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The Grove
"Spare and evocative as a cornfield in autumn, The Grove marks the arrival of a haunting, powerful new voice in contemporary fiction. John Rector writes with deceptive grace, spinning out irresistible prose with a dark pulse between every line. This is psychological suspense at its most seductive. I loved it."
-Sean Doolittle, Barry award-winning author of Dirt, Burn, Rain Dogs, The Cleanup and Safer.
--
The last time farmer Dexter McCray went off his medication, someone wound up dead. So, after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, things look worryingly familiar.
With no alibi and a creeping suspicion that he might indeed be guilty, Dexter decides to investigate the crime himself. He can’t tell anybody. Not his friend, the sheriff, who keeps offering to help him winch his tractor out of the ditch. Nor his estranged wife, whose love he’s desperate to win back. And certainly not the Tollivers, his redneck neighbors.
Fortunately, Dexter’s not entirely alone. He has some help.
In the shape of the dead girl herself.
-Sean Doolittle, Barry award-winning author of Dirt, Burn, Rain Dogs, The Cleanup and Safer.
--
The last time farmer Dexter McCray went off his medication, someone wound up dead. So, after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, things look worryingly familiar.
With no alibi and a creeping suspicion that he might indeed be guilty, Dexter decides to investigate the crime himself. He can’t tell anybody. Not his friend, the sheriff, who keeps offering to help him winch his tractor out of the ditch. Nor his estranged wife, whose love he’s desperate to win back. And certainly not the Tollivers, his redneck neighbors.
Fortunately, Dexter’s not entirely alone. He has some help.
In the shape of the dead girl herself.
264 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
269 people are currently reading
877 people want to read
About the author
John Rector
23 books263 followersJohn Rector is the bestselling author of the novels Broken, The Ridge, The Cold Kiss, The Grove, Already Gone, Out of the Black, and Ruthless. His short fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and has won several awards, including the International Thriller Award for his novella, Lost Things.
He lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
He lives in Omaha, Nebraska.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 230 reviews
August 14, 2016
This is a very dark book with a deeply troubled protagonist who would not be out of place in a novel by Jim Thompson.
Dexter McCray is a farmer with a very troubled past. His family has suffered horrible tragedy; he has committed acts of great violence; he has gone off his meds, and he has a majjor drinking problem which occasionally causes him to black out and later fail to remember what he might have done while under the influence.
Dexter has managed to get his tractor stuck near a grove of trees on his farm and in the wake of another alcoholic blackout, he attempts to free the tractor. He is stunned to find in the grove of trees the body of a young woman. Dexter recognizes her as a waitress from the café in town, but he cannot begin to imagine how she wound up dead in the grove.
Dexter fears that he might have somehow killed the girl while he was under the influence. He decides that he dare not report the death for fear that he might be blamed for the death and arrested. He believes that his only course of action is to investigate the death himself.
His decision has enormous ramifications, for Dexter more than anyone else, and in the course of his investigation, he receives assistance from a most unlikely source. To say any more would be to say too much, and Dexter McCray certainly will not be the most attractive character that any reader is likely to encounter this year. But he is one of the most compelling, and John Rector has woven around him a gripping story that plays out in very unexpected ways. This is by no means a traditional crime novel, but it certainly is an intriguing one that will appeal to large numbers of readers who like their fiction dark and their protagonists seriously disturbed.
Dexter McCray is a farmer with a very troubled past. His family has suffered horrible tragedy; he has committed acts of great violence; he has gone off his meds, and he has a majjor drinking problem which occasionally causes him to black out and later fail to remember what he might have done while under the influence.
Dexter has managed to get his tractor stuck near a grove of trees on his farm and in the wake of another alcoholic blackout, he attempts to free the tractor. He is stunned to find in the grove of trees the body of a young woman. Dexter recognizes her as a waitress from the café in town, but he cannot begin to imagine how she wound up dead in the grove.
Dexter fears that he might have somehow killed the girl while he was under the influence. He decides that he dare not report the death for fear that he might be blamed for the death and arrested. He believes that his only course of action is to investigate the death himself.
His decision has enormous ramifications, for Dexter more than anyone else, and in the course of his investigation, he receives assistance from a most unlikely source. To say any more would be to say too much, and Dexter McCray certainly will not be the most attractive character that any reader is likely to encounter this year. But he is one of the most compelling, and John Rector has woven around him a gripping story that plays out in very unexpected ways. This is by no means a traditional crime novel, but it certainly is an intriguing one that will appeal to large numbers of readers who like their fiction dark and their protagonists seriously disturbed.
October 27, 2011
Whew! I'm tired of wincing while I watching this train wreck of a man spiral further and further down his personal road of hell. I dare you NOT to want to reach into the pages and force his meds down his throat! While this may sound like I didn't like it, oh no, but I did. If you like a dark ride and a bit of mystery, you'll find it here.
March 4, 2012
4 Stars
Wow, I guess 2012 is the year for me to embrace the novella, the short story. This quick read by John Rector was the perfect afternoon getaway. A tale of a man, Dexter, who has suffered his entire life with mental illness and instability. He is a broken man with a broken marriage, who has done some very bad things in his life, and gone through even worse. As a young man, he was a high school baseball star with a touch of insanity and an overblown sense of self. He makes some bad decisions and does even worse things, all in the name of friendship and caring.
