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Pasteur respecté d'une petite ville de l'Arkansas, Richard Weatherford est un homme qui dissimule de lourds secrets. Ce samedi de Pâques, à cinq heures du matin, la sonnerie du téléphone le réveille. Le jeune Gary est très clair : son silence coûtera 30 000$, sinon il révèlera leur liaison. Richard devra alors dire adieu à sa réputation et -surtout- à sa femme Penny et à leur cinq enfants qui ne supporteront jamais un tel scandale. Prêt à tout pour empêcher son monde de s'effondrer, le pasteur n'a que quelques heures pour tisser une immense toile de mensonges et piéger son entourage.
329 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2019
25 people are currently reading
468 people want to read
About the author
Jake Hinkson
20 books120 followersJake Hinkson, a native of the Arkansas Ozarks, is the author of HELL ON CHURCH STREET, THE POSTHUMOUS MAN, SAINT HOMICIDE, and THE BIG UGLY. His first two books are being translated into French by èditions Gallmeister and will be released in Europe in new hardcover editions in 2015. He lives in Chicago and blogs at http://thenighteditor.blogspot.com/
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
October 18, 2022
My normal practice is to post a review immediately after finishing a book. I delayed doing so in this case for fear that I would come off like an over-the-top fanboy, gushing with praise for this one. I assumed that after a couple of weeks I would settle down and be able to write a more sober, restrained evaluation of the book.
That isn't gonna happen.
I loved Dry County, and to my mind, it's not only the best book I've read this year but the best one I've read in ages. Unfortunately, though, this is one of those books where I find it very difficult to say much of anything about the plot for fear of giving away things that I'm sure other readers would much rather discover for themselves.
I will say this: There's a considerable amount of debate over exactly what constitutes a "noir" novel. But for anyone interested in a definition, all you have to do is read this book, which is the epitome of a noir tale.
At the center of the story is a Baptist preacher named Richard Weatherford who ministers to a flock in a small backwater town in Arkansas. Weatherford is a pillar of his community, married with five children, and he has significant responsibilities to his family, to his church, and to the community beyond. But, as always happens in a story like this, Weatherford takes a step that will set off a cascading series of events which will have increasingly catastrophic consequences for him and for a number of other people as well.
The story takes place basically in a single day, the Saturday before Easter in 2016. It's told in chapters that alternate between Weatherford and a handful of other characters, including his wife, Penelope. All of these characters are compelling and very richly drawn, and the reader is immediately immersed in the universe that Hinkson creates. Because of the number of characters the story moves a bit slowly at first as we are introduced to these people and are given to understand how they fit into the larger picture. But once that's done, the book takes off like the proverbial rocket and it's impossible to put it down.
This is clearly not a book that will appeal to everyone. It's very dark, disturbing and relentless. It's also brilliantly done, and anyone who loves the noir genre should waste no time searching it out. There are scenes from this novel that will remain with me for a very long time and this is one of those books that I suspect I will be rereading for the rest of my life.
I very rarely give a book five stars, preferring to reserve the honor for the handful of classic novels that seem to stand alone above almost all others. But to my mind, Dry County is a fantastic novel for which five stars are not nearly enough.
That isn't gonna happen.
I loved Dry County, and to my mind, it's not only the best book I've read this year but the best one I've read in ages. Unfortunately, though, this is one of those books where I find it very difficult to say much of anything about the plot for fear of giving away things that I'm sure other readers would much rather discover for themselves.
I will say this: There's a considerable amount of debate over exactly what constitutes a "noir" novel. But for anyone interested in a definition, all you have to do is read this book, which is the epitome of a noir tale.
At the center of the story is a Baptist preacher named Richard Weatherford who ministers to a flock in a small backwater town in Arkansas. Weatherford is a pillar of his community, married with five children, and he has significant responsibilities to his family, to his church, and to the community beyond. But, as always happens in a story like this, Weatherford takes a step that will set off a cascading series of events which will have increasingly catastrophic consequences for him and for a number of other people as well.
The story takes place basically in a single day, the Saturday before Easter in 2016. It's told in chapters that alternate between Weatherford and a handful of other characters, including his wife, Penelope. All of these characters are compelling and very richly drawn, and the reader is immediately immersed in the universe that Hinkson creates. Because of the number of characters the story moves a bit slowly at first as we are introduced to these people and are given to understand how they fit into the larger picture. But once that's done, the book takes off like the proverbial rocket and it's impossible to put it down.
This is clearly not a book that will appeal to everyone. It's very dark, disturbing and relentless. It's also brilliantly done, and anyone who loves the noir genre should waste no time searching it out. There are scenes from this novel that will remain with me for a very long time and this is one of those books that I suspect I will be rereading for the rest of my life.
I very rarely give a book five stars, preferring to reserve the honor for the handful of classic novels that seem to stand alone above almost all others. But to my mind, Dry County is a fantastic novel for which five stars are not nearly enough.
December 4, 2019
Disturbing portrayal of a small-town filled with hypocrisy, despair and a fair amount of tawdriness.
A blackmail scheme spirals out of control as we watch the characters’ lives unfold in one very long day, the day before Easter, metaphorically set in the time between crucifixion and resurrection. A preacher, a bar owner, his disgruntled former employee, a depressed college dropout and the town’s girl with a reputation all vie for the title of most desperate, who will survive the day to grab the monstrous crown?
Having recently enjoyed my first foray into grit lit, I thought I would wade further into the bog of what has been billed as hillbilly noir. While this is a tightly-plotted, dialogue-rich story with plenty of desperados and an ending you won’t see coming, I didn’t find the writing or characterization as compelling as the storyline. Liked well enough, but not bowled over. [3.5 ]
A blackmail scheme spirals out of control as we watch the characters’ lives unfold in one very long day, the day before Easter, metaphorically set in the time between crucifixion and resurrection. A preacher, a bar owner, his disgruntled former employee, a depressed college dropout and the town’s girl with a reputation all vie for the title of most desperate, who will survive the day to grab the monstrous crown?
