The Grove

In John Rector’s dark and fascinating psychological thriller, The Grove, farmer Dexter McCray becomes both detective and suspect. He is a man fighting to escape a troubled past, but after waking from an alcoholic blackout to discover his tractor stuck in a ditch and the body of a teenage girl in the cottonwood grove bordering his cornfield, he wonders if it’s a fight he cannot win. In the hopes of proving his innocence, he sets out to find the truth. Now, isolated from friends and family and devoid of an alibi, he turns to the only person left who can help pick up the pieces of his shattered life…the dead girl herself. Rector understands the complexities of a haunting tale and a compelling who-done-it, and he takes listeners on a ride that is both memorable and unsettling.

“Tough, dark, and beautifully told. Great storytelling.” – David Peoples, screenwriter of Unforgiven, Twelve Monkeys, and Blade Runner

“Spare and evocative as a cornfield in autumn, The Grove marks the arrival of a haunting, powerful new voice in contemporary fiction. John Rector writes with deceptive grace, spinning out irresistible prose with a dark pulse between every line. This is psychological suspense at its most seductive. I loved it.” – Sean Doolittle, award-winning author of Dirt, Burn, Rain Dogs, The Cleanup, and Safer