Eli North is not okay.

His drinking is getting worse by the day, his emotional wounds after a deployment to Afghanistan are as raw as ever, his marriage and career are over, and the only job he can hold down is with the local sheriff’s department. And that’s only because the sheriff is his mother—and she’s overwhelmed with small town Shaky Lake’s dwindling budget and the fallout from the opioid epidemic. The Northwoods of Wisconsin may be a vacationer’s paradise, but amidst the fishing trips and campfires and Paul Bunyan festivals, something sinister is taking shape.

When the body of a teenage boy is found in the lake, it sets in motion an investigation that leads Eli to a wealthy enclave with a violent past, a pharmaceutical salesman, and a missing teenage girl. Soon, Eli and his mother, along with a young FBI agent, are on the hunt for more than just a killer.

If Eli solves the case, could he finally get the shot at redemption he so desperately needs? Or will answers to this dark case elude him and continue to bring destruction to the Northwoods?

From time to time, life comes and knocks each of us down. Leaves us a little battered and bruised. There are few things more fascinating than watching how someone responds when they are down but not yet out. For me, this is true in life and in fiction—blessed be the underdogs. In her assured debut novel, Northwoods, Amy Pease gives them their proper due.

Eli North is “going through it.” Ever since he came back from Afghanistan, life has been a series of relentless knocks and defeats. His wife has left him. PTSD has made him unfit for his old career, so now he serves as a deputy sheriff (working for his mother). And his only solace lies in the bottle, which he takes to more with each passing day…

Then a teenage boy turns up dead in the local lake.

Hungover and worse for wear, Eli nonetheless commits himself to solving this boy’s murder, seeing a potential chance for redemption. Thus begins a twisty and at times harrowing investigation that reveals the unseemly underbelly of their sleepy Wisconsin resort town. From private country clubs to local bar managers, seemingly everyone is implicated in a widening web of greed, coercion, and double-dealing. Can Eli solve the mystery before evidence is destroyed or more violence erupts?

Northwoods is an atmospheric slow burner that kept me guessing at every turn. It’s only January, but I suspect it will prove to be one of the best crime fiction reads of the year. Don’t miss out!