Having recently enjoyed my first foray into grit lit, I thought I would wade further into the bog of what has been billed as hillbilly noir. While this is a tightly-plotted, dialogue-rich story with plenty of desperados and an ending you won’t see coming, I didn’t find the writing or characterization as compelling as the storyline. Liked well enough, but not bowled over. [3.5 ]
July 1, 2020
Loved this. An excellent read which escalated into a downward spiral for all the well defined characters. Don't miss Jake Hinkson.
October 25, 2019
"We all had our chance to do the right thing, and none of us took it."Any new release by Jake Hinkson is a day one purchase and read for me. I'm a huge fan of his dark noirs that tell tales of complicated losers trying their best to dig themselves out of trouble and making a terrible job of it. While it might lack the manic energy of his earlier books, Dry County might be his most widely accessible book. But he never strays away from his usual tackling of taboo material. In this new novel, he brings together several members of a small Arkansas town, as they collide with each other in the wake of a respected local preacher's decision to pay off his former gay lover in exchange for silence.
There are no good guys or bad guys here as Hinkson passes no judgement on any of the players. Although there's a constant theme in his work critiquing the dangers and hypocrisies of religion, here it's done with a maturity where he just lets the characters loose with all their flaws and without commentary. And me as a reader was riveted as usual watching them desperately dig themselves deeper into their respective holes. Great, constantly entertaining work as usual.
I'm drowning, and drowning men don't call out for God. They gasp for air.
January 30, 2025
"I believe that Christ can redeem anyone, but I learned long ago that he will not redeem everyone."
"No offer of salvation seems implausible to a man desperate to be saved."
— Jake Hinkson, DRY COUNTY
Most fast-paced crime novels sacrifice character depth for plotting convenience and thematic breadth for distracting twistiness, but DRY COUNTY is that rarest of creatures — a crime novel that casts a long and lingering light into the shades of gray that curdle good into evil while maintaining the propulsive pacing of a supermarket-check-out-counter paperback thriller.
It would take a while to properly unpack the plot, but suffice to say that everything centers around Richard Weatherford, a pastor — though he prefers "preacher" — of a modestly successful church in small-town Arkansas. He's good at what he does, offering leadership that can be as uncompromising as uplifting, but he's missing something — "compassion," his wife Penny asserts — and he's carrying a heavy secret that can't possibly stay secret. So when blackmail comes calling, he's got to decide if his darkness is weakness, or if he can find an even darker strength within it. Circling him like witches in MACBETH are Penny, who sees more than Richard thinks he does; Brian, whose drive to bring a liquor store to his dry county is a front for his financial desperation; Gary, who thinks getting out of town is best cure for his depression, but needs money to get there; and Sarabeth, who loves Gary—or at least tolerates his love—and sees him, and Richard, as the vehicles to her own fresh start; and Tommy, the local white-trash crime lord, whose businesses are threatened by the push by the push to turn the dry county into a wet one. Suffice to say, their paths all collide one one long dark night, and not everybody gets out alive.
The plot, knockout as it is, is but a secondary pleasure of DRY COUNTY. Its true brilliance is in its thoughtful, nuanced depictions of people who are neither all good or all bad, but find themselves forced by circumstance to break bad to varying degrees. Richard, in particular, is capable of acknowledging his flaws, at least to himself, but what he really needs to know is if he's capable of convincingly wallpapering them over, because there's only so much deference a preacher's congregants will give him before they wonder if they're following the wrong leader. Some of DRY COUNTY's best passages come from Richard's reflections on his personal and professional challenges:
"I’ve played my part well. But beyond my performance, what is real? I preach salvation, but the truth is that I see very little worth saving. I proclaim miracles, but I only see biology, physics, and coincidence misinterpreted through the lens of ignorance and superstition. I preach your love, but sometimes the only thing that seems more outlandish than your existence is the idea that you love us. Could it all, in the end, mean nothing? Would that be better?"
And:
"Most of them believe me. Most of them have never given the question of life and death serious thought. Most of them were told as children that the death of Jesus somehow means that they themselves will never really die, and they have believed it ever since. Although the exact mechanics of this theology are as uninteresting to them as the exact mechanics of their cell phone, their theology, like their phone, does what it is supposed to do. That’s all they need to know."
What's equally great about DRY COUNTY are the things it doesn't do. It doesn't take cheap shots at the faith or politics or culture of its small-town Southerners. They're smart and dumb; they're hardworking and lazy; they're searching and complacent. Just like anybody we know, any place we've been. It doesn't smother itself in Southern Gothic Porn like so much gravy atop a chicken-fried steak; it is a novel of its place but accessible to all. And for all those seemingly ponderous passages above, it's a sleekly paced novel that demands to be finished in a day. And the prose is terrific, full of perfect fingernail-parings of acute observation and epiphany. A sampling:
— “I was a little late this morning,” I tell him, “and now she’s acting like I’ve been out campaigning for Hillary."
— "The north of Arkansas ain’t nothing but trees. The bottom of the state ain’t nothing but swamp."
— "Well, your granddaddy only believed in two things—the United States Marine Corps and the Southern Baptist Convention—and if he’d lived long enough to see some longhair beating drums on a Sunday morning, I think he would have shot somebody.”
— "I thought of having it fixed, but the only thing I can imagine that would repulse Richard more than my body would be the cost of a surgery or two to fix it."
— "She’s been mad at me since I came back home to live. Dad is the kind of guy who can love you without it costing him anything. He’s got an endless amount of love to give, and he’s always eager to give you more. Mom isn’t that way. She loves you, but she lets you know that it costs her something to do it."
— "I could follow Frankie, maybe jump him going back out to his car after his last collection and then knock him on the head, but that’s too risky. This ain’t the movies. I’m pretty sure if you hit a guy on the head, all you’ll do is hurt his head."
— "If I’m honest, I have to admit that I’ve become the kind of preacher that I always detested. I’m just another spiritual babysitter."
