Chicago Tribune
The Hanging Tree is even better than Gruley’s Starvation Lake … richer and deeper and more emotionally satisfying, and the town is described with a defter, more assured hand.
Kirkus Reviews
Instead of emerging from the watery depths as they did in Gruley’s notable first novel (Starvation Lake, 2009), dark secrets from the past bloom on a storied tree in the upper-Michigan midwinter.
Though she’d returned only recently after leaving Starvation Lake 18 years ago, Gracie McBride had deep roots in the little town. Gus Carpenter, executive editor of the twice-weekly Pine County Pilot, is her second cousin; his lover, sheriff’s deputy Darlene Esper, is her oldest friend. When Gracie is found hanging from a tree along with dozens of shoes young couples have tied together and tossed into the branches, Gus and Darlene’s lives are tangled with hers once more. Gus has been preoccupied with what his fellow citizens consider his vendetta against Laird Haskell, the wealthy plaintiff’s attorney whose promise to build a spanking-new hockey rink for the town seems to have been stalled by insufficient funds. But he’s swiftly engulfed in revelations of political chicanery, domestic irregularities and kinky sex that open unsavory motives for Gracie’s suicide—or was it murder?—even as they send Gus once more back into the past he can’t help sharing with his troubled town. His journey is long and winding, and by the time it’s over, readers will have covered a great deal of territory.
Gus’s second has it all—suspense, mystery, romance, detection, clear-eyed hometown nostalgia, professional dangers along with the other kind—even if it seems that not a single citizen of Starvation Lake has ever outgrown being a goalie, wingman or hockey mom.
Author tour to Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Washington, D.C. Agent: Erin Malone and Suzanne Gluck/William Morris Endeavor
Publishers Weekly
Gruley’s absorbing follow-up to Starvation Lake … vividly evokes the frigid Michigan winters and the even chillier atmosphere of an insular community determined to keep its secrets.
Beth Simpson, Cornerstone Books, Salem, Mass.
Gruley does it again in this second Starvation Lake mystery. With his journalist’s eye for detail, he transports the readers to small town, hockey-obsessed northern Michigan, where they experience a lifestyle and come to know the inhabitants fully. The characters have even more pull this time around, and the pacing is ‘keep-you-up-too-late’ perfect! I’m looking forward to installment number three. Go for the hat trick, Bryan!
Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s Mystery Bookstore, Ann Arbor, Mich.
The real maturity … is Gruley’s use of emotional power – his depiction of Gracie and Gus and their relationship to the people around them, including Gus’ mother, is beautifully done. The end of the book made me cry, which for me is high praise. You won’t forget Gracie McBride anytime soon yourself.
Lansing City Pulse
…a masterpiece of detective fiction, with the right amount of blind alleys that leave the outcome always in doubt. The author, who is the Chicago bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, has topped his first book while capturing the essence of a hockey-crazy Michigan small town.
Asssociated Press
Compared with most of today’s mysteries and thrillers, “The Hanging Tree” unfolds at a slow pace, but that’s a good thing. It gives the reader time to get to know Gruley’s remarkable cast of characters, to explore the complex relationship between a small town and its newspaper, and to glimpse the world of amateur hockey and the people who are obsessed by it. Gruley, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and an amateur hockey player himself, knows this turf well.
As with “Starvation Lake” before it, “The Hanging Tree” is an exceptionally well-written novel by an author who has mastered the conventions of his genre. Discriminating readers will be anxiously awaiting the third book in this promising series.
Booklist
Gruley, Chicago bureau chief of the Wall Street Journal and Edgar Award nominee for his first novel, Starvation Lake (2009), returns to Starvation, a Michigan resort town whose best days are fading in the rear-view mirror. The detective is, again, Gus Carpenter, himself faded from his glory days as a reporter with the Detroit Times. Gus is back where he started but, worse, working on a small-town newspaper with a kid boss who sneers at traditional journalism. The action is triggered by a hanging—an apparent suicide by a woman who left Starvation 20 years earlier, was back in town for six months, and then was found hanging from a tree limb. Gruley captures the hardscrabble life of a recession-rocked small town and the deep interrelationships of the inhabitants while delivering complex, intriguing characters caught up in trouble. His take on contemporary journalism is Evelyn Waugh–worthy. Another winner.
Asbury, N.J., Park Press
What’s special about Gruley’s tale is not just an interesting and well written story, but the author’s ability to make his characters live and breathe on the page.
reviewingtheevidence.com
Gruley has written a taut mystery that is even better than Starvation Lake. There are plenty of twists and turns and the resolution, when it comes, is like a puck shot that has slammed into the net when you weren’t looking.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
In the end, this novel is as much about the struggles of a profession and the angst of a man as it is about the woman in the hanging tree.
