Read this book as part of our book group. It was on the list of best thrillers by a New York Times reviewer. The trope of the vicious serial killer is not enjoyable for me. I don’t mind violence or even expressions of evil but when it is tied to the tired realism of a crime novel, I find it mind numbing rather than intriguing or thought provoking. That said, this is a well written novel with an intriguing perspective of the first black sheriff of a backwater Virginia county.
Charon is the name of the county and also the name of the ferryman of Hades who carries the souls in the underworld. Given the number of people killed in this novel that Titus, the sheriff, feels responsible for, this is an apt name. It is also clear that there is a deeply violent, deeply racist history to this place which is only mostly addressed via the current day story of the Masked Woolf serial killer.
To me, the subplot is more interesting than the main one and it concerns efforts to tear down a Confederate statute that resides in the main square of the city. Its location right near the County Courthouse gives a sense of sanction and legitimacy. The sheriff represents the perspective of black residents and the way these symbols of white supremacy, racial torment and violence eat away at them. We also are placed into the middle of the controversy as the sheriff has to navigate his job, his visceral reaction and peoples’ expectations. Both sides see him as taking sides against them which brings up the question of holding political power by black people when the political structure is set up against them. While it is definitely important that people from all perspectives navigate wielding such power, it does make clear that this is a complex matter.
One of my beefs about serial killer books is that such tropes take up so much oxygen that relationships between characters get short shrift. For example, we understand that Titus isn’t passionately in love with his girlfriend Darlene but we don’t get her perspective on the relationship until she is ready to break up with him. Similarly, we know that Titus’s younger brother Marquis hasn’t had an easy time of it since their mother dead but we don’t get what brings Marquis back into the family other than because of the serial killing. I would have preferred less serial killer drama and more relationship explorations but that’s just me.
