The Current

The Current, a first-rate thriller by Tim Johnston, skillfully merges past and present in an atmospheric and exquisitely suspenseful narrative of two murders separated by ten years. According to The Washington Post, this gripping novel soars above the constraints of a traditional thriller, pulling you deep into the secrets of a grief-stricken town.

Tim Johnston, whose breakout debut Descent was lauded by critics as "astonishing," "dazzling," and "unforgettable," returns with The Current, a tour de force about the indelible impact of a crime on the lives of innocent people.

In the dead of winter, outside a small Minnesota town, state troopers pull two young women and their car from the icy Black Root River. One woman is found downriver, drowned, while the other is discovered at the scene, half-frozen but alive. The incident was no accident. News of the crime revives the community's memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river ten years earlier, and whose killer may still reside among them.

Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes she is connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river. As she plunges deeper into her own investigation, she draws closer to dangerous truths and the simmering violence beneath the surface of her hometown.

In this cold northern town, grief, suspicion, and the innocent versus the guilty all stir to life, where a young woman can come home, but may still not be safe. Brilliantly plotted and unrelentingly propulsive, The Current is a beautifully realized story about the fragility of life, the power of the past, and the need, always, to fight back.