— "I drive to the Exxon and use the payphone like a drug dealer in the seventies."
— "Because America’s contribution to Christian thought is the idea that a God that won’t promise to make you rich isn’t a God worth serving, the reality is that a portion of my congregation can only think of life—even the Christian life—in material terms."
— "She was one of the ill-parented pieces of white trash that occasionally blows into church and lands in the youth group until the next gust of wind sweeps them away."
— "The day I die, the traffic lights will keep changing from red to green, and Burger King will keep selling hamburgers, and the world will just go on about its business."
(Sorry, I'm overquoting here, but the writing is that good.)
Jake Hinkson is one of those novelists who's cultivated a cult reputation in the darker circles of the crime-fiction community, and while he's popular in France, he remains a criminally overlooked, underground figure in his own country. I'm not sure why he hasn't found a wider audience. Maybe because he's regional but not too regional; because he's noir and yet hopeful; because he doesn't write about aspirational people in aspirational places. Whatever the case, Jake Hinkson has everything a splashy mainstream crime novelist should have. Except maybe a big-league marketing push.
I'd call DRY COUNTY a perfect novel, but we all know nobody but God is perfect, right, and no plan but his can be perfect as well? That's a lesson Richard Weatherford, and the people in his malignant orbit, learn the hardest way possible. But DRY COUNTY comes as close to perfect as I've come across. And that's the sort of thing that, like a hymn, should be shouted from the mountaintops.
"No offer of salvation seems implausible to a man desperate to be saved."
— Jake Hinkson, DRY COUNTY
Most fast-paced crime novels sacrifice character depth for plotting convenience and thematic breadth for distracting twistiness, but DRY COUNTY is that rarest of creatures — a crime novel that casts a long and lingering light into the shades of gray that curdle good into evil while maintaining the propulsive pacing of a supermarket-check-out-counter paperback thriller.
It would take a while to properly unpack the plot, but suffice to say that everything centers around Richard Weatherford, a pastor — though he prefers "preacher" — of a modestly successful church in small-town Arkansas. He's good at what he does, offering leadership that can be as uncompromising as uplifting, but he's missing something — "compassion," his wife Penny asserts — and he's carrying a heavy secret that can't possibly stay secret. So when blackmail comes calling, he's got to decide if his darkness is weakness, or if he can find an even darker strength within it. Circling him like witches in MACBETH are Penny, who sees more than Richard thinks he does; Brian, whose drive to bring a liquor store to his dry county is a front for his financial desperation; Gary, who thinks getting out of town is best cure for his depression, but needs money to get there; and Sarabeth, who loves Gary—or at least tolerates his love—and sees him, and Richard, as the vehicles to her own fresh start; and Tommy, the local white-trash crime lord, whose businesses are threatened by the push by the push to turn the dry county into a wet one. Suffice to say, their paths all collide one one long dark night, and not everybody gets out alive.
The plot, knockout as it is, is but a secondary pleasure of DRY COUNTY. Its true brilliance is in its thoughtful, nuanced depictions of people who are neither all good or all bad, but find themselves forced by circumstance to break bad to varying degrees. Richard, in particular, is capable of acknowledging his flaws, at least to himself, but what he really needs to know is if he's capable of convincingly wallpapering them over, because there's only so much deference a preacher's congregants will give him before they wonder if they're following the wrong leader. Some of DRY COUNTY's best passages come from Richard's reflections on his personal and professional challenges:
"I’ve played my part well. But beyond my performance, what is real? I preach salvation, but the truth is that I see very little worth saving. I proclaim miracles, but I only see biology, physics, and coincidence misinterpreted through the lens of ignorance and superstition. I preach your love, but sometimes the only thing that seems more outlandish than your existence is the idea that you love us. Could it all, in the end, mean nothing? Would that be better?"
And:
"Most of them believe me. Most of them have never given the question of life and death serious thought. Most of them were told as children that the death of Jesus somehow means that they themselves will never really die, and they have believed it ever since. Although the exact mechanics of this theology are as uninteresting to them as the exact mechanics of their cell phone, their theology, like their phone, does what it is supposed to do. That’s all they need to know."
What's equally great about DRY COUNTY are the things it doesn't do. It doesn't take cheap shots at the faith or politics or culture of its small-town Southerners. They're smart and dumb; they're hardworking and lazy; they're searching and complacent. Just like anybody we know, any place we've been. It doesn't smother itself in Southern Gothic Porn like so much gravy atop a chicken-fried steak; it is a novel of its place but accessible to all. And for all those seemingly ponderous passages above, it's a sleekly paced novel that demands to be finished in a day. And the prose is terrific, full of perfect fingernail-parings of acute observation and epiphany. A sampling:
— “I was a little late this morning,” I tell him, “and now she’s acting like I’ve been out campaigning for Hillary."
— "The north of Arkansas ain’t nothing but trees. The bottom of the state ain’t nothing but swamp."
— "Well, your granddaddy only believed in two things—the United States Marine Corps and the Southern Baptist Convention—and if he’d lived long enough to see some longhair beating drums on a Sunday morning, I think he would have shot somebody.”
— "I thought of having it fixed, but the only thing I can imagine that would repulse Richard more than my body would be the cost of a surgery or two to fix it."
— "She’s been mad at me since I came back home to live. Dad is the kind of guy who can love you without it costing him anything. He’s got an endless amount of love to give, and he’s always eager to give you more. Mom isn’t that way. She loves you, but she lets you know that it costs her something to do it."
— "I could follow Frankie, maybe jump him going back out to his car after his last collection and then knock him on the head, but that’s too risky. This ain’t the movies. I’m pretty sure if you hit a guy on the head, all you’ll do is hurt his head."
— "If I’m honest, I have to admit that I’ve become the kind of preacher that I always detested. I’m just another spiritual babysitter."
— "I drive to the Exxon and use the payphone like a drug dealer in the seventies."
