Book Notes — The Quick, The Not So Quick And The Dead In Indiana

This new book takes me back to familiar places in Indiana, where I spent a good deal of my life. I recognize the characters too. They have familiar, Hoosier ways. But fortunately for me, not too familiar. We’re talking horror here.

Sex, blood and rock ‘n roll. Lots of blood. Well-drawn characters are caught in a gruesome nightmare. Rohn’s Hang on Sloopy is seductively easy reading, funny and terrifying. Just when you think the story is drifting back to a calm, thoughtful investigation of the mysterious disappearances and bloody crimes — something else happens and it’s neither nice nor over.

Rohn’s writing style is lean and straightforward. His story, which moves quickly, reveals a unique mix of the shyly romantic and the deeply cynical as well as characters that evolve from the sadly troubled to the bitterly sadistic. These elements form a completely distinctive and interesting voice.

Randy Rohn is best known for his short stories. His “The Man Who Fell in Love with a Stump of a Tree” appeared in the Best American Mystery Stories 2009. Hang on Sloopy, published by L & L Dreamspell, is his first novel. And it’s mostly likely not his last. Might this be the beginning of a series?