This book starts out with the reader knowing very little about Dexter and the tragedy at hand. Rector does an awesome job at painting in the details of Dexter's past and his current situation, all the while our present story is unfolding and the situation grows more dire. This is a macabre tale of a demented man's decent into madness. This book reminded me so much of one of my favorite authors works, Caitlin Kiernan.
I really enjoyed the writing and prose of Rector's and will eagerly seek out more from him:
"It happened again..
It wasn't possible.
The girl hadn't been out there for very long, that was obvious, but that didn't mean she'd been out there last night. It didn't mean that I'd seen her and confronted her, or that I'd -
No, it wasn't possible.
I closed my eyes and tried to bring back anything from the night before. All I had a was confusing haze of images and words, then nothing until I woke up that morning covered in mud.
It happened again."
A great fast and creepy read that will leave you wanting more. I highly recommend it!
Wow, I guess 2012 is the year for me to embrace the novella, the short story. This quick read by John Rector was the perfect afternoon getaway. A tale of a man, Dexter, who has suffered his entire life with mental illness and instability. He is a broken man with a broken marriage, who has done some very bad things in his life, and gone through even worse. As a young man, he was a high school baseball star with a touch of insanity and an overblown sense of self. He makes some bad decisions and does even worse things, all in the name of friendship and caring.
This book starts out with the reader knowing very little about Dexter and the tragedy at hand. Rector does an awesome job at painting in the details of Dexter's past and his current situation, all the while our present story is unfolding and the situation grows more dire. This is a macabre tale of a demented man's decent into madness. This book reminded me so much of one of my favorite authors works, Caitlin Kiernan.
I really enjoyed the writing and prose of Rector's and will eagerly seek out more from him:
"It happened again..
It wasn't possible.
The girl hadn't been out there for very long, that was obvious, but that didn't mean she'd been out there last night. It didn't mean that I'd seen her and confronted her, or that I'd -
No, it wasn't possible.
I closed my eyes and tried to bring back anything from the night before. All I had a was confusing haze of images and words, then nothing until I woke up that morning covered in mud.
It happened again."
A great fast and creepy read that will leave you wanting more. I highly recommend it!
January 6, 2015
Dex had some severe mental issues in the past. Someone died. After a judge ordered vacation and electro-shock treatments, he is much better now. Years later his life appears back on track until it suddenly occurs to him to stop taking his crazy pills. Going off the meds is not a good idea. Neither is self medicating with large amounts of alcohol.
After another dead body shows up, Dexter, with the help of his new friend Jessica, must find out what is real and what is delusion, out in the cottonwood grove.
A very bleak tale of one man’s search for the truth about himself and his ultimate decent into madness. I thought this story was excellent, paced evenly and the characterization and atmosphere were dead on. I will definitely read some more from this author. 4+ Stars! Highly Recommended!
After another dead body shows up, Dexter, with the help of his new friend Jessica, must find out what is real and what is delusion, out in the cottonwood grove.
A very bleak tale of one man’s search for the truth about himself and his ultimate decent into madness. I thought this story was excellent, paced evenly and the characterization and atmosphere were dead on. I will definitely read some more from this author. 4+ Stars! Highly Recommended!
March 19, 2011
All atmosphere and character, this neo-gothic (if I may coin a genre) starts out creepy and maintains the tone throughout. By telling the story from the point-of-view of a mentally disturbed man, Rector balances story-telling with character development.
The story is deceptively simple, allowing the action to illuminate the tortured mind of Dexter, the lead character. A quick read that doesn't linger, tells its story, and quickly moves on.
The ending feels like it wraps everything up a little too easily (and maybe a result of my world view, a little too optimistically), but this story is about the journey, not the destination. A solid first novel.
The story is deceptively simple, allowing the action to illuminate the tortured mind of Dexter, the lead character. A quick read that doesn't linger, tells its story, and quickly moves on.
The ending feels like it wraps everything up a little too easily (and maybe a result of my world view, a little too optimistically), but this story is about the journey, not the destination. A solid first novel.
December 10, 2020
Maljka - per RFS
.
Partiamo dal presupposto che, scrivere questa recensione bevendo un buon bicchiere di vino, dopo una giornata di cacca e una pizza super schifosa, mi ha messo di buon umore. Sarà perché domani è Halloween e questo libro è perfetto per l’occasione, oppure perché festeggerò con i miei due bimbi e la mia pazza famiglia che mi fa dimenticare quanto di brutto è accaduto in quest’anno terribile, o semplicemente perché per me leggere vuol dire libertà e leggerezza.
Difficilmente al termine di un libro ne inizio immediatamente un altro, ma in questo caso è successo: la storia appena terminata mi aveva messo un’ansia terribile e avevo bisogno di dimenticare.
