Lake Country, by Sean Doolittle (Bantam Books; $15.00)

Boy, I like Sean Doolittle. This guy is terrific. His latest, Lake Country, resulted in two back-to-back nearly sleepless nights for me. Reading the book before bed got me so tense that although I forced myself to turn out the light, I was too wound up to sleep.

So here’s the plot: a young woman is hit head-on by a wealthy architect who fell asleep at the wheel. The woman’s brother is serving in Iraq; two Marines, Darryl Potter and Mike Barlowe, accompany him to headquarters where he gets the news that his sister has died. As the brother prepares to leave for the funeral, his truck is hit by an IED and he’s killed.  

Potter and Barlowe eventually leave the military, but their adjustment to civilian life is rocky at best. Potter has had the most trouble: instigating bar fights, drinking himself unconscious, and working sporadically as a collector for a bookie. As they sit in their favorite bar watching a TV. news reporter talk about the fifth anniversary of the death of their buddy’s sister, Potter rails against the injustice of the architect’s light sentence. Secretly, he hatches a plan to even the score.

The next day, some goons show up at Potter and Barlowe’s apartment, looking for Potter and the $11,000 he stole from a restaurant. Barlowe goes back the bar where they’d been the night before and learns that the bartender innocently gave Potter permission to use his lake house. When the same TV reporter from the night before reports that the architect’s 20-year-old daughter is missing, Barlowe realizes his friend is spiraling out of control. He sets out to rescue the girl by finding Potter, with the the goons, cops, and TV reporter hot on his trail. 

 

Doolittle draws memorable, complex characters, all of whom have been beaten down by life.  Even better than his characters, however, is his superb plotting. My description of the plot doesn’t do it justice—it flows with a terrific combination of unexpected twists and bleak inevitability.  I can’t say enough about this author: I like every book of his that’s I’ve read. Lake Country is one of best books I’ve read in long, long time.