Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A native son returns to his upstate New York hometown, bringing along a peck of trouble. In Pulitzer Prize–winner Russo’s latest, Nashville icon Tyler Sinclair is returning with his band, Stone Mountain, to his hometown, Stone Mountain, New York, to perform a benefit concert for an old friend, Tim Dockery, known as Doc. When the men were teens, Doc was paralyzed in an accident at the local swimming hole. A few years later, Tyler left town without a word to anyone to pursue what turned out to be a mega-successful music career. But his initial encounter with Doc goes wonky when his old friend suggests that Tyler isn’t universally beloved in his old haunts, and that some may even blame him for what happened at the Falls that day. Then things turn completely south, with the concert interrupted by news of a tragic death, followed by a fatal accident—or maybe it wasn’t an accident. Male friendship, flawed moral character, helpless and enduring romantic love, small-town police, class distinctions between neighboring rural towns—many of the elements of classic Russo are here, but a darker, faster-moving narrative than usual gives the characters less time and space to bloom in our hearts, and there are a number of plot points that don’t bear close scrutiny. In an afterword, the author mentions the novel’s origins as a TV pilot that didn’t survive the writers strike; that might account for both the pacing and the less satisfying character development. Fans would be better served by revisiting the North Bath trilogy or the ever-delightfulStraight Man (1997), so full of the trademark Russo humor that’s lacking here. Has much in common with the author’s most beloved novels, but lacks a few degrees of warmth. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Tyler Sinclair left rural Appalachia when he was 18. Now 36 and a Nashville legend, he's back with his band, Stone Mountain, to play a benefit concert for an old friend, Doc, who was paralyzed from the waist down by an accident in which Tyler was involved. Tyler didn't want to return, but his singing partner/wife, Beth, hopes it'll jolt him out of the melancholy that's taken hold of him. Still, memories flood in: an abusive father; a mother who gave up on Tyler; living in a town where there's nowhere to go, nothing to do. The concert sours at the end—not everyone is happy to see Tyler again. Doc never even makes it to the concert, and he dies unexpectedly. A car crash then leaves half the band dead and Tyler no longer able to perform. Good people have turned bad, and it all ties back to Tyler's precipitate flight from home 18 years before. As usual in a novel by Russo (Bridge of Sighs), all the elements—plot, character, ambience—coalesce in a stunning and deeply sympathetic portrait. VERDICT This one is a treasure, another winner from an author who seemingly cannot write a bad sentence.—David Keymer

Publishers Weekly
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This gripping and grounded tale of friendship and self-delusion takes place in rough-and-tumble Stone Mountain, N.Y., a small town in the Adirondacks that’s less like its upscale, tourist-destination neighbors and more like the Rust Belt communities Russo portrayed in his early novels such as Mohawk. Tyler Sinclair, frontman of famous rock band Stone Mountain and the only native who made something of himself, is returning for the first time in 20 years to kick off the group’s latest tour with a fundraiser for a local man, Tim “Doc” Dockery, who was paralyzed below the waist in a swimming accident that Tyler and his best friend, Curt, now the town’s police chief, witnessed when they were teens. In Tyler’s mind, the reason he left at 18 was because Curt’s girlfriend and now wife, Freddi, was in love with him, and he didn’t want Freddi to leave Curt. Curt, meanwhile, told himself the same thing. As the narrative unfolds, it emerges that at least one of the main characters is responsible for running opioids into town, and Curt and Tyler face their respective naivety and narcissism to reckon with the real reason behind Tyler’s flight. In between action sequences, including a deadly high-speed chase and a shoot-out in an abandoned church, Russo probes the flawed and soul-searching characters of the two men and finds the meaning of their lifelong bond. It’s a memorable literary thriller. (Aug.)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Tyler, Doc, Curt, Freddi. As teenagers in their Adirondack community of Stone Mountain, they were the “four musketeers,” so close that Tyler named his rock band after the place where they grew up, grew close, and then eventually grow apart. Eighteen years after his abrupt departure, Tyler returns as a music superstar, enticed against his better judgment to perform a benefit concert for Doc, a paraplegic whose condition is a direct result of his and Tyler’s youthful hijinks. While Tyler was rising to fame, Curt and Freddi married; he’s now the town’s police chief and she’s Doc’s primary caregiver. But when Doc dies on the night of the concert and Tyler is nearly killed in a suspicious auto accident, the erstwhile friends confront unresolved accusations, perceived betrayals, and unexpressed resentments that expose a sinister element underpinning Stone Mountain’s communal decline. Originally intended as a TV pilot, Russo’s dark and brooding novel is cinematically lush and emotionally potent, a shrewd treatise on the perils of reunion, remorse, and the quest for redemption.