Il bosco degli orrori è un romanzo che, se si ha del tempo a disposizione, lo si legge tutto d’un fiato. Lo scrittore è infatti stato in grado di coinvolgere appieno il lettore, sebbene la storia si svolga in ambienti molto circoscritti (principalmente la casa del protagonista, il suo campo e il boschetto limitrofo). Le ambientazioni sono semplici ma suggestive e la storia è molto fluida e accattivante. Come dicevo poco fa, al termine del racconto avevo un’angoscia pazzesca… e credetemi, per me questo è un aspetto positivo in questo genere di lettura.
Ma veniamo alla storia. Gregg, il poliziotto incorruttibile e Dexter, il protagonista principale, si conoscono fin da bambini.
Dex è il figlio scombinato di un padre alcolista e devo dire che lui non è da meno. L’anno precedente, purtroppo accade un avvenimento terribile: Clara, sua figlia, muore a causa di un incidente in bici il cui colpevole non viene mai trovato.
Liz, la moglie, in qualche modo supera l’avvenimento (o cerca di farlo), ma Dex non ce la fa. Inizia così ad andare da uno psicologo che gli prescrive delle pillole per aiutare la sua psiche e cercare di dimenticare un avvenimento che nessun genitore dovrebbe vivere.
Un giorno la sua vita viene nuovamente sconvolta: dopo essersi svegliato da una sbronza colossale, cercando di allontanare il suo trattore da una scarpata, nel bosco davanti casa trova una borsa con i documenti di Jessica, una sedicenne che lavora al Riverside Cafè. Poi, al limitare del boschetto di pioppi, scopre il corpo della ragazza riverso su un fianco come se stesse dormendo.
Se leggete gialli, polizieschi e affini saprete che la prima regola è quella di non toccare il cadavere… quindi, secondo voi perché lo scrittore decide di non attenervisi rischiando di rendere poco credibile il romanzo?
Abbiate pazienza e non ne resterete delusi!
Dex soffre di forti amnesie, ecco il perché di quelle pillole. Molti sono gli indizi che gli fanno pensare di essere il colpevole, ma troppi dettagli sono dimenticati. Crede di esser lui l’assassino, tant’è che tiene il cadavere nascosto a tutti, è il suo segreto, ci parla e si confida.
Ma quale è la verità?
Psicosi e allucinazioni fanno da padrone in questo romanzo al limite del surreale, ricco di suspense, psicologica e momenti d’angoscia nei quali realtà e finzione terranno il lettore incollato alle pagine.
Decisamente indicato per chi ama gli horror, un po’ meno per i deboli di cuore. Devo ammettere che la dettagliata descrizione del cadavere mi ha leggermente schifata, avrebbe potuto esser meno particolareggiata a parer mio… ma sono solo gusti personali.
Se amate il genere vi consiglio vivamente di leggerlo, non ne resterete delusi!
.
Partiamo dal presupposto che, scrivere questa recensione bevendo un buon bicchiere di vino, dopo una giornata di cacca e una pizza super schifosa, mi ha messo di buon umore. Sarà perché domani è Halloween e questo libro è perfetto per l’occasione, oppure perché festeggerò con i miei due bimbi e la mia pazza famiglia che mi fa dimenticare quanto di brutto è accaduto in quest’anno terribile, o semplicemente perché per me leggere vuol dire libertà e leggerezza.
Difficilmente al termine di un libro ne inizio immediatamente un altro, ma in questo caso è successo: la storia appena terminata mi aveva messo un’ansia terribile e avevo bisogno di dimenticare.
Il bosco degli orrori è un romanzo che, se si ha del tempo a disposizione, lo si legge tutto d’un fiato. Lo scrittore è infatti stato in grado di coinvolgere appieno il lettore, sebbene la storia si svolga in ambienti molto circoscritti (principalmente la casa del protagonista, il suo campo e il boschetto limitrofo). Le ambientazioni sono semplici ma suggestive e la storia è molto fluida e accattivante. Come dicevo poco fa, al termine del racconto avevo un’angoscia pazzesca… e credetemi, per me questo è un aspetto positivo in questo genere di lettura.
Ma veniamo alla storia. Gregg, il poliziotto incorruttibile e Dexter, il protagonista principale, si conoscono fin da bambini.
Dex è il figlio scombinato di un padre alcolista e devo dire che lui non è da meno. L’anno precedente, purtroppo accade un avvenimento terribile: Clara, sua figlia, muore a causa di un incidente in bici il cui colpevole non viene mai trovato.
Liz, la moglie, in qualche modo supera l’avvenimento (o cerca di farlo), ma Dex non ce la fa. Inizia così ad andare da uno psicologo che gli prescrive delle pillole per aiutare la sua psiche e cercare di dimenticare un avvenimento che nessun genitore dovrebbe vivere.
Un giorno la sua vita viene nuovamente sconvolta: dopo essersi svegliato da una sbronza colossale, cercando di allontanare il suo trattore da una scarpata, nel bosco davanti casa trova una borsa con i documenti di Jessica, una sedicenne che lavora al Riverside Cafè. Poi, al limitare del boschetto di pioppi, scopre il corpo della ragazza riverso su un fianco come se stesse dormendo.
