-
Access Our
Most Anticipated
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Book Reviewed by:The highly anticipated new novel from the author whose debut was called "The smart summer thriller you've been waiting for...The novel you should be reading tonight" (NPR's All Things Considered) and was named a Book of the Year by NPR and an Entertainment Weekly Must-List Pick.
Christopher J. Yates's cult hit Black Chalk introduced that rare writerly talent: a literary writer who could write a plot with the intricacy of a brilliant mental puzzle, and with characters so absorbing that readers are immediately gripped. Yates's new book does not disappoint.
Grist Mill Road is a dark, twisted, and expertly plotted Rashomon-style tale. The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends - Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah - are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again - with even more devastating results.
Yates knows how to pack a mean punch and he does so delivering plenty of momentum. Right from those memorable opening lines, you will get swept along so smoothly you’ll barely notice the occasional bump...continued
Full Review
(633 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Poornima Apte).
In Grist Mill Road, readers are treated to a mini lesson in how glaciers can shape landscape. Chatter marks, cobbles, and glacial erratics are all terms we come across in the story. What are they and how does a glacier alter the landscape over the ages?
When a large and heavy object moves very very slowly it has the potential to greatly impact its surroundings. Glaciers alter the landscape in two fundamental ways: they carve out valleys (think fjords) and transport significant volumes of debris including rocks.
Glaciated valleys are created when glaciers pass through large mountains. If you notice sheer mountain cliffsides with very narrow inlets, those are likely carved by glaciers. Fjords in Norway are trough-shaped with steep ...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked Grist Mill Road, try these:
by Nora Murphy
Published 2023
A gripping debut domestic suspense novel, Nora Murphy's thrilling The Favor explores with compassion and depth what can happen when women pushed to the limit take matters into their own hands.
by Julia Phillips
Published 2020
Spellbinding, moving - evoking a fascinating region on the other side of the world - this suspenseful and haunting story announces the debut of a profoundly gifted writer.
Jason Matthews, author of the bestselling Red Sparrow trilogy
Christopher Yates' Grist Mill Road is a terrific thriller. A horrid childhood crime carried secretly to adulthood, with menace lurking around the corner, and guilt hanging heavy overhead. Alfred Hitchcock would have optioned the plot in the blink of his gimlet eye. A gripping read.
