Patrick LoCritiques

Arlene struggles with grief following her miscarriage. To take her mind off things she gets a job as a "tag and bagger" at the local sheriff's department in small town Faber. While in the basement waiting for evidence, the lecherous sheriff allows Arlene to look into a cold case to see if she can solve it. [Right here I'm like, Seriously??] The case involves the deaths of three young brothers who came from the "wrong side" of town, their sister who gave birth to a baby fathered by their father and whom the sister abandons with her boyfriend (the "supposed" baby-daddy), who then hangs himself, and some hardly visible character names J.P. who works in a stable.

Lo Patrick's second book, The Night the River Wept, does have some charm. Arlene is quite clever for as simple as she sounds and she reads like the type of person "pert near anyone" could get along with. There are a few scenes that are humorous but wholly out of line with the plot, and I did appreciate the small-town references. But the charm wanes and the reader is left with a slow-moving, implausible, shallow story that was, at times, a chore to get through.

I didn't hate The Night the River Wept, I just didn't see the reason for reading it. The writing was good enough that I wouldn't completely discount giving Patrick's other book a go.