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    Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
    Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
    Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    Fourth of July Creek: A Novel

    Written by Smith Henderson

    Narrated by MacLeod Andrews and Jenna Lamia

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In this shattering and iconic American novel, PEN prize-winning writer, Smith Henderson explores the complexities of freedom, community, grace, suspicion and anarchy, brilliantly depicting our nation's disquieting and violent contradictions.

    After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face to face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times.

    But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the F.B.I., putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMay 27, 2014
    ISBN9780062332035
    Fourth of July Creek: A Novel
    Author

    Smith Henderson

    Smith Henderson is the author of Fourth of July Creek and lives in California and Montana.

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    Reviews for Fourth of July Creek

    4/5

    373 ratings68 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I moved from the Pacific Northwest seven years ago. I was looking for a story to remind me of home. Although I loved the readers voice he mispronounced so many places! I wanted to turn off this audiobook the minute he pronounced Spokane with a long A. But.... The story had already tweaked my curiosity. There was a line in the book when Pete wants to know why no one is looking for his daughter but every level of law enforcement is out looking for two of the other characters. It really made think. I really liked the story despite the mispronunciations.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      This wasn’t too bad. You can definitely tell Gross is a student of James Patterson’s method, because the book is filled with short and punchy chapters. He’s done a good job capitalizing on the current economic climate, showing us a worst-case scenario, of sorts. Unfortunately, financial storylines tend to make my brain shut off, so I should have known that I wouldn’t love this. The good thing is, I was able to follow what was going on enough to get it. Hauck isn’t a bad character — he’s one of those guys that just can’t leave well enough alone. I kept expecting more of a romantic interlude with Naomi, based on the way he described and reacted to her, and that colored my opinion of him a bit. After all, he has a girlfriend at home. That line is never crossed, but I’d be surprised if this is the last you see of Naomi Blum. Speaking of surprises, I wasn’t surprised by any of the twists, even the final one about Ty’s true connection to April. Frankly, it was obvious almost from the start.
    • 3/5
      I don't think I liked how this ended. Lots of twists in the plot, but I just didn't care for the ending.
    • 4/5
      Two eleven-year-old girls kidnap what they believe to be an abandoned baby. A few days later the baby is found dead. Fast forward seven years as the two girls are released from prison. Then other children start disappearing. Alice and Ronnie are the two girls. As the reader gets inside each of their heads, it is obvious they have some serious problems. They are not so much friends as co-dependents. Alice appears to be the one easily manipulated but the twist comes in the end as Detective Nancy Porter works these disturbing cases. The most interesting character is the mother of the baby who died seven years ago. Her vengeance makes the reader almost believe she is the one behind the kidnappings just so she can get the two girls blamed and back into prison. Seven years, in her mind, wasn’t enough for killing her baby. She had wanted them tried as adults but the prosecutor had struck a deal. Her stalking of the two girls is pretty eerie but understandable.
    • 4/5
      Excellent book. Good pace/rhythm. I will definitely read more Gross.
    • 4/5
      It was a good read. Her books usually are. I didn't agree with ending, though. Alice got away with everything while Ronnie suffered.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. Lippman's writing is engrossing from the first word making this book difficult to put down. I did sort of guess the ending, but it is sort of obvious. What I didn't see were the small details, and that's what really makes this book.

      I'm really hoping that Lippman has a few more books for me to add to my to read list. I would definitely recommend this to someone who likes a bit of a crime thriller, but a crime thriller with a bit of a twist!
    • 5/5
      This book and its characters are so messed up. There are some truly despicable characters with some truly despicable lifestyles but the writing and story were so compelling that I didn't want to put it down. Most readers won't have trouble finding somebody to hate in this story, and overall it is bleak and devoid of happiness but well worth a read in my opinion. By the end my feelings were so conflicted.

