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The Bramble and the Rose: A Henry Farrell Novel

Review

The Bramble and the Rose: A Henry Farrell Novel

THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE is a dark, blinding joy to read. Author Tom Bouman writes neither long nor frequently; when he does, he makes every sentence --- every word --- count. This newly published work, the third entry in his series, is impossible to put down when you start reading it and impossible to forget when you are finished.

Henry Farrell is a police force of one in Wild Thyme Township, a blink-and-you-miss-it hamlet tucked into the Endless Mountains of northeast Pennsylvania. It is the type of place where police jurisdictions shift among Farrell’s patch, the Holebrook County sheriff’s department, the Pennsylvania State Patrol, and the occasional quasi-administration of a state agency. All come into play with the grisly discovery of a headless body on some acreage near the shared border of two properties whose owners maintain an uneasy peace. The corpse has been mauled by a bear, and it is eventually determined that the creature happened upon this unfortunate individual post mortem.

"THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE is a dark, blinding joy to read.... This newly published work...is impossible to put down when you start reading it and impossible to forget when you are finished."

The victim is Carl Dentry, a licensed private investigator. The reason for his presence in the back end of nowhere, along with the identity of his client, is unknown. Farrell concludes, not unreasonably, that the answers to those questions will lead him to Dentry’s killer.

As one might expect, Farrell has a life outside of law enforcement, and Bouman’s delicate and elaborate construction of this, which is beautifully described here, is as interesting as the quietly riveting murder investigation. Not the least of which is his marriage to Julie (he refers to her as “Miss Julie” throughout his first-person narrative), and the fallout, which includes his parents, as well as his sister and her children, moving into the newlyweds’ homes while they take residence elsewhere. The couple is newly pregnant as well, understandably regarded as a blessing by both.

What keeps Farrell up at night, though, is an affair he had with a married woman named Shelly Bray. That relationship preceded his meeting Julie and for a short time overlapped with their pre-engagement relationship, a detail that Farrell never mentioned to Julie when it would have been more opportune. Shelly subsequently divorced her husband, Jay, and left the area. Jay is still around, but it is Shelly’s return to town that is a source of anxiety for Farrell on several levels.

When Shelly is found dead after being seen talking to Farrell at a local tavern, he immediately becomes a suspect in her murder and must go on the run to prove his innocence at a time when his family needs him most. There is a climax, and then a conclusion that seems full of uncertainty. However, Bouman, in the most subtle of ways, lets readers know that everything turns out okay. Maybe better than okay.

THE BRAMBLE AND THE ROSE is beautifully conceived and written from beginning to end. I do not know if there will be another Farrell novel, but it is my fervent hope that Bouman will revisit Wild Thyme, its inhabitants and the surrounding environs frequently and, if possible, often.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub on March 13, 2020

The Bramble and the Rose: A Henry Farrell Novel
by Tom Bouman

  • Publication Date: March 23, 2021
  • Genres: Fiction, Mystery
  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • ISBN-10: 039354155X
  • ISBN-13: 9780393541557