Kalamazoo Gazette
The tree of the title is steeped in town legend and the title itself has more than one meaning — both tragic and romantic … Gruley skillfully blends the past and the present to infuse this series with heart. The writing is also skilled and propulsive. Once you settle in, you won’t want to leave, even though it’s the middle of winter.
Houston Chronicle
The richly rendered community … gives extra depth to the sad tale of a girl gone wrong. That people show unexpected character, including Gus’s hapless young boss at the paper, adds to the complexity.
Night Light Revue
Serving up social commentary with grit and righteous humor, Gruley gets his punches in while keeping up his mystery’s momentum. A fast-paced read, The Hanging Tree moves from the still waters of Starvation Lake to the tougher tides of Detroit, leaving pure pleasure in its wake.
"The Hanging Tree is a terrific story, a dark-hearted mystery entwined in a bullet-fast thriller. Gruley is one of the good ones."
"The Hanging Tree is an engrossing, sure-footed mystery that manages to be both suspenseful and deeply touching."
"Haunting, observant, and filled with complex characters that will remind you of just how much you don’t trust your neighbors. The Hanging Tree will pry its way into your imagination. And it won’t leave."
Library Journal
(Starred Review)
A terrific first novel … this is not to be missed. Highly recommended for all collections.
Chicago Tribune
Smashing debut thriller … a story so gripping that you’ll probably devour it in one gulp—like the heavenly sounding egg pie served at Audrey’s Diner.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
A seamless tale of revenge, redemption, secrets and lost hope ... with twists and turns that are impossible to guess and lead to a shocking finale.
San Diego Tribune
A beauty. An engrossing picture of small-town America and the passions that simmer beneath its complacent surface. Bryan Gruley: Remember the name.
Toronto Star
An irresistible combination — a finely crafted tale that combines an insider's feel for hockey with the twists and turns of a murder mystery.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred Review)
Gruley's outstanding debut effortlessly incorporates his inside knowledge of both the newspaper business and his hockey avocation into a tale of violence and betrayal that will remind many of Dennis Lehane.
Booklist
(Starred Review)
Many good crime novels appear every month, but few have the depth and poignancy of Starvation Lake, which deserves comparison with Dennis Lehane’s Mystic River.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
His characters are genuinely flawed and, Carpenter especially, honestly likable. Gruley's gripping plot unfolds like a piece of investigative journalism...
Cleveland Plain-Dealer
Debuts don’t come much more polished than this tale of corruption and redemption. Gruley gets the details right, from the goofy-endearing features of small-town journalism, to the complexities of lifelong friendship.
BellaOnline, the Voice of Women
A highly entertaining first novel ... a haunting story of harsh reality in a small town. The well-developed characters make it easy for the reader to become embroiled in their lives.
GLiBA Broadside On-line
(The Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association Newsletter)
We're excited to announce GLiBA's first Great Lakes, Great Reads pick - Starvation Lake by Bryan Gruley, a paperback original, published by Touchstone.
New London, Conn., Day
A wonderfully written book that encompasses all the ratcheting tension you'd expect from a first-rate mystery—and at the same time incorporates the layered and bittersweet revelations about life in a small town.
reviewingtheevidence.com
Beautifully written… damn good. Gruley is a writer to watch.
The Washington Post
Gruley depicts small-town life and its newspaper persuasively, and he knows hockey, too.
The Oak Ridge, Tenn., Observer
A tremendously evocative work … a beautifully written tale with a memorable hero and a remarkably developed sense of place.
"A great debut from a major talent."
"Starvation Lake is a wonderful surprise. It is one of those books that won't shake its grip. Bryan Gruley is off to a phenomenal start!"
"Bryan Gruley's Starvation Lake introduces a welcome, human voice to crime fiction readers."
"In this well-written, graceful yet heartbreaking debut, there is much grime lying beneath the shiny surface of winter ice."
"Bryan Gruley digs into the frozen ground of northern Michigan and unearths a gem. Tough story-telling and compelling writing, Starvation Lake is a wonderful debut."
"Starvation Lake is a tremendous read, a twisting ride peopled with vivid characters and a wonderfully evoked sense of place. You heard it here first—Bryan Gruley is here to stay."
"A terrific debut by a talented author to watch...STARVATION LAKE is a clinical dissection of a little town with big secrets."
"Like Gus Carpenter, his small-town newspaper hero, Gruley has an eye for the telling detail and nose for a great story. The hours you spend in Starvation Lake will fly by with this exciting debut. A terrific book."
"A riveting tale of buried secrets, deceit and lies that will keep readers turnign pages until the very end."
"If you like hockey, a murder mystery, a small-town newspaper in middle-of-nowhere Michigan and a great read, then Starvation Lake is for you."
"Starvation Lake has my ote for both Best Novel and Best First Novel of the year."