Riptide, Oregon, 1983. A sleepy coastal town, where crime usually
consists of underage drinking down at a Wolf Point bonfire. But then
strange things start happening--a human skeleton is unearthed in a local
park and mutilated animals begin appearing, seemingly sacrificed, on the
town's beaches. The Mercy of the Tide follows four people drawn
irrevocably together by a recent tragedy as they do their best to
reclaim their lives--leading them all to a discovery that will change
them and their town forever. At the heart of the story are Sam Finster,
a senior in high school mourning the death of his mother, and his sister
Trina, a nine-year-old deaf girl who denies her grief by dreaming of a
nuclear apocalypse as Cold War tensions rise. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dave
Dobbs and Deputy Nick Hayslip must try to put their own sorrows aside to
figure out who, or what, is wreaking havoc on their once-idyllic town.
Keith Rosson paints outside the typical genre lines with his brilliant
debut novel. It is a gorgeously written book that merges the sly wonder
of magical realism and alternate history with the depth and
characterization of literary fiction. This book will appeal to fans of
genre-bending authors such as Dean Koontz, Karen Russell, Kelly Link,
and Kevin Barry.