Se leggete gialli, polizieschi e affini saprete che la prima regola è quella di non toccare il cadavere… quindi, secondo voi perché lo scrittore decide di non attenervisi rischiando di rendere poco credibile il romanzo?
Abbiate pazienza e non ne resterete delusi!
Dex soffre di forti amnesie, ecco il perché di quelle pillole. Molti sono gli indizi che gli fanno pensare di essere il colpevole, ma troppi dettagli sono dimenticati. Crede di esser lui l’assassino, tant’è che tiene il cadavere nascosto a tutti, è il suo segreto, ci parla e si confida.
Ma quale è la verità?
Psicosi e allucinazioni fanno da padrone in questo romanzo al limite del surreale, ricco di suspense, psicologica e momenti d’angoscia nei quali realtà e finzione terranno il lettore incollato alle pagine.
Decisamente indicato per chi ama gli horror, un po’ meno per i deboli di cuore. Devo ammettere che la dettagliata descrizione del cadavere mi ha leggermente schifata, avrebbe potuto esser meno particolareggiata a parer mio… ma sono solo gusti personali.
Se amate il genere vi consiglio vivamente di leggerlo, non ne resterete delusi!
Read
August 6, 2011Despite the fact that I'm sitting here writing a book review, I don't put a lot of stock in people's opinions. What I've learned over the years is that each person brings something completely different to reading a book, seeing a movie, eating a meal, etc.—not just what they think, but how they're feeling or what's going on in their lives at that particular time. My general rule of thumb is, if everyone in the world pans something, I know to stay away from it unless I am willing to risk disappointment; if everyone likes something, I need to be careful to watch my expectations.
John Rector's The Grove came really well-recommended, plus the bulk of the reviews on Amazon were fairly stellar. Unfortunately, I don't agree with any of them. I found this book unexciting (particularly the conclusion), poorly edited and just kind of, well, blah. Rector took an interesting premise: Dexter McCray, an alcoholic farmer who has been struggling with his demons for a long time, wakes up from a blackout one morning to find the body of a young waitress in his cornfield. He has no memory of even encountering the woman, let alone murdering her, but in an effort to figure out what happened (and hopefully prevent suspicion from falling on him), he surreptitiously investigates the crime. And assisting him is the dead girl herself.
I felt as if Rector missed some great opportunities to tell a unique story, and instead chose the easier path, the one I've read down countless times before. McCray is an utterly unsympathetic character despite all that has happened to him, and the book never quite explains what caused the hallucination of the dead girl, and hints at other things in McCray's past but never provides detail. Rector has a new novel that was published by a major company (this book was self-published), so I may give him another try at some point, but I'm still disappointed in this book.
John Rector's The Grove came really well-recommended, plus the bulk of the reviews on Amazon were fairly stellar. Unfortunately, I don't agree with any of them. I found this book unexciting (particularly the conclusion), poorly edited and just kind of, well, blah. Rector took an interesting premise: Dexter McCray, an alcoholic farmer who has been struggling with his demons for a long time, wakes up from a blackout one morning to find the body of a young waitress in his cornfield. He has no memory of even encountering the woman, let alone murdering her, but in an effort to figure out what happened (and hopefully prevent suspicion from falling on him), he surreptitiously investigates the crime. And assisting him is the dead girl herself.
I felt as if Rector missed some great opportunities to tell a unique story, and instead chose the easier path, the one I've read down countless times before. McCray is an utterly unsympathetic character despite all that has happened to him, and the book never quite explains what caused the hallucination of the dead girl, and hints at other things in McCray's past but never provides detail. Rector has a new novel that was published by a major company (this book was self-published), so I may give him another try at some point, but I'm still disappointed in this book.
October 24, 2011
Delve deep inside a broken man and you're sure to find madness. Haunted by demons both real and imaginary, Dexter McCray epitomises the all consuming tortured soul. Having survived life through the bottom of a liquor bottle, the isolated farmer’s rubble of a past never fails to take precedent over the present.
In discovering a murdered teen on the edge of a nearby grove, Dexter envisions his dead daughter and feels any semblance of stability stutter then slip. In the milky white lifeless open eyes of the fresh corpse, doubt and confusion sets in – could he shoulder responsibility?
Rector produces a Molotov cocktail of emotions as Dexter’s alcoholic addled, prescription drug dependent brain comes to terms with this gruesome discovery. Paramount to Dexter’s struggle is the emotions he feels towards the dead girl and the correlation to that of his wife (albeit unofficially separated). The dynamic is creepy and unnerving if somewhat predictable while emphasising Dexter’s warped state of mind.
‘The Grove’, stylistic in its simplicity delivers on all fronts - a slice of neo noir not to be missed. 5 stars.
In discovering a murdered teen on the edge of a nearby grove, Dexter envisions his dead daughter and feels any semblance of stability stutter then slip. In the milky white lifeless open eyes of the fresh corpse, doubt and confusion sets in – could he shoulder responsibility?
Rector produces a Molotov cocktail of emotions as Dexter’s alcoholic addled, prescription drug dependent brain comes to terms with this gruesome discovery. Paramount to Dexter’s struggle is the emotions he feels towards the dead girl and the correlation to that of his wife (albeit unofficially separated). The dynamic is creepy and unnerving if somewhat predictable while emphasising Dexter’s warped state of mind.