— "Because America’s contribution to Christian thought is the idea that a God that won’t promise to make you rich isn’t a God worth serving, the reality is that a portion of my congregation can only think of life—even the Christian life—in material terms."
— "She was one of the ill-parented pieces of white trash that occasionally blows into church and lands in the youth group until the next gust of wind sweeps them away."
— "The day I die, the traffic lights will keep changing from red to green, and Burger King will keep selling hamburgers, and the world will just go on about its business."
(Sorry, I'm overquoting here, but the writing is that good.)
Jake Hinkson is one of those novelists who's cultivated a cult reputation in the darker circles of the crime-fiction community, and while he's popular in France, he remains a criminally overlooked, underground figure in his own country. I'm not sure why he hasn't found a wider audience. Maybe because he's regional but not too regional; because he's noir and yet hopeful; because he doesn't write about aspirational people in aspirational places. Whatever the case, Jake Hinkson has everything a splashy mainstream crime novelist should have. Except maybe a big-league marketing push.
I'd call DRY COUNTY a perfect novel, but we all know nobody but God is perfect, right, and no plan but his can be perfect as well? That's a lesson Richard Weatherford, and the people in his malignant orbit, learn the hardest way possible. But DRY COUNTY comes as close to perfect as I've come across. And that's the sort of thing that, like a hymn, should be shouted from the mountaintops.
May 4, 2019
Hinkson puts his foot on your throat on the first page and doesn’t let up. Dry County is the kind of book you sit down with and finish in one big gulp; it’s a masterpiece of economy and tension. Set against the backdrop of an Arkansas county’s wet/dry vote and the 2016 presidential election, this story’s got it all: blackmail, brutality, and desperate people doing desperate things. An instant noir classic.
June 17, 2019
Small-town preacher Richard Weatherford is being black-mailed by a former lover. In exchange for keeping it quiet and leaving Richard and his family alone, the blackmailer is asking for thirty thousand dollars. Despite this already being an undesirable situation, it’s made worse by the fact that this is all coming to a head on Easter Saturday – a date in which Richard finds himself hopelessly occupied.
Desperate for help, Richard reaches out to an unexpected source. What follows will destroy lives and shatter the peaceful facade of Van Buren County.
Being from a small town myself, I love reading stories like this one and small town crime is right within author Jake Hinkson’s wheelhouse. You have a relatively small cast of characters finding themselves in a situation without experience leading them to just fly by the seat of their pants. Everything that happens in Dry County occurs within one day adding an overwhelming sense of urgency. These men and women are making snap decisions based on nothing but pure desperation and fear that leads to a gripping tale that did not take its foot off the pedal throughout these brisk 224 pages.
As a reader, you can’t help but sit back and play armchair quarterback with these characters. You want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them for some of the decisions they make but in the end, you’re not in their shoes. Richard Weatherford in particular is playing high-stakes poker with a shotgun pressed into the back of his skull. There are some great moments and chapters where he plays mental gymnastics trying to justify his next course of action. Hinkson did a tremendous job portraying the darkness inside of us all; we really have no idea how we’ll react when we’re backed into a corner, do we?
Jake Hinkson’s Dry County is textbook pitch black noir so not a lot of light escapes these pages. Desperate people doing desperate things often make for the best page-turners and Dry County is one of those novels where the pages just could not turn fast enough. Do yourself a favor and carve out some time before sitting down to read this because you’re not going to want to put it down once you start.
Desperate for help, Richard reaches out to an unexpected source. What follows will destroy lives and shatter the peaceful facade of Van Buren County.
Being from a small town myself, I love reading stories like this one and small town crime is right within author Jake Hinkson’s wheelhouse. You have a relatively small cast of characters finding themselves in a situation without experience leading them to just fly by the seat of their pants. Everything that happens in Dry County occurs within one day adding an overwhelming sense of urgency. These men and women are making snap decisions based on nothing but pure desperation and fear that leads to a gripping tale that did not take its foot off the pedal throughout these brisk 224 pages.
As a reader, you can’t help but sit back and play armchair quarterback with these characters. You want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them for some of the decisions they make but in the end, you’re not in their shoes. Richard Weatherford in particular is playing high-stakes poker with a shotgun pressed into the back of his skull. There are some great moments and chapters where he plays mental gymnastics trying to justify his next course of action. Hinkson did a tremendous job portraying the darkness inside of us all; we really have no idea how we’ll react when we’re backed into a corner, do we?
Jake Hinkson’s Dry County is textbook pitch black noir so not a lot of light escapes these pages. Desperate people doing desperate things often make for the best page-turners and Dry County is one of those novels where the pages just could not turn fast enough. Do yourself a favor and carve out some time before sitting down to read this because you’re not going to want to put it down once you start.
October 11, 2019
"I’m Richard Howard Weatherford. I’m the husband of Penelope. The father of Matthew, Mark, Mary, Johnny, and Ruth. I’m the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Stock, Arkansas. I am a Christian. I am a man of God.....
But first I must do this. I must protect my family, my friends, my church."
Man with many cloaks, with all shame and fear, a scandal could do.
From the outer, Richard our main protagonist, he would seem nothing but Gary’s pastor, ultimately, a human being capable of anything else the flock may fall to.
He will be one entangled in sins of flesh interlocked with that old corrupting calling of money in a small town tragedy with nicely crafted memorable characters like that out of a Jim Thompson noir tale.
"For the Terry Baltimores of the world, Christ is just another hustle. I know this, and I endure it because it’s my job. My job is not to save Terry Baltimore; my job is to talk the talk of redemption until Terry Baltimore finally decides to move on."
Review @ More2Read
But first I must do this. I must protect my family, my friends, my church."
Man with many cloaks, with all shame and fear, a scandal could do.
From the outer, Richard our main protagonist, he would seem nothing but Gary’s pastor, ultimately, a human being capable of anything else the flock may fall to.
He will be one entangled in sins of flesh interlocked with that old corrupting calling of money in a small town tragedy with nicely crafted memorable characters like that out of a Jim Thompson noir tale.
