Life in the small Tennessee town of Millhaven, circa 1990, is sweet and slow. The diner regulars catch up over eggs and coffee, the local teen troublemakers are known to all—with sympathy going out to their sweet mother—and the townspeople expect that interim sheriff Kyle Lorne will take over the job permanently, filling the shoes of his late father. But as the title suggests, beneath the surface, secrets and dirty deeds transpire every day. When Kyle gets a call from the owner of the town's inn, he discovers instead a room sprayed with blood, a female guest gone missing, and a man clinging to life, shot multiple times and without a scrap of ID on him. Also appearing from out of nowhere: a man with a recent cut on his face claiming to be a Chicago police detective on the trail of a wanted woman.

And so Kyle, whose own father believed he wasn’t up to the job of sheriff, takes on the case of his life, exposing dark truths about his hometown as the bodies pile up. Beaudry’s debut offers up a compelling mystery that starts off with a bang, smartly balances procedural suspense and local color, and will keep thriller readers engaged until the end. The Millhaven cast demand and reward interest, from their quips at the diner (“I know for a fact that you haven’t seen any action since the Reagan administration!”) to the touching sense of local history and community Beaudry demonstrates in the face of losses. Small-town life, politics, and corruption are convincingly dramatized, with clear eyes and a touch of satiric humor but also lots of heart and even warmth.

Despite all the amusing chatter the case proves fast-paced and winningly twisty, with crisp action and quick and engaging chapters, as Kyle and a squad of likable helpers tease out clues, save lives, and face ever-elevating stakes. Readers will want more of all this buckshot, fax machines, and “beat-up Ford Ranger”s with “a rusty car transmission and a stuffed deer head” in the bed.

Takeaway: Strong mystery debut pitting an uncertain sheriff against murder and corruption.

Comparable Titles: Ace Atkins’s The Ranger, Declan James’ Jake Cashen series.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A