The Dredge

January 29, 2024
In this accomplished debut mystery, Flaherty revitalizes the familiar trope of old secrets threatening to resurface with sinewy prose and well-tooled suspense. In the present, plans are underway to dredge Gibbs Pond in Macoun, Conn., after a yearslong silt buildup. Developer Lily Rowe, who’s leading the project, hopes it will increase property values in the area, but also fears new light may be shed on dark secrets from her family’s past. Her father, Abe Rowe, physically abused his wife and children, including Lily’s brother, Ray, whose resulting behavioral issues—including violence and classroom disobedience—led the neighborhood to label him a dangerous pariah. Abe and Ray both disappeared in 1993, not long after the death of Eli Casey, who once tried to intervene and protect Abe’s wife, Bonnie, from her husband’s violent outbursts. Casey’s sons, Cale and Ambrose, who knew Lily growing up, have concerns of their own about what violent secrets the dredging might expose, leading Cale to return to Connecticut from Hawaii so he can convene with Ambrose. The past and present unfold gradually from the vantage points of Flaherty’s well-drawn leads, keeping readers on a knife’s edge as the full scope of each character’s history clicks into place. Admirers of Eli Cranor’s Ozark Dogs will be riveted. Agent: Duvall Osteen, United Talent Agency.

March 1, 2024
Estranged neighbors dig up childhood trauma in a New England town. "For such a small town, it feels like we've had more tragedy than most," says Joan Gindewin, a lifelong resident of Macoun, Connecticut. Indeed, the families portrayed in Flaherty's debut novel are defined by misfortunes large and small, sudden and slow burning. The Rowes, for example, are known for their erratic behavior, inherited from an alcoholic father with a temper "like a river coming down on you"; quiet and sympathetic Lily Rowe is the exception to the family's cycle of violence. The Casey boys, Cale and Ambrose, are haunted by a series of family accidents and disappearances stretching back to an infamous nor'easter before they were born. The novel bounces between these characters' 1990s childhoods and the 2020s. Still in Macoun, Lily is a recluse, devoted to her work as a property developer. Cale is in Hawaii, a hotshot real estate agent with intimacy issues; "I'm afraid you have secrets," says a girlfriend before they break up. Meanwhile, Ambrose, who runs a construction company in Macoun, feels he's "been forced, stuck, to stay behind and protect" a secret that his brother fled so far to escape. The three characters' property-adjacent professions highlight questions around ownership and change, especially as they each become embroiled in the fate of the muddy pond abutting their childhood homes. With so much history buried in its murk, what claim do they have for preserving or disturbing it? Although the stakes are weighty, Flaherty's unadorned writing holds the drama at a remove. Childhood events are told haltingly but given great psychological significance, while characters are mostly left sketched. Readers might agree with Joan: "First, you don't know people...then you do, then you realize you don't." A plot-forward depiction of family history--and how it can haunt for life.

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