      The only criticism I have is that the "interview" type chapters with the daughter were confusing and uninteresting the first few times. It wasn't until later on that I really got into them and appreciated that perspective. The ending will surely disappoint those looking for a tidy conclusion to this hot mess of a great book. Highly recommended, unless you're easily offended.
    • 1/5
      I couldn't finish reading this sick sensationalist murder tale.A waste of time better spent reading almost anything else.Laura Lippman makes this stuff up, she must be a real charm to live with. She should purge her soul by researching and writing a novel about nice people doing nice things.
    • 3/5
      I don't normally pick up books like this, I have to be in a rare mood to read a thriller, but something about the Goodreads description intrigued me to enter the giveaway and lo and behold, I won. This book is apparently third in a series, but that fact had no impact on the storyline at all. It read like it's own, independent novel and it was a nice change of pace from what I have been reading lately.When a friend from investigator Ty Hauck's past is murdered, he finds himself trying to solve the case and is thus drawn into a much larger mystery involving the collapse of the economy. Together with government agent Naomi Blum he travels the world to find out once and for all what's going on and to bring justice to his deceased friend.The plot line was intricate and could be seen from several different points of views of various characters. It read like a movie and was definitely a page-turner right through the bitter end. Just when you think things are winding down -BAM!- they're not and I loved that. What's more, you can tell Gross is a student of James Patterson because of the chapter length. I love short chapters, they really keep a novel moving in my opinion. Overall, glad to have won and read it.
    • 3/5
      This was better-written than I expected a mass-market paperback to be. And it had a good twist at the end. However, I disliked the "born bad" explanation for the murder; that is just as "easy" and stereotypical as blaming the girl from the tough home.
    • 4/5
      I can see why this book made it on some best-of-the year lists. It is a compellingly original story told with a unique voice. Maybe because I was a social worker in a previous life, I appreciated the relationships depicted between the male social worker protagonist and the judge, law enforcement and other colleagues. The novel's only shortcoming is the female characters are all prostitutes/moms/wives/stepmoms/waitresses. Recommended if you like Willy Vlautin's writing especially "Motel Life."
    • 5/5
      An ex-policeman working in a private financial firm becomes involved in the investigation of two prominent banking heads who are killed. His investigation gets him involved with the US government and takes his chase around the world. So very good. Grabs you from the start. So typical Andrew Gross!
    • 2/5
      I can’t say my first experience with author, Laura Lippman was a positive one. I really didn’t enjoy Every Secret Thing. I thought the plot jumped around to much. There seemed to be far to many unnecessary story-lines. So many times well reading the book I was thinking. O.k. Where is Ms. Lippman going with this? Also I kept thinking. Can you please get to the point. Pages and pages of descriptions and pointless chatter between characters that didn’t really have a part in the story. I won’t give up on Ms. Lippman totally. I’ll read a few more of her books. Hopefully she has something else worth-while reading.
    • 4/5
      Two eleven year old girls are asked to leave a birthday party after one of them gets angry and accidentally hits the birthday girl’s mother. They are allowed to leave without a ride home and without any adult supervision. On their way home, they spot a baby in a carriage, unsupervised, outside the closed door of a house. The girls take the baby and later say that they took the baby to protect it and keep it safe. The problem is that the baby is dead. Did one of the girls kill it, or both, or did it die naturally of SIDS? Only the girls know the truth and they blame each other. Seven years later, babies are going missing again. Is it one or both of the girls, just recently home from juvenile detention, as the mother of the deceased baby thinks, or is it someone else?Every Secret Thing is a really good mystery with lots of twists. Some of the twists I anticipated in advance, but others took me by surprise. It is told through a variety of the characters’ views, sometimes switching from one to another too fast for my taste, but it does add more detail to the story. I hate to say it, but I didn’t really like any of the characters in Every Secret Thing, but I’m not sure Lippman wants the reader to like them. I did kind of like the detective, Nancy, but