‘The Grove’, stylistic in its simplicity delivers on all fronts - a slice of neo noir not to be missed. 5 stars.
November 18, 2017
The Grove is a creepy and deeply disturbing novel. At just under 250 pages, it's a page-turner that can easily be read in one sitting, but after each event unfolds you pause in order to decide if you really want to continue. It's hard to discuss the book without giving anything away, but the entire story centers around a mentally ill man, and the dead girl in the grove near his house who starts to haunt him.
There is some genuinely terrifying imagery in this novel, interspersed with a lot of bad decisions made by the protagonist. We are helpless to witness his spectacular downfall, and that's why it can become hard to continue, and yet equally impossible to put down. Each page forces the main character into a worse situation than the one before. The protagonist's actions are so frenzied and desperate that we almost forget that there is an actual mystery to be solved before the conclusion.
I kept thinking how this book reminded me of the atmosphere in The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. The reader knows from the very beginning that the characters are headed down a path of fabulous ruin, yet it remains unclear just exactly how the entire ride will end.
There is some genuinely terrifying imagery in this novel, interspersed with a lot of bad decisions made by the protagonist. We are helpless to witness his spectacular downfall, and that's why it can become hard to continue, and yet equally impossible to put down. Each page forces the main character into a worse situation than the one before. The protagonist's actions are so frenzied and desperate that we almost forget that there is an actual mystery to be solved before the conclusion.
I kept thinking how this book reminded me of the atmosphere in The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan. The reader knows from the very beginning that the characters are headed down a path of fabulous ruin, yet it remains unclear just exactly how the entire ride will end.
January 9, 2018
Torn between 3 and 4 stars for this one: the "whodunnit" nature of the story is second to the protagonist's expertly captured and creepy unraveling, I understand, but the answers at the end are rushed and not foreshadowed (and they could have been, in ways that backed up the conclusion and still blindsided the reader as they are meant to blindside the protagonist).
The amount that the protagonist gets away with at the end is absurd - he should be at least facing probation or house arrest. His wife is angry about a broken window, but almost getting shot by him means she shows up at his hospital bedside with a smile? Come on. More importantly, we're not shown why anyone *ever* liked this guy; I don't think all characters need to be likable, and he's definitely an interesting one, but why does the wife and this police chief continuously bail him out?
That said, this is an extremely well-paced book that flies along and leaves plenty to the imagination in terms of character background (above complaint minus) where others would fill in too many details. The mental state of someone going from slightly off to completely out of their mind is pretty well captured if you find that interesting and there's elements of Gothic Southern horror. Just don't come for an involved mystery, which the book is advertised as.
The amount that the protagonist gets away with at the end is absurd - he should be at least facing probation or house arrest. His wife is angry about a broken window, but almost getting shot by him means she shows up at his hospital bedside with a smile? Come on. More importantly, we're not shown why anyone *ever* liked this guy; I don't think all characters need to be likable, and he's definitely an interesting one, but why does the wife and this police chief continuously bail him out?
That said, this is an extremely well-paced book that flies along and leaves plenty to the imagination in terms of character background (above complaint minus) where others would fill in too many details. The mental state of someone going from slightly off to completely out of their mind is pretty well captured if you find that interesting and there's elements of Gothic Southern horror. Just don't come for an involved mystery, which the book is advertised as.
September 23, 2022
2.5 Stars
Cornfields. Dead bodies. A descent into madness.
It had an interesting premise, but I didn’t care that much about any of it.
But it was a short, spooky read for the autumn season.
Cornfields. Dead bodies. A descent into madness.
It had an interesting premise, but I didn’t care that much about any of it.
But it was a short, spooky read for the autumn season.
February 4, 2011
A disappointment after the lean, fast thrill ride of author John Rector's debut, "The Cold Kiss." The leanness and fastness are still on display, but the thrills are fairly suffocated under the weight of an unreliable narrator and his plotless meanderings.
"The Grove" would have been far more interesting if it had been more of a psychological mystery in which the narrator, Dexter McCray, investigates the death of a teen girl on his farm to determine who might have killed her -- knowing full well that Dexter, an alcoholic prone to occasional violent blackouts, is at the top of the suspect list. A few possible suspects come to light, but then the narrative is sidetracked by a series of tedious interludes between Dexter and the hallucinated ghost of his possible victim that don't really take the story anywhere. The scenes with Dexter's estranged wife don't particularly add much, either. Several chapters of narrative stumbling lead to a final couple of chapters in which all the deaths in the book are neatly explained in an oh-by-the-way fashion that made me feel cheated.
Where "The Cold Kiss" stayed squarely on the whodunit track, "The Grove" wrongly assumes that Dexter's meandering alcoholic's journey is of more interest. It isn't.