"For the Terry Baltimores of the world, Christ is just another hustle. I know this, and I endure it because it’s my job. My job is not to save Terry Baltimore; my job is to talk the talk of redemption until Terry Baltimore finally decides to move on."
Review @ More2Read
October 27, 2022
An ingenious decision to tell the story from the mutuals first person POVs.
What seemed weird at the beginning achieved impressively dynamic through the story and proved the complexity of the idea at the end.
Dry County strengthened my opinion in some regard.
And yes, I know it is just a fiction.
February 13, 2020
Nicely plotted, almost A Simple Plan-esque story of interlocking characters in a small town whose bad choices snowball into the worst possible outcome. It's a fast, unembellished read and well-written save for the last scene in part two, which was ridiculous, and all of part three, which only rehashes the denouement & adds nothing else to the story.
December 7, 2022
A believable book that starts with a dumb indiscretion, mixed in with some good old-time religion and redneck discrimination, mixed in with a little desperate greed, and it all snowballs into an explosion of destruction in small-town America.
I think the main takeaway is if you don't want people to say bad things about you, be careful not to do any of those things they might talk about - especially if you can't pay the price of discovery. Or perhaps just that religion and evil are not always mutually exclusive.
I think the main takeaway is if you don't want people to say bad things about you, be careful not to do any of those things they might talk about - especially if you can't pay the price of discovery. Or perhaps just that religion and evil are not always mutually exclusive.
January 19, 2020
Well-written domestic thriller involving a sexually confused junior college-aged young man blackmailing the local preacher of the biggest Southern Baptist church in Van Buren County, Arkansas.
The Preacher has been seduced by the younger man into having mutual masturbation sessions out in the sticks in the preacher's minivan, the younger man ultimately having ulterior motives.
So, now The Preacher is being blackmailed.
The writing was superb but this was my least favorite Jake Hinkson tale.
The Preacher has been seduced by the younger man into having mutual masturbation sessions out in the sticks in the preacher's minivan, the younger man ultimately having ulterior motives.
So, now The Preacher is being blackmailed.
The writing was superb but this was my least favorite Jake Hinkson tale.
October 14, 2019
Dry County by Jake Hinkson could be described as what has come to be known as rural/country noir. Richard Weatherford is the local preacher of a church in politically, conservative county. Weatherford appears to have a perfect life and a perfect family but has secrets of his own that if revealed would ruin his position with the church, community and destroy his family.
The backdrop of the novel includes a battle between teetotallers and a man that desires to open a liquor store within the county, but is facing strong resistance to doing so.
In this novel, desperate people do desperate things with tragic results, with the reader guessing who will emerge on top.
While reading this novel, it felt similar to the writing of Jim Thompson, but with all the rough edges sanded down and the narrative completed in a more genteel way while possessing nasty characters with a smoother veneer then characters in Thompson's novels.
Strongly recommended to those that enjoy rural/country noir and the novels of Jim Thompson.
The backdrop of the novel includes a battle between teetotallers and a man that desires to open a liquor store within the county, but is facing strong resistance to doing so.
In this novel, desperate people do desperate things with tragic results, with the reader guessing who will emerge on top.
While reading this novel, it felt similar to the writing of Jim Thompson, but with all the rough edges sanded down and the narrative completed in a more genteel way while possessing nasty characters with a smoother veneer then characters in Thompson's novels.
Strongly recommended to those that enjoy rural/country noir and the novels of Jim Thompson.
March 22, 2020
A small town preacher in Arkansas is being blackmailed. He's at the forefront of the fight to prevent a referendum on whether the county should remain dry and so he makes an offer to the man with the most to lose if the vote doesn't happen, a man hoping to open a liquor store in town. He, in turn, decides to get the money by stealing it from a shady businessman.
If you like your crime novels noir, your characters compromised and plenty of things going wrong, you'll love this one. Hinkson's spare writing style suits the subject matter, and he manages to make each of his many characters surprisingly complex and nuanced. Taking place during the 2016 presidential primaries, Hinkson makes even the tertiary characters feel like actual people, no small task when writing about desperate people willing to do just about anything to protect what's theirs, or to escape to a better life. Here, the most sympathetic characters are the pair of blackmailers who set a whole series of crimes and disasters in motion. It's a well-told story that has a ton of tension and a very satisfying ending. I'm excited to read more from this author.
If you like your crime novels noir, your characters compromised and plenty of things going wrong, you'll love this one. Hinkson's spare writing style suits the subject matter, and he manages to make each of his many characters surprisingly complex and nuanced. Taking place during the 2016 presidential primaries, Hinkson makes even the tertiary characters feel like actual people, no small task when writing about desperate people willing to do just about anything to protect what's theirs, or to escape to a better life. Here, the most sympathetic characters are the pair of blackmailers who set a whole series of crimes and disasters in motion. It's a well-told story that has a ton of tension and a very satisfying ending. I'm excited to read more from this author.
September 5, 2025
"The things I’ve done tonight have taught me another truth. I’m just a human being, and human beings are capable of anything."
Well, holy Toledo Batman! This was one messed up little town. If you read the blurb you already have an idea so I won't belabor the point, Richard Weatherford is a small town preacher, a respected family man, a father of five children. Preacher Weatherford also has a big secret, the kind that can destroy the respectable life he's built for himself and his family. What the preacher does to protect himself and all he has is what good stories are made of. This fast-paced crime novel, is a look into the hypocrisy embedded into humans that cloak themselves in religious righteousness to hide sins, real or perceived, and the lengths they will go to protect their mask. My first book by the author, loved both the writing and the story.
Well, holy Toledo Batman! This was one messed up little town. If you read the blurb you already have an idea so I won't belabor the point, Richard Weatherford is a small town preacher, a respected family man, a father of five children. Preacher Weatherford also has a big secret, the kind that can destroy the respectable life he's built for himself and his family. What the preacher does to protect himself and all he has is what good stories are made of. This fast-paced crime novel, is a look into the hypocrisy embedded into humans that cloak themselves in religious righteousness to hide sins, real or perceived, and the lengths they will go to protect their mask. My first book by the author, loved both the writing and the story.