she wasn’t really well-developed enough to gain much investment from me. I didn’t trust either of the two girls, and I really didn’t like the mother of the baby that was killed in the beginning. She just seemed self-important, judgmental, and bossy. Alice’s mother seemed odd, and I wasn’t sure what to think about Alice’s lawyer, but I didn’t really like her either. The reporter obviously didn’t care about anyone other than herself and I never understood what had caused her to become stuck at such a low-level position to begin with. Despite the character issues, Every Secret Thing keeps you guessing, making you question what you think you already know. It had me racing to the end to find out if my suspicions were accurate or not. It was a thrilling ride and I was itching to know what the truth really was.I recommend this one, with just a little complaint that the character POV change was too abrupt at times.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Two young girls, Alice and Ronnie, are sent home from a birthday party for misbehaving. On their way they discover a baby in a baby carriage sitting outside a house. No one is around so they rescue her and hide her. When the baby is found she is dead. Both girls are sentenced to 7 years in a correctional facility. Once they are out, at age 18 years, they return to their homes. Ronnie gets a job and tries to pick up her life. Alice wanders the streets, ostensibly to lose weight. Another child is missing and both young women are suspected. Detective Nancy is put on the case. She thinks something was wrong with the first case and that its connected to the this one. The mother of the fist child is sending hints to the police and to the newspapers to move the case along. Nancy must determine if this woman has an ulterior motive.Review: This was a good story but was draggy in parts. It was a nice change from Tess books.
    • 3/5
      Synopsis: Alice Manning and Ronnie Fuller, two 11-year-old Baltimore girls, were on their way home from a birthday party when their lives were changed forever. The girls spot a child, unattended in a baby carriage. Deciding to help, the girls take the baby and try to care for it. But the baby dies, and Alice and Ronnie are sent away for 7 years.At the age of 18, the two girls are released and instructed to have no contact with one another. Each girl is to try to build a new life for herself. But when babies start to disappear in situations startlingly similar to Alice and Ronnie's crime, people begin to wonder whether the two girls should have been released and what really happened to the baby the girls were charged with murdering.Review: The premise of this novel is very intriguing. Two 11-year-old girls kill an infant, serve time in jail, are released, and then similar crimes begin to occur. I think, especially given the unfortunate events that occur in our society, children committing murder does hold a bit of fascination for the reader.With that being said, I wasn't blown away by this novel. I enjoyed it, particularly the first half of the novel, but it ended up being one of those books that are more exciting in the dust jacket description than in execution.The characters were well written. The plot was good. The writing style was very easy to fall into. This book was also a very quick read. There was just something lacking for me, though. It was missing that extra bit of oomph that would have pushed me from lukewarm to on fire.If you are looking for a decent mystery novel with an unusual plot, definitely check this book out. I wouldn't steer anyone away from this book, but I might not guide them toward it either.
    • 3/5
      Sure, there aren't many characters to like in this novel, but I'm not so simple as to not be able to enjoy and appreciate what an author does because there are no sunshine and puppies. If you want a nice little novel about people doing nice little things (yawn) look elsewhere. If you aren't afraid the the dark side of human nature and can enjoy a novel about people you wouldn't necessarily want over for dinner, you could do worse than this book. I found it an interesting look into what women are capable of. So often we want to deny women the ability to be vicious or dangerous, but this novel puts them on equal footing with men in those departments. Overall I enjoyed the story about these fractured people and how their lives intersected. Helen disturbed me the most and I think the narrator did a great job with her character. Her low self-esteem manifested itself in such bizarre ways that seemed to contradict and then override any maternal instinct she might have posessed. Alice, her daughter, was drawn a bit heavy-handed to be completely believable and I wasn't surprised to see her true self emerge in the end. Ronnie, while not always a sympathetic character, earned those feelings in the end, at least from me. Cynthia was a woman driven by her dark side just as much as Helen was. Nancy wasn't so clearly drawn as the rest. She kept harping on her former need for attention, but it didn't really come through since we were beyond its time frame. While it's not her best work, I think Lippman wrote an unusual story well.