"The Grove" would have been far more interesting if it had been more of a psychological mystery in which the narrator, Dexter McCray, investigates the death of a teen girl on his farm to determine who might have killed her -- knowing full well that Dexter, an alcoholic prone to occasional violent blackouts, is at the top of the suspect list. A few possible suspects come to light, but then the narrative is sidetracked by a series of tedious interludes between Dexter and the hallucinated ghost of his possible victim that don't really take the story anywhere. The scenes with Dexter's estranged wife don't particularly add much, either. Several chapters of narrative stumbling lead to a final couple of chapters in which all the deaths in the book are neatly explained in an oh-by-the-way fashion that made me feel cheated.
Where "The Cold Kiss" stayed squarely on the whodunit track, "The Grove" wrongly assumes that Dexter's meandering alcoholic's journey is of more interest. It isn't.
November 30, 2011
There's potential here--the writing style itself is pretty clean and the setting is evocative enough--but unfortunately this story suffers from a character continually doing the wrong thing for moderately inexplicable reasons. The plot is simple enough: a man, who should be taking medication for some kind of schizophrenic disorder, has gone off the pills. One morning, he wakes up to find his wife gone and a dead body out in his field. He can't remember the fight with his wife, which apparently was pretty bad, nor can he be quite sure he didn't murder the teenage girl. He chooses not to report the body, and the rest of the book concerns his modest investigation into what happened to her. I found the choice there hard to take; why, after continually blacking out and being so afraid that you're doing terrible things, do you not either 1.) start taking your pills, or 2.) turn yourself in? The resolution of the plot also left me cold. The ending was far too simple. I'd love it if there was more adventure in a self-published work; why be so cookie-cutter when you have the freedom to do whatever you like? Still, it's a short, to-the-point thriller, modest in its goals, and at times effective.
January 4, 2011
this is the 2nd amazonencore book I've read. its a pretty good "farmer noir" or country black Gothic or whatever you would call a story about a crazy mfing corn farmer who is trying to deal with his wife just leaving him, his daughter getting run over out on the dirt road on her bike (and dying in the ditch after many hours, oh moan), and having big time black outs from drinking too much whiskey, and getting his tractor stuck in the arroyo after plowing a big strip of his august-almost-ready corn. and finding a dead girl there the next morning when he goes to fetch his tractor out. gulp. he decides nobody will believe him that he (probably) didn't have anything to do with the girl being dead. so he decides to investigate the murder himself.
things start going bad after that. so far, amazon[tucky hates to admit this]encore is batting a 1000 as far as good noir books are concerned.
things start going bad after that. so far, amazon[tucky hates to admit this]encore is batting a 1000 as far as good noir books are concerned.
September 19, 2011
I can't give this book more than 2 stars. It was a page-turner, but not in a good way. It was 256 pages of torture. I couldn't wait for it to be over. This was a dark and tormenting story of a man that was always out of his mind drunk, and was actually OUT OF HIS MIND. I should have known better than to read another book with the main character named Dexter (3rd Dexter in the last couple of months of reading--strange?!). BUT, I paid $1.99 for it, and I didn't want to waste my money--AND I checked reviews, and people actually enjoyed this book. Well, I should have put it down, and kissed the $2 goodbye. Now, back to regularly scheduled enjoyable reading.
October 18, 2022
A solid little spooky story that knows just what it wants to do and does it. Not too ambitious but it doesn’t need to be.
October 30, 2024
3.5 Stars
February 21, 2017
I read a lot of dark books and this one still took me aback. It was different than most of the dark reads I indulge in. There's no romance here and and no HEA. Watching Dexter bury himself deeper and deeper in his own grave was painful. It was most definitely a psychological thriller. It's not fast paced but I never got bored or lost interest. I was hanging onto every moment waiting to see what was next. The interactions between Dex and the girl in the grove were creepy in the best possible way and I couldn't look away. My heart ached for His estranged wife and best friend and also for Dex himself. I thought I knew what was coming but the author managed to surprise me with at least parts of the ending. I was intrigued by how the author addressed mental illness without labeling it or spending too much time explaining it. I understood that Dex was unstable but I also saw the good in him and i desperately wanted things to work out- for there to be some explanation to make Dex seem more normal and innocent than he was. Finally I was impressed with how the author didn't fully tie up the loose ends but did so enough to keep me satisfied. Maybe because It let me go on believing Dex wasn't a bad guy after all.
This was a great read!
This was a great read!
February 18, 2011
The Grove is a novel I found while searching out some reading material for the Kindle my lovely wife gave me for Christmas. It was released through Amazon Encore, a publishing venture which provides a second life to previously released titles which may have been overlooked by larger publishers or self-published yet still acquired a following through Amazon’s website. I can see why this book earned a following.
The Grove is a gothic tale of murder, ghosts (not necessarily the kind you might think), and shattering relationships. The protagonist, Dexter, lives alone on his small farm sipping bourbon, beer, and subsisting mostly on regret. His wife recently separated from him to live with her mother, and he stopped taking his pills. His haunted past refuses to leave him alone.
One day, while staggering around his property the day after a blackout and violent argument with his spouse, he finds the body of a teenage girl in a cottonwood grove. He decides he should investigate what happened to the girl. He thinks by doing so he will be regarded as a hero and earn the respect of his community, and more importantly, his wife.
