be a bear attack, Farrell recognizes that the severed head was brutally removed post-mortem. This discovery leads him through the eclectic collection of residents in his rural community, questioning the motives of new and long-time residents alike.

At the same time, Farrell is getting married, starting a new life with the daughter of one of the leading businessmen of the area. His marriage is complicated, at least for him, by all the intertwining threads running through the community and increasingly, as he learns, tied to the murder of the headless outsider.

Family drama, community secrets, and outside interests lead Farrell headlong into a mystery in which he finds himself overly involved. An intricately woven story, deftly told in a somewhat dark narrative, The Bramble and the Rose doesn’t fail to live up to Bouman’s reputation for amazingly written literary mysteries.

[Jim Gilroy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite so far of the Henry Farrell series by Tom Bouman. I started reading these because the first, Dry Bones in the Valley, won the Edgar Award a few years back. I read the second and then the third in large part because they are set in a part of the country I am familiar with, grew up in, and many of the locations, though not the fictional Wild Thyme Township central to the books, bring a smile of remembrance when I read of them. Now though I eagerly await the fourth book in the series for a different reason as his writing style evolves and I am reminded more and more of another favorite writer, T.R. Pearson. Ray Tatum meet Henry Farrell. The story itself, like the others, can be a bit confusing with multiple threads, the moving back and forth through time, and just enough characters to leave you rummaging through your mind to remember "who is that again?" But also with passages that seem pulled straight out of a Raymond Chandler work. The book just pulled me along. I read it in two days, about the length of time it takes me to finish a Pearson novel. And now... now I wait for the next.

[Sonny Br · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quarantined at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I read this in about two days. It was a fine way to pass the time. As soon as I finished it, I started reading the first book in the series, which will give you an idea of how much I liked this one.

When it comes to crime and detective fiction, having run through the classic crime writers (Hammett, Chandler) and plenty of mediocre ones, I've become picky about what I'll read. I'm not particularly interested in procedurals or trying to figure out who committed the crime. I'm looking for realistic (and flawed) characters, and local color on areas that interest me. I like the Henry Farrell character because he's an underdog, the only police officer in a tiny township in rural Pennsylvania. Farrell has to act alone against vicious backwoods characters when help is far away. When help does arrive, in the form of the Pennsylvania State Police and an investigator from the Attorney General's office, suspicion falls on Farrell himself and things get very sticky.

[Lynda Birch · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me this was a strange book. It starts off interestingly enough with the discovery of a headless body, but it develops into this whirlwind of thoughts and images that take place in the main character’s mind. This might lead you to believe it is a psychological thriller but it isn’t.

I understand that this is rural crime fiction but I found that there was way more information about hunting than was necessary to push the story forward or in any way adds to the story. I agree with other reviewers that you need to have read the previous books in the series to really grasp the relationships and don’t recommend reading this book as a standalone. The ending was over dramatic and over complicated and felt very contrived to me. This book had potential but really missed the mark in my opinion.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

[Vicki · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Bramble and the Rose” by Tom Bouman, W. W. Norton Company, 256 pages, March 10, 2020.

A beheaded man is found in the woods of Wild Thyme, a small town in northeast Pennsylvania.

All signs point to a man-killing bear, and Officer Henry Farrell would like to turn over the case to the game commission. Billy Costello is the wildlife conservation officer. But Farrell discovers the victim was a retired investigator, Carl Dentry. Then a woman with whom Henry had an affair is murdered and he becomes a suspect.

The novel is fast-moving. It is a good depiction of families in rural Pennsylvania.

Tom Bouman's first book, “Dry Bones in the Valley,” won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for a review.

[Pam Coon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another journey into the Henry Farrell novels and a pretty good read. A headless stranger is found in the woods in the mountain region of Pennsylvania. All signs point to a man-killing bear, but Officer Henry Farrell begins to have his doubts when he discovers the victim was a retired investigator. And then before he gets more involved in what is definitely looking like a crime, his own nephew disappears into the hills. To make matters worse, an old flame of his dies under suspicious circumstances leaving henry as the prime suspect. Henry doesn't know which direction to turn, so he does what he does best. He searches for his nephew and along the way finds the key to unlock the crimes.

[Edward Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a partially eaten body of a Private Investigator is found in a swamp in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania it is unclear whether he was killed intentionally or by accident but it is clear a bear has gotten to him and on top of solving the crime they need to find that bear.

Once identified the local cop investigation finds himself bouncing in the dark as the State Police, the County Sheriff and the Attorney Generals Office all have knowledge that they are not readily sharing.

The story is told solely through the eyes of the local cop so he and you are in the dark for a good portion of the story.

[Theresa Lorenzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Tom Bouman and I enjoyed it/was a bit confused by it. While I do like the way the author weaves a story and doesn't make it easy for you to figure out, I could not understand why we went back to Farrell's wedding, the birth of his first child, living with his wife's parents - well you get the idea.

It is a quick and easy read and I did like how everything fit together in the end. But I am confused about Henry Farrell and who he really is. Perhaps the next novel will clue me in.

[Diane Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads win!

The story starts out with the discovery of a man in the woods who appears to have been attacked by a bear. Once they start looking at the details things are not what they seem.

I know this is the third book in the series, so I don't know if I was missing anything in the character development, but it did not seem to bad. I was able to figure out most things, but some of the character development was at times confusing.

I enjoyed this book, and I would probably go back and look for the earlier books in the series.

[Kathleen Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Know that large parts of this short novel take place in Henry Farrell's head and that if you, like me, did not read the first books, it might be a tad confusing. It has, however, quite a start- a headless body is found and everyone thinks it's a bear kill until the head is found in a tree. Yikes. There's more going on in Wild Thyme, a rural Pennsylvania town, than meets the eye and a lot of it somehow involves Henry and his family. Bouman has packed a lot into this slim volume. He's an interesting writer. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

[Don Gorman · Rating 2 out of 5]

(2 1/2). I guess this is supposed to be some sort of Americana thriller or something. Henry Farrell is an interesting enough protagonist, but the first half of this 200 page book is so confusing that there is no way to bail it out in the last. Lots of side stories, seemingly lots of continuing plot lines (this is the third in a series) and a huge number of characters that are hard to figure out where they fit in. Well written but it just does not coalesce into anything you can wrap your head around. Medium stuff.