November 13, 2020
J'ai beaucoup aimé le fond de ce roman mais j'ai vraiment eu du mal avec la forme.
Sur le fond, l'intrigue était conforme à ses promesses, bien que finalement moins noire, moins visqueuse, qu'attendue. Je pense qu'un David Vann, sur ce même sujet, aurait écrit un bien meilleur roman. Finalement, on ne s'attache ni au Pasteur, ni à sa femme, ni à son amant, ni à la petite amie, ni au truand, ni au beau-père, alors qu'il y a là une intrigue qui tourne au bain de sang, ambiance digne d'un "FARGO", et qu'on voudrait avoir le coeur serré pour ces protagonistes dont la vie bascule en quelques heures.
Le choix d'une narration à la première personne et au présent m'échappe. C'est la formule consacrée en romance (rien à voir avec ce roman), avec des chapitres alternant les points de vue. Ici aussi, mais je ne vois pas l'intérêt. Basculer en mode ricochet d'un narrateur à l'autre, clac clac clac est surtout source de confusion.
L'intérêt d'un point de vue interne est de suivre la psychologie des personnages (ce qui se fait très bien au style indirect libre, soit dit en passant), mais là, je trouve que l'auteur survole l'ensemble. Il multiplie les points de vue et n'en creuse aucun. Il y a pas mal d'actions (ou d'actes, du moins) dans le texte, l'intrigue se déroule très vite : ça aurait pu être rédigé à la troisième personne, pour décrire une scène, plutot que de faire 4 chapitres chacun du point de vue d'un narrateur différent, ce qui n'apporte rien sinon de perdre la lectrice (ici : moi).
Bref, je n'aime pas la première personne du présent et j'ai horreur des "m'écrié-je". Cette conjugaison affreuse me rend dingue. Un vrai blocage sur la forme, donc.
Pour l'anecdote, une coquille relevée dans le texte : plusieurs dialogues indiquent que l'action se déroule pendant la primaire américaine qui oppose Trump à Cruz pour l'investiture du parti républicain : donc quelque part en 2015 (ou début 2016).
Mais Sarabeth annonce "nous sommes en 2017".
Non, vous n'êtes pas en 2017. Si vous étiez en 2017, vous ne vous demanderiez pas pour qui vous allez voter si Trump est le candidat républicain face à Hillary Clinton. C'est quand même ballot.
Sur le fond, l'intrigue était conforme à ses promesses, bien que finalement moins noire, moins visqueuse, qu'attendue. Je pense qu'un David Vann, sur ce même sujet, aurait écrit un bien meilleur roman. Finalement, on ne s'attache ni au Pasteur, ni à sa femme, ni à son amant, ni à la petite amie, ni au truand, ni au beau-père, alors qu'il y a là une intrigue qui tourne au bain de sang, ambiance digne d'un "FARGO", et qu'on voudrait avoir le coeur serré pour ces protagonistes dont la vie bascule en quelques heures.
Le choix d'une narration à la première personne et au présent m'échappe. C'est la formule consacrée en romance (rien à voir avec ce roman), avec des chapitres alternant les points de vue. Ici aussi, mais je ne vois pas l'intérêt. Basculer en mode ricochet d'un narrateur à l'autre, clac clac clac est surtout source de confusion.
L'intérêt d'un point de vue interne est de suivre la psychologie des personnages (ce qui se fait très bien au style indirect libre, soit dit en passant), mais là, je trouve que l'auteur survole l'ensemble. Il multiplie les points de vue et n'en creuse aucun. Il y a pas mal d'actions (ou d'actes, du moins) dans le texte, l'intrigue se déroule très vite : ça aurait pu être rédigé à la troisième personne, pour décrire une scène, plutot que de faire 4 chapitres chacun du point de vue d'un narrateur différent, ce qui n'apporte rien sinon de perdre la lectrice (ici : moi).
Bref, je n'aime pas la première personne du présent et j'ai horreur des "m'écrié-je". Cette conjugaison affreuse me rend dingue. Un vrai blocage sur la forme, donc.
Pour l'anecdote, une coquille relevée dans le texte : plusieurs dialogues indiquent que l'action se déroule pendant la primaire américaine qui oppose Trump à Cruz pour l'investiture du parti républicain : donc quelque part en 2015 (ou début 2016).
Mais Sarabeth annonce "nous sommes en 2017".
Non, vous n'êtes pas en 2017. Si vous étiez en 2017, vous ne vous demanderiez pas pour qui vous allez voter si Trump est le candidat républicain face à Hillary Clinton. C'est quand même ballot.
November 8, 2019
Hinkson continues his dark theme of criminals driven by, and yet wrestling with, their religious faith with the story of a middle class preacher in the Arkansas Ozarks confronting blackmail. This time, as opposed to his previous books, there’s a slower build up to the violence, but always that atmosphere that it’s about to occur. His writing provides a closeness to his characters so that it’s possible to feel their desperation and understand their thought processes, but not so intimate that they can be predicted - you know them, but you don’t know where they’re headed.
As in all three of his books, the theme is faith, and characters using it to justify their actions when it is challenged. But I suspect this will appeal to a wider audience than the previous two, there’s a satirical quality to it, as it reaches a satisfying conclusion, there’s room for at least a smile, maybe even a chuckle.
As in all three of his books, the theme is faith, and characters using it to justify their actions when it is challenged. But I suspect this will appeal to a wider audience than the previous two, there’s a satirical quality to it, as it reaches a satisfying conclusion, there’s room for at least a smile, maybe even a chuckle.
February 19, 2020
This is Hinkson's tour-de-force, an examination of a particular brand of American Christianity and rural life through a noir lens. I loved every moment of this suspenseful tale and will read it again soon.