I’m not going to tell anymore because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. Some reviews I read noted disappointment with the ending of the novel, but I thought it was pitch perfect. I have few complaints.
All the same, there is a plot development somewhere in the third act involving some neighbors that I feel is tacked-on, did not quite feel completely authentic, and could have possibly been left out because it didn’t add anything to the overall story. Also – and this is just about as minor a quibble as you will ever come across – I thought the dialogue needed further editing. For example, characters referred to county roads as “CR’s” as in “CR-11.” I’ve never heard a road spoken of this way before. Living in an area with a lot of county roads, we usually refer to them by using their full name, as in “County Road 11,” or, more often, simply refer to them by their number alone (“I’m driving down 12 and almost home,” etc.) As I said, a minor quibble, but it knocked me out of the narrative at times. This is probably due to my own unique eye for dialogue.
All in all, I highly recommend The Grove. It’s among the best American rural gothic novels I’ve read in some time. It echoes Faulkner and McCarthy in some respects but still manages to be a page-turner. It’s McCarthy light, I guess. The prose is tight and compelling. I seriously read the novel in three or four short sittings and felt mournful every time I had to put it down. The ending left me anxious to check out other books by John Rector. He’s a writer to watch. This is a powerful first novel.
Based on my six-pack rating system, I give The Grove 5 out of 6 shots of Johnnie Walker with a Risperidone chaser.
The Grove is a gothic tale of murder, ghosts (not necessarily the kind you might think), and shattering relationships. The protagonist, Dexter, lives alone on his small farm sipping bourbon, beer, and subsisting mostly on regret. His wife recently separated from him to live with her mother, and he stopped taking his pills. His haunted past refuses to leave him alone.
One day, while staggering around his property the day after a blackout and violent argument with his spouse, he finds the body of a teenage girl in a cottonwood grove. He decides he should investigate what happened to the girl. He thinks by doing so he will be regarded as a hero and earn the respect of his community, and more importantly, his wife.
I’m not going to tell anymore because I don’t want to reveal any spoilers. Some reviews I read noted disappointment with the ending of the novel, but I thought it was pitch perfect. I have few complaints.
All the same, there is a plot development somewhere in the third act involving some neighbors that I feel is tacked-on, did not quite feel completely authentic, and could have possibly been left out because it didn’t add anything to the overall story. Also – and this is just about as minor a quibble as you will ever come across – I thought the dialogue needed further editing. For example, characters referred to county roads as “CR’s” as in “CR-11.” I’ve never heard a road spoken of this way before. Living in an area with a lot of county roads, we usually refer to them by using their full name, as in “County Road 11,” or, more often, simply refer to them by their number alone (“I’m driving down 12 and almost home,” etc.) As I said, a minor quibble, but it knocked me out of the narrative at times. This is probably due to my own unique eye for dialogue.
All in all, I highly recommend The Grove. It’s among the best American rural gothic novels I’ve read in some time. It echoes Faulkner and McCarthy in some respects but still manages to be a page-turner. It’s McCarthy light, I guess. The prose is tight and compelling. I seriously read the novel in three or four short sittings and felt mournful every time I had to put it down. The ending left me anxious to check out other books by John Rector. He’s a writer to watch. This is a powerful first novel.
Based on my six-pack rating system, I give The Grove 5 out of 6 shots of Johnnie Walker with a Risperidone chaser.
September 28, 2011
Dexter McCray should really have kept taking his meds. After (yet another) massive night on the grog in which he fights with his wife (she leaves him), tries to plow his cornfield while hammered, and crashes his tractor in a ravine Dexter wakes and remembers none of it. Another blackout.
The problems start when Dexter tries to retrieve his tractor the next day and he discovers the body of a dead teenage girl in his cornfield. Problem is Dexter doesn’t remember a thing from the night before and doesn’t know if he was the one who killed her. So rather than call the police Dexter decides it would be best if he solved the mystery himself.
As the story unfolds we learn that Dexter has had a troubled and violent past, we also learn that without his medication he is prone to hearing voices in his head. This time the voice belongs to Jessica, the girl whose body he found. With the conviction that he couldn’t have hurt Jessica and guided by her voice Dexter looks for answers.
With the help of lots of whiskey and beer and hampered by recurring blackouts Dexter seeks the truth that he believes will ultimately bring reconciliation with his wife Liz and the belated respect of the residents of the small Nebraska town in which he lives.
This is not a ghost story nor one of supernatural happenings. This is the story of a truly disturbed individual who is seeking the truth but who may not be sane enough to recognise it when he finds it.
Well worth a read.
The problems start when Dexter tries to retrieve his tractor the next day and he discovers the body of a dead teenage girl in his cornfield. Problem is Dexter doesn’t remember a thing from the night before and doesn’t know if he was the one who killed her. So rather than call the police Dexter decides it would be best if he solved the mystery himself.
As the story unfolds we learn that Dexter has had a troubled and violent past, we also learn that without his medication he is prone to hearing voices in his head. This time the voice belongs to Jessica, the girl whose body he found. With the conviction that he couldn’t have hurt Jessica and guided by her voice Dexter looks for answers.
