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    The Current: A Novel
    The Current: A Novel
    The Current: A Novel
    Audiobook14 hours

    The Current: A Novel

    Written by Tim Johnston

    Narrated by Sarah Mollo-Christensen

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene-half frozen but alive.

    What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them.

    Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she's connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river, and the deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.

    Grief, suspicion, the innocent and the guilty-all stir to life in this cold northern town where a young woman can come home, but still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted and unrelentingly propulsive, The Current is a beautifully realized story about the fragility of life, the power of the past, and the need, always, to fight back.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateJan 22, 2019
    ISBN9781684416394
    The Current: A Novel

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    Reviews for The Current

    4/5

    119 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Absolutely loved it! I read The Descent within about 2 days, and was then prompted to find more by this author. This book kept me from sleeping for more than a couple nights. It doesn't disappoint!
    • 5/5
      Stay with it! This one starts out slowly but soon all the pieces start connecting. Well worth the listen. And if you haven’t heard “The Descent” by this author you are missing out!
    • 5/5
      Because it was only girls… In the river. It’s always been only girls.
The Current is not your ordinary mystery/thriller; in fact, I would strongly discourage those who enter its icy, frozen Minnesotan (and Iowan) world to read it solely for the mystery, or else dissuade altogether those looking for a fast-paced thriller.



      What Johnston has written instead are immensely literary and exceedingly woeful, harrowing character studies of those who are trapped in present and past traumas—all of which collide when one college girl is assaulted on the way home to visit her dying father, the town’s ex-sheriff, and she and her friend go into the icy river. The opening chapter depicting this scene is claustrophobic and written so close-to-the bone that it’s hard not to keep reading when the book then splits into different characters—often simply beginning chapters with pronouns, so that it takes the reader a few pages to disengage from what came before and orient his or her way toward what’s taking place now, and with whom.

