Big Wheat - Richard A. Thompson

This was a very enjoyable book.  It felt rushed at the end and at only 246 pages I don't think there would have been any complaints about a few more chapters.  Set just before the Dust Bowl days when threshing operations traveled throughout wheat country helping farmers bring in the harvest the government had promoted, the story's main character is Charlie Krueger.  A North Dakota farm boy with plenty of reasons to leave town, he does just that one night and stumbles across a serial killer with a self-appointed mission to cleanse the land with blood.  Charlie finds a new life and a new name traveling with a unique group of people. 

Charlie and his friends were likable and I appreciated how they approached and adapted to situations instead of wasting time with disbelief or arguments.  No doubt that helped the story move along as quickly as it did. 

So Cold the River - Koryta

First off let me say this book did not need to be 500 pages long. I really enjoyed the first book I read by this author, Envy the Night. It was similar to other stories set in the north woods type of places, this time in Wisconsin. But So Cold the River took a really long time getting somewhere in Indiana. The setting was excellent, especially knowing that the towns of French Lick and West Baden do house some amazing hotels. However, I still think this story looked way better in the author's head than it does on paper.

Quick summary: failed filmmaker with psychic undertones takes on a job for a rich Chicago lady to do a film on the town her father-in-law hailed from. The town is also the site of a mineral springs. Only trouble is, once the filmmaker takes a swig of the decades-old spring water he starts seeing the past and interacting with it in an increasingly unnerving way.

The parts of this book that were enjoyable were most definitely the "flashback" scenes. I kept reading through much of the rest of the book hoping to get to another glimpse of the past. The twist wasn't necessarily hard to see coming, but it was enjoyable and lightly thrilling. Many of the characters come halfway off the page development-wise. I felt like I almost cared...but not quite. The main character is not particularly likeable but overall this was a diverting summer read. More than anything it serves as a travel brochure for the area in Indiana where it is set. At the end of the story I did not have chills anywhere but I did have the urge to google the old hotels.