Review: Local Poet by Paul Trembling

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About the book:

A horrific road accident is just the start of a journey into the dark past of the local poet. Rob doesn't know Laney Grey. But when she deliberately steps out in front of his van and dies on impact, his life will never be the same. The police declare him innocent, but how will he deal with the guilt?

Now Rob is driven to know who she was, why she chose to die, and why he had to be part of her death. To understand her, he must read her poetry. To know her, he must unravel the mysteries of her past. As Laney's dark secret starts to come to light, and Rob's innocence is questioned, he must learn the full truth. But truth comes at a cost. Will Rob be the one who has to pay the price?

My Thoughts:

Local Poet was a very intriguing read and definitely not something I would normally pick up.  The premise sounded interesting though and so I gave this little novel a try.  This novel was short but an intense read as we walk in the shoes of Rob, a delivery driver, who has just experienced a terrible accident.  In his normal daily drive he is unable to miss a young woman who all of a sudden steps out and is hit and killed by his van.  Everything happened so fast he is not even sure what actually happened.

He is mired in guilt over what has happened so he sets out to find out who his victim, Laney Grey was.  He finds out that she is a poet and begins to read her published works.  As he gets to know her through her work, he begins to suspect that Laney may have been trying to tell someone, anybody something very important in her poetry.  As Rob slowly uncovers the details of Laney’s life and death he discovers a much more startling and dangerous revelation.

This was a very smartly written mystery and suspense novel that immediately drew me into Rob’s and Laney’s life in a well told first person narrative.  Taking place in Britain it was fun to read a novel with some of their slang and nice to step out of the USA for a bit.  I did end up enjoying this novel more than I thought and I look forward to reading the Local Artist when that is released.  In regards to content, there is a little bit of language sprinkled here and there.

I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher.  I was not required to give a positive review and all views and opinions are my own.