Title: Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Genre: Historical (’70s), Fiction, Mystery
Length: 305 pages
Book Rating: A
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
In a small town where loyalty to family and to “your people” carries the weight of a sacred oath, defying those unspoken rules can be a deadly proposition.
After fifteen years of growing up in the Ozark hills with his widowed mother, high-school freshman Boady Sanden is beyond ready to move on. He dreams of glass towers and cityscapes, driven by his desire to be anywhere other than Jessup, Missouri. The new kid at St. Ignatius High School, if he isn’t being pushed around, he is being completely ignored. Even his beloved woods, his playground as a child and his sanctuary as he grew older, seem to be closing in on him, suffocating him.
Then Thomas Elgin moves in across the road, and Boady’s life begins to twist and turn. Coming to know the Elgins-a black family settling into a community where notions of “us” and “them” carry the weight of history-forces Boady to rethink his understanding of the world he’s taken for granted. Secrets hidden in plain sight begin to unfold: the mother who wraps herself in the loss of her husband, the neighbor who carries the wounds of a mysterious past that he holds close, the quiet boss who is fighting his own hidden battle.
But the biggest secret of all is the disappearance of Lida Poe, the African-American woman who keeps the books at the local plastics factory. Word has it that Ms. Poe left town, along with a hundred thousand dollars of company money. Although Boady has never met the missing woman, he discovers that the threads of her life are woven into the deepest fabric of his world.
As the mystery of her fate plays out, Boady begins to see the stark lines of race and class that both bind and divide this small town, and he is forced to choose sides.
Review:
Taking place in a rural Missouri town in 1976, Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens is a captivating coming of age novel with a slight mystery element.
Fifteen year old Boady Sanden is desperate to leave the small rural town where he lives with his mother, Emma. Thrust into the local Catholic high school after running with the wrong crowd, Boady is invisible to his classmates until he catches the attention of school bully Jarvis Halcomb and his pals. Luckily the school year is almost over so he goes to great lengths to stay out of Halcomb’s sight. However, his confidence is misplaced and the last day of class, Jarvis demands Boady spray paint racial slurs on Boady’s new neighbors’ house. Despite his less than impressive first meeting with Thomas Elgin, the two teenagers have become close friends so Boady has no plan to do Halcomb’s bidding. With racial tensions worsening over the course of the summer, Thomas and Boady find themselves in the crosshairs of the local white supremacy group after the teenagers make a shocking discovery.
Until Thomas moves to town, Boady remains friendless and an outsider who is unnoticed until his protective nature puts him at odds with Jarvis. He yearns for a life away from his small hometown and he has a plan in place to achieve his goal. Boady is saving all of the money he makes working part-time for his mom’s boss, Wally Schenicker, in order to run away. Jarvis’s uncle Milo and cousin Angus also work for Wally which could possibly complicate his plans to lie low in an attempt to avoid Jarvis.
Thomas is none too pleased with his family’s move to rural Missouri. He has no idea how rampant racism is in the local community and he is stunned when Boady explains some of the ways in which African Americans are targeted. Despite the more serious issues occurring around them, Thomas and Boady spend much of the summer exploring the surrounding woods and camping on their own.
But the Sanden and Elgin families find it impossible to escape the rising tension. Thomas’s dad Charles is the new manager of the local factory where Jarvis’s father works. The disappearance of African American Lida Poe, who is suspected of embezzling from the factory, remains unsolved. Charles is very aware of the seething resentment and outright hatred directed his way, but he is determined to uncover the truth about Lida’s guilt or innocence. His efforts are stymied by the lack of investigation by the local sheriff. As events play out, Boady’s neighbor and mentor, Hoke Gardner, is instrumental in bringing in the state police but is it too late to protect them from the peril that is heading their way?
Nothing More Dangerous is a fraught novel that delves into serious topics such as racism, police corruption, and bullying. All of the characters are beautifully rendered and vibrantly three-dimensional. The small town setting vividly springs to life through Thomas and Boady’s adventures and daily activities. Allen Eskens challenges readers to explore their own unconscious biases as Boady comes to terms with his. I absolutely loved and highly recommend this spellbinding and thought-provoking novel.
