Readers who enjoyed Tom Drury’s trio of novels set in fictional Grouse County, Iowa, (The End of Vandalism, Hunts in Dreams, Pacific) may have despaired of having the chance to pay another visit there after the passage of 13 years. They’ll be delighted that their patience has been rewarded with the arrival of West of Loveland, a quietly wise novel that embeds a mystery about a stolen gun inside an exploration of contemporary rural life.
When Helen Slater and her 15-year-old nephew Rocky discover a loaded Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver by the side of the road after a day of pheasant hunting in the snow, they can’t know that it will be the first step on the road to solving the cold case of a young restaurant hostess who’s been missing for five years. Before that plot takes off, Drury methodically introduces an abundant cast of characters, including some, like Sheriff Dan Norman and reformed thief Tiny Darling, who were featured in Drury’s earlier books, while establishing the complicated and often charged network of relationships that bubbles under the unexceptional surface of Grouse County.
The granular details of those lives are essential to Drury’s realistic portrait of a spirited and vital rural American existence. It’s a sympathetic depiction, likely rooted in his own upbringing in Iowa, that reveals both the challenges facing residents of small, isolated communities and the sense of intimacy and mutual support that can emerge out of that experience. The longing for an undefinable something more that teenager Rocky shares with 63-year-old Louise Montrose Darling Norman—ex-wife of Tiny and now married to Sheriff Dan—reflects Drury’s understanding that these are people with ambitions, dreams, hopes and fears no less consequential for the small stage on which they play out.
While familiarity with Drury’s previous books may enhance one’s enjoyment of West of Loveland, new readers shouldn’t be deterred from picking up this book. Fans of Drury’s novels will be comforted to be back in familiar territory, and those new to his work will want to discover the novel’s predecessors.
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