December 21, 2019
Brother Richard Weatherford made a mistake. He had a little hank panky with a disturbed college dropout named Gary. This might not sound too bad, but in small-town Arkansas a man of Weatherford's stature, who is preacher of the biggest church in the county, cannot afford to get caught doing such sinful activities by his wife, his children, or his congregation. This is literally the case when Gary and his girlfriend, Sarabeth, blackmail Brother Weatherford for thirty grand to keep the matter quiet. While the preacher has a large family and a substantial church attendance, he sure as hell doesn't have the money to pay off Gary.
Oh, did I mention that this is all happening on the day before Easter and Gary wants his cash now? With such an important day approaching, Brother Weatherford must reach out to political rivals and betray his ethical and religious beliefs in order to satisfy Gary and keep his secrets safe. Personal secrets and unplanned violence are going to spread across town when the lid blows off this caper. Weatherford wants to protect his life, Gary and Sarabeth want the dough, and some people in the county just want a drink. What can go wrong?
In addition to a suspenseful tale, Dry County also includes a little glimpse into the temperament of the 2016 election and contemporary America. I wouldn't call this a political book per se, but it contains a dash of thoughtful commentary. In my opinion, this makes the book a little unique among the country noir genre and if it becomes popular, or rediscovered decades from now, it could become an important book.
Oh, did I mention that this is all happening on the day before Easter and Gary wants his cash now? With such an important day approaching, Brother Weatherford must reach out to political rivals and betray his ethical and religious beliefs in order to satisfy Gary and keep his secrets safe. Personal secrets and unplanned violence are going to spread across town when the lid blows off this caper. Weatherford wants to protect his life, Gary and Sarabeth want the dough, and some people in the county just want a drink. What can go wrong?
In addition to a suspenseful tale, Dry County also includes a little glimpse into the temperament of the 2016 election and contemporary America. I wouldn't call this a political book per se, but it contains a dash of thoughtful commentary. In my opinion, this makes the book a little unique among the country noir genre and if it becomes popular, or rediscovered decades from now, it could become an important book.
December 4, 2022
Talk about bleak! Small-town Arkansas. A preacher who is quite proud of what he's achieved, in terms of growing his congregation, overseeing his five children and, well, it's hard to fathom how he sees his marriage, other than that his wife reflects well on him. She does the things the wife of an important pastor should do, dutifully. Never mind that he hasn't touched her in years and she certainly does not love him.
As you know from the Amazon description, Brother Weatherford has a secret, a rather damning one if it were to get out, and he has a blackmailer, and no money to pay off the guy. But this is not a simple blackmailing scheme and the complications are WOW! What a mess! The mystery is how, if at all, he will get out of this sticky situation and what he will learn about himself in the process. And what his wife will learn.
The religion is so oppressive it's a wonder anyone attends to it; the day-to-day following of it was enough to curl my toes. But, of course, the general culture is pretty much the same, so . . .
This really is a good book, although it does put the dark in noir. Grab your antidepressants and read away!
As you know from the Amazon description, Brother Weatherford has a secret, a rather damning one if it were to get out, and he has a blackmailer, and no money to pay off the guy. But this is not a simple blackmailing scheme and the complications are WOW! What a mess! The mystery is how, if at all, he will get out of this sticky situation and what he will learn about himself in the process. And what his wife will learn.
The religion is so oppressive it's a wonder anyone attends to it; the day-to-day following of it was enough to curl my toes. But, of course, the general culture is pretty much the same, so . . .
This really is a good book, although it does put the dark in noir. Grab your antidepressants and read away!
August 4, 2020
Review from Twitter:
Just finished Dry County. It’s going to take me a day or two to recover from this book, son. I don’t call a lot of works brilliant but this one clearly is. It’s the type of book that makes other writers jealous because we all want to write something this smart.
Just finished Dry County. It’s going to take me a day or two to recover from this book, son. I don’t call a lot of works brilliant but this one clearly is. It’s the type of book that makes other writers jealous because we all want to write something this smart.
July 2, 2019
Marié, père de cinq enfants dont un porteur de handicape, frère Richard Weather ford, pasteur de son état possède la confiance de ses ouailles ainsi que toutes les apparences de la respectabilité. Quand le jeune Gary menace de révéler leur relation cachée s’il ne lui verse pas la somme de trente mille dollars pour son silence. Richard va mettre en place tout ce qui est en son pouvoir pour se sortir de ce mauvais pas. Chacune de ses actions va avoir des conséquences et de fortes répercutions sur la tranquillité du comté de Van Buren. Il faut imaginer la vie dans une petite communauté, les rumeurs et les « on dit » pouvant briser une vie plus rapidement qu’il ne faut pour le dire. L’action va se dérouler sur une seule journée et on ressent très fort l’angoisse de cette course contre la montre. Les personnages impliqués sont peu nombreux mais ils ont tous des liens entre eux : employé/employeur, beau-père /belle-fille/ petit- ami etc. Les personnages sont amenés à agir voir réagir sans avoir le temps de réfléchir, leurs actes reflètent souvent la bassesse et la frayeur. L’intrigue monte ainsi en puissance sans rien lâcher et le lecteur en total empathie vie les sentiments des uns et des autres. Peut-être est-ce dû à l’emploi de la première personne du singulier, ce « je », est employé par le personnage de référence du chapitre. Tout au long de l’intrigue on a le sentiment d’un jeu pervers du tout ou rien. Je n’ai pas arrêté d’imaginer des scénarii tout le long, avec des extrapolations toujours plus folles. L’auteur arrive à percer les méandres de l’âme humaine et à nous restituer tout ce dont l’homme est capable lorsqu’il est soumis à la pression sans pouvoir apercevoir le bout du tunnel. Un livre fabuleux sur la nature humaine qui nous en dit beaucoup sur la mentalité américaine mais bien entendu ceci est transposable n’importe où dans le monde. Bonne lecture.
