The Houseboat by Dane Bahr

​    An excellent debut novel slotted right for the higher tiers of the rural noir genre. Not a typical favorite of mine, to be honest, but when done right (and this one very much is) there’s a certain almost musicality to it. Mind you, it’s a sad tune, a lament in a way, there’s bleakness here, grime, desperation, but it’s haunting in its own way, a haunting melody of a story.
    1960s on the coast of Mississippi river is the setting for this cops chasing criminal story. The basic premise of it is actually very basic indeed. There’s a local creep who dilapidated residence gives the book its title, a creep who turns murderous when his desires can no longer be contained by manikins and peeping, and now there’s a proper crime to solve. A crime serious enough that requires outsourcing assistance in form of a city detective.
     The detective, a man haunted by the untimely tragic death of his wife and child seven years prior, a man who tempts death because he doesn’t get much joy out of life, arrives, teams up with the local sheriff and together they proceed to solve the crime.
      Ok, strictly from a police procedural perspective this isn’t the most satisfying of tales, because you know who the perp is, they all but know who the perp is, but fail to apprehend him or make the case stick, time and again. But from a character driven dramatic literature perspective, this is excellent. It draws you right in and holds on tightly to you until the ride is over. I read the entire book in one sitting, it wasn’t even a long sitting either, it just sped by.  There was just something to the writing, a mesmerizing sort of darkness. Noir at its finest.
      So yes, a very enjoyable, albeit a pretty dark, heavy and disturbing read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.