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Distant Sons

A Novel

Contributors

By Tim Johnston

Formats and Prices

Price

$14.99

Price

$19.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around October 17, 2023. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

The paths of two young men collide and spark unexpected violence in a Wisconsin town where three boys went missing in the 1970s in this "intricate, haunting novel" (Michael Koryta, author of An Honest Man).

What if?

What if Sean Courtland’s old Chevy truck had broken down somewhere else? What if he’d never met Denise Givens, a waitress at a local tavern, and gotten into a bar fight defending her honor? Or offered a ride to Dan Young, another young man like Sean, burdened by secrets and just drifting through the small Wisconsin town?
 
Instead, Sean enlists Dan’s help with a construction job in the basement of a local—the elderly, reclusive Marion Devereaux—and gradually the two men come to realize that they’ve washed up in a place haunted by the disappearance of three young boys decades earlier. As Sean and Dan’s friendship deepens, and as Sean gets closer to Denise and her father, they come to the attention of a savvy local detective, Corrine Viegas, who has her own reasons for digging into Dan’s past—and for being unable to resist the pull of the town’s unsolved mystery. And with each chance connection, an irreversible chain of events is set in motion that culminates in shattering violence and the revelation of long-buried truths.
 
Gripping and immersive, this crime novel by bestselling author Tim Johnston becomes so much more: a book about friendship and love and good hard work—and a masterful read about how the most random intersection of lives can have consequences both devastating and beautiful.
 

  • Named a Best Mystery Fiction of 2023 by Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine

    Named a Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2023 by Kirkus Reviews,  Novel Suspects, The Rap Sheet, & Thoughts From A Page Podcast
  • "Distant Sons is a mystery about a serial killer, yes, but it’s also not that at all: It’s a heartbreaking story about family, failure, and the fallout from violence. Tim Johnston has crafted a riveting novel that takes us into struggling blue collar America, and locates the hope hidden inside devastating loss. A beautiful book."
     
    Janelle Brown, bestselling author of Pretty Things
  • “The secrets run deep in the eloquent crime novel… a moving tale of friendship, attraction and long-term loss, told with quiet grace and emotional precision.”
    Washington Post

On Sale
Oct 17, 2023
Page Count
400 pages
Publisher
Algonquin Books
ISBN-13
9781643755465

Tim Johnston

Tim Johnston

About the Author

Tim Johnston is the author of the novels DescentThe Current, the story collection Irish Girl, and the young adult novel Never So Green. He holds degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the recipient of the 2015 Iowa Author Award and currently lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Learn more about this author