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April 15, 2020
Hinkson has published several Arkansas-set crime novels with small presses, and here makes his major publisher debut with a perfectly paced and precisely plotted neo-noir set around the 2016 Easter weekend. Richard Weatherford is the pastor of a Southern Baptist church whose growth has stalled at 300 members and his dreams of being the next Rick Warren have fizzled out. He moved to the small town a decade ago with wife Penny serving the role of perfect church mother, and their five kids round out a picture-postcard pastoral family.
Meanwhile, Brian is a small-time loser who's put everything into a plan to open the dry county's first liquor store -- but the vote on that doesn't seem to be going his way, especially not with Weatherford advocating to keep the country dry. Gary is a young college dropout living at home with his parents -- he has some information that he thinks the pastor will pay to keep quiet. Gary's girlfriend Sarabeth is a grocery store clerk eager to get out of this small town. She also lives at home with her mother, and her mother's leering boyfriend Tommy -- a washed-up ex-high school baseball star who owns a few businesses around the county, including the bar Brian used to work at.
The motivations of these six characters all come together to create a classic noir train-wreck of a situation. As is usual in the genre, the amount of money at stake isn't massive, but it's massive to each of the characters for different reasons. The chapters alternate viewpoints throughout, with Weatherford remaining at the center of it all. It carries a desperate tone fits right in with the work of classic writers like Jim Thompson or Charles Goodis, and carries the 2016 context (characters refer to the relative merits of Trump vs. Cruz as candidate) relatively lightly. It's easy to imagine this as a solid film or a 6-episode TV series in the right hands and I'm curious to seek out some of the author's earlier books.
Meanwhile, Brian is a small-time loser who's put everything into a plan to open the dry county's first liquor store -- but the vote on that doesn't seem to be going his way, especially not with Weatherford advocating to keep the country dry. Gary is a young college dropout living at home with his parents -- he has some information that he thinks the pastor will pay to keep quiet. Gary's girlfriend Sarabeth is a grocery store clerk eager to get out of this small town. She also lives at home with her mother, and her mother's leering boyfriend Tommy -- a washed-up ex-high school baseball star who owns a few businesses around the county, including the bar Brian used to work at.
The motivations of these six characters all come together to create a classic noir train-wreck of a situation. As is usual in the genre, the amount of money at stake isn't massive, but it's massive to each of the characters for different reasons. The chapters alternate viewpoints throughout, with Weatherford remaining at the center of it all. It carries a desperate tone fits right in with the work of classic writers like Jim Thompson or Charles Goodis, and carries the 2016 context (characters refer to the relative merits of Trump vs. Cruz as candidate) relatively lightly. It's easy to imagine this as a solid film or a 6-episode TV series in the right hands and I'm curious to seek out some of the author's earlier books.
May 19, 2020
Fast moving. Hard edges under the boredom of a small town. Gives what feels to me a very realistic version of a pastor’s life and his relationship to the congregation. More importantly it captures the feelings of his wife. The plot tangled me a bit, I questioned the realism of the two-level shakedown going on.
I wanted the end to be more satisfying; for someone to be redeemed. I guess the wife was to a degree, but I thought that was handled clumsily.
Great feel. You’ll read straight through. Going to read more by the author.
I wanted the end to be more satisfying; for someone to be redeemed. I guess the wife was to a degree, but I thought that was handled clumsily.
Great feel. You’ll read straight through. Going to read more by the author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2022
A powerful, disturbing, but deeply satisfying look into the life a preacher, his wife and some undesirable citizens of a small Arkansas town, who become entwined in a circumstance of bribery, theft, sexual deviance, quiet despair, and ultimately murder.
The story has a noir, Bukowski-esque flavor and a profound theological insight into the final and most serious human predicament...the total absence of God when you most need she/him. It is a short novel, and very hard to put down. Tight narrative...each chapter is spoken by one of the principle characters.
This work is not for the faint of heart, and it may make introspection a difficult exercise, but there is a lot of truth exposed in brilliant narrative, if you have the courage to read it.
The story has a noir, Bukowski-esque flavor and a profound theological insight into the final and most serious human predicament...the total absence of God when you most need she/him. It is a short novel, and very hard to put down. Tight narrative...each chapter is spoken by one of the principle characters.
This work is not for the faint of heart, and it may make introspection a difficult exercise, but there is a lot of truth exposed in brilliant narrative, if you have the courage to read it.
October 30, 2019
*3.5*
This was a very fast read, the story is well developed, I enjoyed the different voices and I liked how it was so straight to the point (Everything basically happens in 1 day.)
However, I did not feel that it had a very strong turning point (if at all) and it didn't leave me with any strong feelings at the end.
Overall it's a good book, good characters and a full circle storyline.
This was a very fast read, the story is well developed, I enjoyed the different voices and I liked how it was so straight to the point (Everything basically happens in 1 day.)
However, I did not feel that it had a very strong turning point (if at all) and it didn't leave me with any strong feelings at the end.
Overall it's a good book, good characters and a full circle storyline.
October 20, 2019
I started to give it 3 stars. Heard this plot before. Then I realized I’d felt like I was watching the news, or hearing the latest gossip. I’m an Arkansan. I know these people - skanks and saints both. Good job!
August 20, 2022
This book is Outstanding white trash Hillbilly southern noir.
Richard a pastor at the largest church in the county is the only character who isn’t white trash. Instead he is a conservative hypocrite with murky sexual proclivities.
This was a great book.
Richard a pastor at the largest church in the county is the only character who isn’t white trash. Instead he is a conservative hypocrite with murky sexual proclivities.
This was a great book.
November 2, 2022
Author’s inceptions about theological denial has transformed into “No invisible deity worries over us; no ancient text can save us” idea. He has based storytelling on this belief.
Very good noir plot that describes how life is random when it comes to one’s fight for existence..
Very good noir plot that describes how life is random when it comes to one’s fight for existence..
November 7, 2020
Great fast paced thriller set in a small town. Loved the pace and ending. Good work!
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