      Johnston’s true skill here is his prose: this is masterfully written, almost with echoes of McCarthy, Robinson, Sam Michel, Schutt, Faulkner, and others, yet all the while in Johnston’s own undeniable voice. The prose is what carries one through the bleak world of The Current, and Johnston’s versatility is centerstage when moving between past and present, showing how interrelated they are for people stuck in their own individual traumas. I was very often awed by some passages’ abilities to evoke, to suggest, to reveal the deep winter in which the story takes place as it mirrors so acutely the characters’ dark interior worlds:
Did it fade with time, with age? Or did the thing you fought inside yourself just grow bigger, hungrier, until it took you over?If this book doesn’t leave you feeling frozen, like you’ve been stuck in an ice-cold river in a Minnesotan storm, I would be shocked, floored. And if this book doesn’t leave you moved in terms of how it questions generational trauma, isolation, and sexual assault, then the tremendous empathy Johnston’s book holds up to the light of humanity is but a mirror for whatever demons you harbor inside you.
    • 3/5
      This was the first time I have read anything by Mr. Johnston, and this book was intriguing enough that I already have his previous novel “Descent” on my to-read list. This story is told by several different narrators, and we are also whisked back to the past by a crime that shook the small town where Audrey grew up. Audrey falls victim to this same crime, and we are slowly given glimpses into the past & present by the police involved, the victim’s family, and the accused party and their family. Certain chapters and prose seemed to drag a little, but never considered skipping ahead. This book leads us to believe certain things, and rips out the rug from under us. If this was a more cliched novel, then certain events in the book wouldn’t have transpired the way they did. I can see by other reviews that some were unhappy about the ending, and while I did wish we could have found out some things, I also realize how more realistic this is compared to a majority of crimes
    • 3/5
      Two crimes involving girls that die in the river 10 years apart - sounds promising. However, the story is told in the present and the past from different viewpoints, and it gets draggy and confusing at times to figure out exactly who is talking. It's a dark, depressing story, and one that I didn't find nearly as absorbing as the author's first book "Descent."
    • 4/5
      I found it a bit difficult to keep track of who the characters were and what they were to each other…but once the plot kicked in it was still difficult…but difficult in a different way...difficult to put down. The thing that I found a little hard to believe was the fact that one of the characters fell into a river in the middle of a Minnesota winter and actually survived. I live in Michigan and I have read accounts of people unfortunate enough to encounter any of our lakes and rivers in the middle of a Michigan winter. They can pretty much start forgetting about being rescued and just start planning for their eternity. I think that Minnesota might be the same if not worse. I like this author...loved his book Decent. He hasn’t ever written a bad story …and he didn’t this time either if you overlook the river incident. It had enough going for it to make the reader want to see the outcome.
    • 4/5
      I received this book free as an early reader. I do not listen to audio books but when I read the description of it , it intrigued me. So I started listening and had to start over 3 times. I either couldn't get into it or I had fell asleep. It was a slow beginning but only the first couple chapters. But I will tell you as I started to get into it, it really pulled me in and I didn't want to stop listening. I can't tell you if the reader was so fantastic it made the story that much more terrific but the story in its self is that good you have to read it. I just want to say, You do not want to pass this book up. I can not wait to tell all my reader friends about this one. I highly recommend it!!! It was very different from most books I read and just felt like it was something that could have happened in the real world. love, love, love!!
    • 5/5
      It’s been a while since I’ve read a five-star book. THE CURRENT by Tim Johnston definitely is one, though. This book is outstanding. When it’s sad, it’s not just sad; it makes you want to cry. And so much is sad. But the story will still grab you and won’t let go, even an incident between Audrey and the bad guy (no spoilers here) that stretches the possible and the probable.There are two mysteries going on here, each 10 years apart. In both cases, girls drown in a river, probable murder or attempted murder. One girl, though, lives to investigate.But there are other stories as well, the stories of the girls’ families and of other families also affected, how they live with what happened. And there’s a heartwrenching story of a sad old dog.Johnston doesn’t waste words. His style is to not tell the reader everything directly. Maybe you will have to read some paragraphs over again, but you’ll get used to it.
    • 4/5
      Two girls, Caroline and Audrey, leave their college in Georgia to drive to Minnesota because Audrey’s dad is dying. As they drive, they stop for gas and something bad happens. Something that is very similar to another bad thing that happened 10 years earlier. Atmospheric (I felt the cold of that icy river) and sad but so good! I thoroughly enjoyed this novel by Johnston.
    • 4/5
      This review is for the recorded version of The Current that I received through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. I mainly enjoyed the story and really did feel for the characters. I found the interaction interesting, although they spoke and acted in ways that seemed forced. Would a real person do, say, act that way? Every person did seem formed out of the same mold. All the yes ma’am’s and no sir’s from every single characters started to annoy me. Find any town, let alone two, where every single person says sir and ma’am no matter who they are talking to! Maybe that’s just me… As I said, I enjoyed the story. It kept me guessing and so I would recommend the book.
    • 4/5
      I don't generally read literary suspense or thrillers but one of my favorite booksellers knows that I have a thing for books with water on the covers and pushed The Current on me based on that (and his enthusiasm for the novel, of course). More properly, this has ice on the cover (and I tend to gravitate to running water rather than solid water) but since it's in shades of blue (another weakness of mine), it totally counts for my cover catnip. That J. said it was a great read convinced me to overcome my usual cowardly feelings about the genre and give it a try. Luckily this was not the heart pounding, keep me up at night hiding from bad guys kind of suspense novel that some are. Johnston's newest novel is a tense, slow build of a story that will leave you horrified and angry at the myriad ways that justice has treated woman in the past and continues to treat them, even as it acknowledges important nuances and imperfections in the law and in public perception.Audrey Sutter's father, a retired sheriff in Minnesota, is dying of cancer so she asks her friend Caroline for bus fare to go home to see him before it's too late. Instead, Caroline chooses to drive Audrey from their Southern college all the way north. In the middle of the night, just before they get to Minnesota, the girls stop for gas and Audrey is assaulted in the gas station bathroom. Caroline rescues her and they careen out of the lonely station back toward the highway but Caroline loses control of the car on ice and they come to a stop on the verge of a frozen river. Then headlights appear in the rear view and another car pushes them out onto the unstable ice and both girls end up in the freezing water. Audrey comes to in the hospital but Caroline drowns. This tragic death, and the slow investigation into the two boys who assaulted Audrey and their possible connection to the car that sent the girls into the river stirs up the memory of another girl who