With the help of lots of whiskey and beer and hampered by recurring blackouts Dexter seeks the truth that he believes will ultimately bring reconciliation with his wife Liz and the belated respect of the residents of the small Nebraska town in which he lives.
This is not a ghost story nor one of supernatural happenings. This is the story of a truly disturbed individual who is seeking the truth but who may not be sane enough to recognise it when he finds it.
Well worth a read.
May 29, 2009
John Rector’s writing style is refreshingly tight and defies genre placement. In his debut novel, the author mixes equal parts of psychological thriller, whodunit, and chiller to create a real page turner of a story.
He brings you into the life of Dexter McCray as he wakes up from a blackout, finds his wife gone, the sheriff making coffee, his tractor driven into a ditch, and a dead girl in his field that the sheriff doesn’t know about.
From Dex’s point of view, things don’t look so good. He’s gone off his medication, and he has a history, so he decides to do a little investigating on his own. Dex finds it increasingly difficult to keep it together long enough to figure things out as he plumbs his own depths. The dead girl, Jessica, seems to want to help. But she is also rapidly deteriorating, and in more ways than one.
How this all comes together seems readily apparent, but not all is as it seems.
He brings you into the life of Dexter McCray as he wakes up from a blackout, finds his wife gone, the sheriff making coffee, his tractor driven into a ditch, and a dead girl in his field that the sheriff doesn’t know about.
From Dex’s point of view, things don’t look so good. He’s gone off his medication, and he has a history, so he decides to do a little investigating on his own. Dex finds it increasingly difficult to keep it together long enough to figure things out as he plumbs his own depths. The dead girl, Jessica, seems to want to help. But she is also rapidly deteriorating, and in more ways than one.
How this all comes together seems readily apparent, but not all is as it seems.
August 19, 2015
Robetta da quattro soldi. L'idea avrebbe anche potuto essere interessante se la storia non fosse rapidamente degradata nello splatter. Il protagonista è reso bene nella sua schizofrenia alcolica, ma lo stile è troppo semplice. 4 o 5 parole e punto. Dialoghi serrati ma cortissimi, in cui spesso Dexter parla quasi a monosillabi, senza verbo. Il vocabolario utilizzato è ricco solo nel numero di volte in cui cita johnny walkers, per il resto è scarno, essenziale, grammatica 101. E infine lo splatter. Man mano che la storia somigliava a the walking dead mi infastidivo di più. Perché il lettore senta la tensione, provi ansia, paura non servono descrizioni morbose di corpi in decomposizione, quello fa solo schifo e denota una scarsa abilità narrativa. Per tutto questo 1 stella
November 17, 2011
THE GROVE is a really good novel about mental health. The protagonist is not this loveable train wreck, but he's rather alone, scared and alienated from the people he knew before. Of course, there's a mystery (and a damn good one on top of that), but it's all wrapped up in Dexter McCray's mental condition. It's a sad novel, but it carries an enormous strength from its fearless honesty. John Rector is an unyielding writer and I understand why THE GROVE kicked Kathryn Stockett out of the Amazon Kindle Top 100. Because it's darn good.
August 21, 2016
3.5-The protagonist, who is self-medicating his unspecified mental illness with large quantities of alcohol, describes a series of morbid events involving the decomposition of both a real corpse and another that appears in his hallucinations. The author creates an atmosphere that is wonderfully dark and gruesome but the plot involving the mystery of the dead body fizzles out with a resolution that I thought was an anticlimax (or maybe the anticlimactic resolution was the point of the story). Creepy, disturbing, entertaining.
July 27, 2011
O kadar reklamlarını gördük güzel bişey sandık aldık.. Kesinlikle polisiye değil psikolojik gerilim diyeceğim ama gerilim kısımları çok az :(( Paranoyak bi adamın takıntılarını okuyoruz :PP Tarlasında ölü bi kız bulan adam, katili kendi bulmaya çalışıyor, polise söyleyemiyor çünkü adam ilaçlarını içmeyince kendinden geçiyor hiçbir şey hatırlamıyor dolayısıyla kendisini suçlu olarak yargılayabilirler ama adam, ölü kızı hayali arkadaş gibi görmeye başlıyor falan sevmedim kısaca :PP
May 27, 2009
The Grove is a real page turner and Rector has created an unforgettable character in Dexter McCray. The story is a little bit Twin Peaks, a little bit whodunnit and a whole lot of wait, no, yes I see it now. A quick read that grabs the reader in a strangle hold and refuses to let go until the final page has been flipped.
July 17, 2011
Maybe my moral compass led me to enjoy this book less than I expected I would, but I find it hard to connect to a character who essentially develops feelings for hallucinations of a corpse. Was entertaining I suppose, but I probably would never recommend it...
January 17, 2013
A prime example of why unreliable narrators writing in the first person make for grossly inadequate story telling. Best I can tell a lot of people died, the narrator had hallucinations. That is not even enough for a novella.
December 30, 2012
Loved it...chilling, thrilling, eerie, creepy, and fast paced!
October 23, 2011
GREAT horror book! Stayed up all night reading it
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