River Rising

River Rising is simply profound! From beginning to end the reader is drawn into a foreign world that exists not far from most of us. There is a richness to this novel that reminds this Louisiana boy of the multi-layered flavors of a good gumbo. Gumbo appears to be a simple dish but is actually made up of many layers of flavors. Such is River Rising. There is a good mystery, depth of character, and story telling well above average. But in the end, this is a book that makes you think. Read the book to the last word. Don't skip anything. See Hale Poser's world through his eyes and you will be changed just as was Pilotville, Louisiana in "River Rising."

So many reviews here have covered the plot. Bottom line: It will haunt me forever. I love to visit New Orleans and the bayou country, so the atmospheric setting, a main character itself, grabbed me and held me from the start. And having grown up in a quiet mainline denomination, I now enjoy what Poser desired--mixed congregations that do read beyond "Be still and know" and apply the last of the Psalms. : ) With its well-drawn main characters, subtle use of dialect, often lyrical prose and powerful, sometimes shocking plot, there's no surprise it won the Christy for Mystery and Suspense.

With elegant prose, themes of racial reconciliation and masterful storytelling, Athol Dickson's fourth novel, RIVER RISING, is a must-read for the new year. As the story opens, the Reverend Hale Poser poles down the Mississippi River in his ancient pirogue to the town of Pilotville, Louisiana, humming a disturbing tune and looking for clues to his heritage. The blue-eyed African American orphan has an unusual closeness to God and the ability to seemingly work miracles. It's 1927, and slavery is only a distant memory for most folks in Pilotville. But simmering under the surface of the seemingly tranquil race relations in the small town is something as sinister as the darkest parts of the swampland. Although blacks and whites exist in a sort of harmony, they refuse to worship together. And, since 1883, twelve newborn babies have disappeared, snatched from their mothers at night while they and their little ones were sleeping. Who wants these children? And for what nefarious purposes? Hale helps Rosa Lamont deliver her baby, which is seemingly breech (the first "miracle") and grieves with them when the baby abruptly is kidnapped. He then rouses the town, both blacks and whites, to hunt tirelessly for the infant. "He had come to find his mother, or his father, or at least a tombstone with their name --- his own name, whatever that might be --- and here he was, looking for a stranger's child instead." In search of the newborn, Hale embarks on a dream-like journey on the tumultuous Mississippi River. Dying of thirst (with the fetid swamp water mocking him all around), he drags himself at a shore where inconceivable horrors, long thought laid to rest, await. To write more about this portion of the book would be to give away a central part of the plot, but although the plot twist here might seem to demand a suspension of belief, it is nevertheless a compelling part of the book. The looming specter of the coming flood lends atmosphere as the story itself reaches a climax. Hale wrestles with his identity and his own awareness of who he is, who God is, and how to communicate love to those around him. His self-consciousness about the miracles he performs becomes a paradox and its own (a bit long-winded) lesson: "Then someone spoke that word miracle, and it entered his foolish head to ask for what he already had, and miracles had seemed to come, and in his heart of hearts he saw them as an outgrowth of his faith, which was of course the very death of miracles, because he had found the surest way to lose a miracle is to try and hold it in your hand." What Dickson brings so beautifully to his narrative is a focused sense of place, in this case, Louisiana's flooded swampland, the Mississippi River and its inhabitants. In one lovely descriptive passage he writes: "Back by the river, low embankments had contained the sides of the stream, but here the waters spread out farther on each side, with the banks lower and not easy to make out beyond the rows of conic

This book is Louisiana's To Kill A Mockingbird. Hale Poser is chaplain of a New Orleans orphanage where he had lived as an orphan. In 1927 he discovers his file in the orphanage attic, and it propels him to Pilotville, Louisiana and his roots. Poser is desperately searching for some sense of who he is, where he came from, and who his parents were. Pilotville lays in the bayous and swamps of Louisiana, far from almost any place and accessible only by boat. Poser gets a job as a janitor in the African-American Infirmary and is content to fit in and listen--until he saves Rosa and James Lamont's new baby daughter, Hannah, from dying at birth because the doctor was too drunk to perform a needed caesarean section. Did the janitor/reverend perform a miracle? That's the debate until baby Hannah is kidnapped from the hospital. But who would take her? And is there a connection to the other mysterious disappearances of children over the years? Rosa is devastated and the father won't stop searching the bayous for their daughter. And Hale won't stop praying and thinking and seeking answers, not only to his own questions, but to questions people in town sometimes think about--but never voice out loud. Can you be a slave and not know it? Can someone appear to be kind and benevolent and yet be truly evil? Can people with absolute power over another's life be brought down? Can separate but equal become equal together? Can the truth really set you free when you tell people and they don't believe you anyway? Is God listening and are prayers answered? This book will grow on you. It will make you ask questions that need to be asked. And the reader will look for answers that are there to be found. You will see the worst side of man--and man at his best, seeking the God of the universe. Once you pick up this book you won't want to put it down until you've turned the last page. Armchair Interviews says: River Rising made could easily make your top ten best books of 2006. It is a spectacular read; one that we believe will be read and reread, with something new found each time.

In 1927, Reverend Hale Poser, raised in an orphanage in New Orleans, returns to his birthplace, Pilotville, Louisiana, in seeking information about his past. When Hannah Lamont, newborn daughter of Rosa and James is kidnapped from the Pilotville Negro Infirmary he enters the desperate search. What he finds in the backwaters of the Mississippi is an evil from the past, long thought dead. His once rock solid faith is destroyed by what he finds and the horrors of what he's forced to endure. Released from one nightmare, he enters another when he's arrested for the kidnapping of baby Hannah. But during a devastating flood, he finds peace and hope and seeks to give freedom to those he left behind. Athol Dickson weaves a wonderful tale of heartache and hope, bondage and freedom, racism and equality in River Rising. Through intimate detail, he brings to life the swamps and river country of 1927 Louisiana. This story will stick in my mind for a long time to come.