Review: When the Corn is Waist High by Jeremy Scott #ATBR2022
When the Corn is Waist High
by Jeremy Scott
Thanks so much to Keylight Books/Turner Publishing for this gifted copy.
Publisher: Keylight Books
Publish Date: April 19, 2022
Paperback
279 Pages
Standalone
Genre: Thriller
In the early 1980’s, a tiny, rural Indiana farm town experiences a series of confounding and violent murders that shock the community.
Father Solomon Lancaster—the town’s dry-witted sheriff and priest at the community Catholic church—finds himself on the forefront of the investigation. Soon, he’s fighting to match wits with the serial killer terrorizing his town while trying to justify his law enforcement credentials to the FBI as their analysts and profilers take Crooked Creek, Indiana, by storm.
But Father Solomon is hiding secrets of his own. Ones that threaten to rise to the surface as the murders continue and the investigation draws nearer to the truth. As the killer begins to escalate, Father Solomon finds that even the innocent have dark sides, and trust might be the deadliest weapon of all.
My Review:
😑 MEEP.
Father Solomon Lancaster - priest and sheriff in the tiny town in Indiana called Crooked Creek. He should be neither. A serial killer is on the loose and has a trademark for each killing. In such a small town where not a lot usually happens, he finds himself ill equipped in solving these murders. So now what?
Ok - what I liked. There were some pretty funny moments that I chuckled at (chuckled? twice I've used this word this week - I'm turning into my Dad). I liked that Father/Sheriff was fallible in his humanity and, at times, his faith. I didn't even mind that he cussed a lot - some of my closest friends do the same. *smirk*
What I didn't care for - the reveal, saw it coming from miles and miles of farmland away. Didn't care for the reasoning behind everything but that's a personal preference that unfortunately lends to my womp womp review. I also have a pet peeve where the book ends with "The End". I don't know why this irks me so much.
I can't decide if I was ok with Father/Sheriff narrating directly to the reader. It almost made this feel a bit satirical or on the comedy/thriller side and I'm just unsure how that falls for me. Maybe a zillion books I've read does this but for some reason it really stood out in this one.
I really, really wanted to like this more than I did. Uff.
★★
Jessica's Review:
I'm going to keep this review pretty short because I don't even really think I know how I feel about it. WHEN THE CORN IS WAIST HIGH was my introduction to Jeremy Scott, and despite this one not working for me I still want to try another book by him. I liked the writing and I feel like this had a lot of potential, but something in the execution just didn't work for me. This book is the definition of a 3 star read for me - there were things I liked that kept me reading and there were a lot of things that I didn't really like where I almost had to DNF it. Overall, I'm not upset that I read it because I do want to try out more from Scott in the future, but I wanted just a little bit more. Seeing the reviews from other readers, I seem to be an outlier and there are plenty of others that loved it, so if the synopsis intrigues you, then give it a shot!
3 stars
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