Affiliate link attached. If you buy through it, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.The Current
by Tim Johnston
When two young women leave their college campus in the dead of winter for a 700-mile drive north to Minnesota, they suddenly find themselves fighting for their lives in the icy waters of the Black Root River, just miles from home. One girl’s survival, and the other’s death—murder, actually—stun the citizens of a small Minnesota town, thawing memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may yet live among them. One father is forced to relive his agony while another’s greatest desire—to bring a killer to justice—is revitalized . . . and the girl who survived the icy plunge cannot escape the sense that she is connected to that earlier unsolved case by more than a river. Soon enough she’s caught up in an investigation of her own that will unearth long-hidden secrets, and stoke the violence that has long simmered just below the surface of the town. Souls frozen in time, ghosts and demons, the accused and the guilty, all stir to life in this cold northern place where memories, like treachery, run just beneath the ice, and where a young woman can come home but still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted, unrelentingly suspenseful, and beautifully realized, The Current is a gripping page-turner about how the past holds the key to the future as well as an unbreakable grip on the present.
The Current by Tim Johnson is a book I featured in my Must Read Thrillers for Autumn post and one I’m glad I got to read so shortly after finding it. I’d expected a somewhat creepy, atmospheric story and while it wasn’t exactly what I’d thought it would be, it was still quite the entertaining read.
The Current takes place in a small Minnesota town where the murder of a young woman has haunted the town for ten years. Questions of how she ended up dead in the river are brought to the surface again by the death of another young woman and the survival of a third who went into that same river. I’d expected a tense, rather thrilling thriller but this wasn’t the somewhat typical story I’d thought it would be and the women’s stories didn’t connect the way I’d thought they would. I was pleasantly surprised by the course of this novel. It was slower with a focus on the characters and the emotional impacts of the events, not a plot driven, pulse-pounding mystery. The timelines of the women’s stories were woven together flawlessly, catching readers up in the web of secrets and suspicions of this small town. There was a great balance between compelling, dynamic characters/relationships and an unexpected and interesting plot. I really enjoyed how this story was told, starting in present day with Audrey but going back to ten years ago to see how the death of a girl unfolded and effected the people in the town. Information was given to readers about that death through the flashbacks but also in present day. The first half of the book was a bit slow but I wasn’t bored learning about the characters and their history. The second half was where I really didn’t want to put the book down and couldn’t believe where the story was going. It was well written—leading me to believe one thing, making me questioning it, and then completely shocking me. The Current told a compelling story that never drifted into cheesy tropes or thriller cliches and, by the end, was frighteningly realistic.
The first thing that really struck me in this book was the writing style. Right away, it was a little off and made the reading a bit strange. Sentences ran on, sometimes veering away from the point and often becoming convoluted and lost in metaphors. It’s purely stylistic and I know many readers like this style, but I wasn’t crazy about it. Also, sometimes the writing was just too direct and almost read like stage directions. An example: “Audrey standing there doing nothing. Saying nothing, just watching.” Bits like that just felt awkward. Eventually, I settled into the writing and found myself mostly unbothered by even the occasional run on sentence. While aspects of his writing stood out negatively in the beginning, there were some scenes where I thought his style shined. They were actually opposite feeling scenes—one feeling rather detached and the other feeling chaotic and more intense—but it just worked well. My complaints felt only line-level and they didn’t inhibit the reading experience much. Looking at the writing big picture—the way the story was revealed and told, the atmosphere created, the realistic characters and relationships—it was quite well done.
I think the characters were well crafted and complex. Nobody was exactly who I thought they were and they often did things I didn’t see coming. I appreciated the multiple POVs that gave a dynamic, well rounded view of the situation and revealed what everyone knew and thought about what happened ten years ago and what was happening now. They were well written characters facing a variety of difficult situations that made them easily understandable and relatable, but also kept readers wondering if everyone was really as they seemed.
Overall, I enjoyed The Current quite a bit. It wasn’t exactly what I’d expected but I really liked how the story unfolded and was pleasantly surprised by the direction it went in. It was a compelling story with a mostly satisfying ending, although some questions remain unanswered. I recommend it to readers of crime and thriller novels, as well as anyone looking to explore the genre. It’s not a creepy read, but a worthwhile one nonetheless.
4/5
Have you read The Current? Are you planning to? Tell me what you think in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Madison