Title: Agony HillAuthor: Sarah Stewart Taylor
Series: Franklin Warren #1
Published by: Minotaur Books on Aug. 6, 2024
Genres: Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 320
Format: Hardcover
Source: Minotaur Books
Book Rating: 8.5/10
Set in rural Vermont in the volatile 1960s, Agony Hill is the first novel in a new historical series full of vivid New England atmosphere and the deeply drawn characters that are Sarah Stewart Taylor’s trademark.
In the hot summer of 1965, Bostonian Franklin Warren arrives in Bethany, Vermont, to take a position as a detective with the state police. Warren’s new home is on the verge of monumental change; the interstates under construction will bring new people, new opportunities, and new problems to Vermont, and the Cold War and protests against the war in Vietnam have finally reached the dirt roads and rolling pastures of Bethany.
Warren has barely unpacked when he’s called up to a remote farm on Agony Hill. Former New Yorker and Back-to-the-Lander Hugh Weber seems to have set fire to his barn and himself, with the door barred from the inside, but things aren’t adding up for Warren. The people of Bethany—from Weber’s enigmatic wife to Warren’s neighbor, widow and amateur detective Alice Bellows — clearly have secrets they’d like to keep, but Warren can’t tell if the truth about Weber’s death is one of them. As he gets to know his new home and grapples with the tragedy that brought him there, Warren is drawn to the people and traditions of small town Vermont, even as he finds darkness amidst the beauty.
Review:
Astute, sinister, and immersive!
Agony Hill is an engrossing, gritty novel that takes us to Bethany, Vermont, in 1965, where newly hired state police detective Franklin Warren suddenly finds himself mixed up in a complex investigation involving the death of a local farmer that may be the result of suicide, arson, or just plain murder.
The prose is authentic and rich. The characters are flawed, intelligent, and tenacious. And the plot unfolds and unravels quickly into a compelling mix of family, community, intrigue, drama, secrets, mayhem, and murder.
Overall, Agony Hill is a suspenseful, absorbing, atmospheric tale by Taylor that is a thoroughly enjoyable read and a fantastic start to this new Franklin Warren series.
This book is available now.
Pick up a copy from your favourite retailer or from one of the following links.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press – Minotaur Press for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
About Sarah Stewart Taylor
Sarah Stewart Taylor grew up on Long Island and was educated at Middlebury College and Trinity College, Dublin. She lives with her husband and three children on a farm in Vermont where they raise sheep and blueberries.
Sarah is the author of THE MOUNTAINS WILD, an atmospheric thriller about a Long Island homicide detective named Maggie D'Arcy who returns to Ireland twenty-three years after the unsolved disappearance of her beloved cousin Erin in the Wicklow Mountains. When a young woman disappears and new evidence from Erin’s case is found, Maggie will have to uncover the truth about the Irish man she's never stopped loving and, in order to help Irish police save the missing woman, the truth about who Erin was and what happened to her.
It will be published by Minotaur Books on June 23, 2020.
Sarah is also the author of the Sweeney St. George mystery series, about an art historian who studies funerary art, "the art of death," from Minotaur Books. The first book in the series, O’ Artful Death, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel.
Her non-fiction has been published in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and many other publications.
Photograph courtesy of Author's Goodreads Page.