drowned in the same river ten years prior and whose murderer was never brought to justice.These two terrible river plunges and drowning deaths ten years apart weave in and out of each other as the narrative moves forward. In a small town, the intermixed connections, close and loose of the people are reflected in the characters and their individual ties to each case. No one is left untouched by these crimes, not the innocent, not the guilty, and the grief and tragedy resonate through the town and the lives of the townspeople forever. Because of the multiple narrative focuses, the twining of the two investigations, and the interconnectedness of the characters, it can be confusing to the reader to try and figure out which year in time the story is in in any given chapter, making it a bit more muddled than is comfortable. For thriller fans, this is not so much a thriller as it is a heavily descriptive and intricately written, character driven story with an unsolved crime (possibly two) at its core. As the denouement approaches, the myriad sub plots, secrets, and unspoken, unacknowledged truths start to come together in a surprising pattern. Johnston has done a very good job laying out bits and pieces that lead the reader in one direction, before turning her in another equally plausible direction entirely until quite late in the novel. Readers who want to feel the penetrating chill of an icy river, the rising tension of a cerebral whodunit, and experience the suffering of those touched by senseless crime will find this a novel to sink into.
    • 4/5
      This book is similar to the author's earlier title "Descent" in that it is primarily about the impact of a crime on surviving family and friends of the victim. Two girls are forced off the road into a river and one of them drowns, reminiscent of a crime 10 years earlier in the hometown of the surviving girl. Throughout the book comparisons are made to the earlier crime, and a suspect in the earlier crime returns to the area, leading to suspicion of his role in the second event. Families are impacted by memories and forced to re-examine their conviction. Very good.
    • 3/5
      I won this book from LibraryThing, thank you. I only thought it was okay. I liked some parts of the story better than others... the girls in the river I thought were a bit hokey. Also, it was an audio book and I think that’s why it’s not rated higher. I didn’t care much for the narrator. And when it ended, I felt as though I missed something.
    • 5/5
      As two college girls, Audrey and Caroline drive North from Tennessee to Minnesota to visit Audrey’s dying father, they hit a patch of ice and spin out on a lonely Iowa bridge. Then another vehicle comes along and pushes them into the icy river below where one girl survives and one does not.To label this gorgeous work a thriller is to do it a great injustice. Johnston has crafted a literary mystery of the highest order, while audiobook narrator Sarah Mollo-Christensen imbues each sentence with the unspoken emotions of the characters who are grappling not only with the current incident but also a similar unsolved death from ten years ago. Many times I found myself tearing up, not because of the words themselves but because of the feelings bubbling just beneath the surface, which were so eloquently conveyed by the narrator. Perfect for fans of Louise Penny’s mysteries and Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River.
    • 3/5
      Audrey needs to go home from college to Iowa to be with her dad, who is dying from cancer and is a sheriff in a small town. Her college friend Caroline offers to drive he there. They stop at a gas station in a small town in Minnesota and Audrey uses the the restroom. When she doesn't return right away Caroline goes in search of her and finds Audrey being assaulted by two men outside the bathroom door. Caroline pepper sprays them and they get in their car and take off. Caroline is driving and since she is from Georgia she doesn't have much experience driving in the blinding snowstorm that has sprung up. They end up spinning out of control and the car stops facing a river bank. The girls take inventory and feel lucky to have stopped where they are. Suddenly they look in the rearview mirror and see headlights approaching them from behind. The vehicle pushes their car into the river. One girl survives and one doesn't. What follows is a connection to the death of a girl 10 years earlier in the same river but in Iowa. I listened to this as an audio book. I think it could have been cleaned up a bit with some editing as some things were repeated too many times. Also the ending left a lot of unanswered questions.
    • 4/5
      Two female college students, friends, are traveling to Minnesota to visit the ill father of one of the girls. Shortly before they arrive at their destination, a freakish incident results in their car going into an icy river. One of the girls survives. The other does not. The incident is not random, and someone is responsible. But who? And why? And why is this incident seemingly very similar to another unsolved one which happened approximately ten years earlier?I can't exactly decide how I feel about this book. I liked the basic story line. I liked the way it began, the way it established the girls' relationship with one another, and the gradual way it unfolded. But there were other things that didn't sit as well with me. The chapters alternated points of view, but it wasn't always clear right away which character's point of view you were reading. And the time lines also flipped back & forth between chapters, and that was confusing too, because it took a while to figure out if the story was in past or present tense. This may have been intensified in the audio book version, which is what I was reading. The climax of the story was, frankly, pretty anti-climactic. And by the end of the story there were still a lot of unanswered questions.So I had some critiques with this book, but I did really enjoy the story. I think had it been cleaned up, it would've been more satisfying.
    • 4/5
      “And down they go, fast and easy in the snow, toboggan-smooth, hand in hand, their grips so tight, the grips of girls much younger, girls who will not be separated, their faces forward, watching the surface of the river, the black glistening ice as it rushes up toward them, larger and larger, until there’s nothing in the windshield but the ice, dark and wide as an ocean and they are going to it. . . ."I liked this dark second novel from Tim Johnston. THE CURRENT is a sort of slow-burn thriller that adds layers of suspense bit by bit, quietly building in tension and power. It's not really a classic thriller or a classic whodunnit mystery, but it's a thriller and a mystery all the same. It's dark and edgy and moody -- and it works. In some respects, this reminded me of his previous novel, THE DESCENT. But, for me, THE CURRENT is more successful. The character development is much better, and the pacing is more confident. It's a better story he tells, and it's a better book as a result. This is profound fiction that explores some very dark places. It's a bleak view of human nature indeed. But Johnston paints his picture with subtlety and sensitivity, and his prose takes us to surprising places. He's given us a great character in Audrey, and many of his other characters are also interesting and fully realized. And yet. It's another thriller that has at its core violence against young women, as did Johnston's first novel. I just can't help wishing for successful novels that explore some of this same territory without going to that place. I won't call that a knock against Johnston's work but a personal preference.The audio narration by Sarah Mollo-Christensen was smooth and competent, but it didn't knock my socks off either. Something about her pleasant voice and delivery didn't always seem quite suited to the bleakness of the story and the prose. Also, given how the story is told alternately through different characters, multiple narrators might have added something extra to this audio production.Well worth reading (or listening to).(Thank you to HighBridge Audio -- and Algonquin Books -- for a complimentary copy in exchange for an unbiased review.)