    • 4/5
      "'I'll put one in that boy's brain before I let you have him. That is a solemn fuckin promise.' He leaned forward. Pete flinched. The man spat on him. Then he whipped around and heaved his naked son up onto his hip and jogged into the brush…Another day at the office." (35)There is lots of tough talk in this debut book. The rugged setting and gritty characters reminded me of some of my favorite authors, Daniel Woodrell, Cormac McCarthy, and Jon Clinch. Set in a rural part of Montana, Pete Snow is a social worker for Child Protective Services. Looking out for the needs of children is an interesting job for a man whose daughter detests him and who is barely able to hold his own life together. We soon learn that Pete doesn't shy away from difficult situations. When he investigates the curious case of Benjamin Pearl who is malnourished and dressed in rags, he repeatedly tries to help an angry survivalist who doesn't want any help. Young Ben is just one of his many cases that drives Pete to the bars at night for some relief. And then, there is his personal tragedy: a broken marriage and a runaway teenage daughter. The author is in no hurry to tie up the many crossroads of Pete's life as he juggles his cases and travels the country in search of his daughter. The logistics of travel are not so easy in this part of the country. Wyoming is such a vast and wild area that even the town Pete lives in is named Tenmile for its distance from "civilization." His clients are spread over a big area from the back woods to the empty spaces of the plains. Daughter Rachel uses the state name as a verb when she "wyoms" (which I interpreted as an aimless sort of wandering) through her life. I ended up caring about (most) of these hardscrabble characters that were so difficult to like in the beginning. Smith Henderson knows something about living in poverty and the overwhelming odds against those living on the fringes of society…and he doesn't flinch or mince words when he tells their stories. This was a remarkable debut, and I look forward to seeing what is next in Mr. Henderson's arsenal.
    • 5/5
      Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson is an astonishing debut novel and a one that I will carry with me for quite some time. Henderson takes the reader back to the beginning of the Reagan area and into rural Montana where Pete Snow, a social worker, is trying to help almost feral eleven-year-old Benjamin Pearl, until he comes up against Benjamin’s survivalist father, Jeremiah. Soon the F.B.I. are involved in a manhunt for Pearl and Pete finds himself in the center of it all while his own life is falling apart. Fourth of July Creek with make readers think about iconic America in all its complexities and contradictions, along with the ideas and views of violence, anarchy, freedom, and the value of community. Fourth of July creek is a book that is not to be missed.
    • 3/5
      I have never read a novel by Andrew Gross, but have enjoyed Gross's joint ventures in writing with James Patterson. Gross and Patterson both employ the short chapter that tricks a reader into completing another chapter. Both men utilize a range of characters and settings that force the reader to continue reading just to discover what is happening. This novel centers on a worldwide plot to topple the financial world that reeks of reality. Has the world become like King Midas who never has enough power and wealth? As usual, both Patterson and Gross write a fast paced novel that demands that the reader stop and think about the world's corrupt practices.
    • 5/5
      In what at first appears to be a burglary gone wrong, At first, the murder a successful Wall Street trader and his family appears to be a burglary gone wrong. Then another financial executive dies in a suspicious “suicide.” Ty Hauck left law enforcement and is now an investigator works for a major private security firm. As he investigates the deaths, he uncovers an international financial conspiracy and discovers that the miscreants will kill anyone who gets in their way.With its fast pace and building suspense coupled with convincing characters, makes this a book that will give readers much to enjoy.Recommended.
    • 5/5
      It has been a long time since I have had a story so engrossing that will spend an extra hour in drive way,or actually take a longer route so I can listen to it. The author has a gift of explaining the tiniest of details through the use of medaphors. The narration is great and his voice certainly reflects the moods of this story. I look forward to his next novel.
    • 4/5
      Every Secret Thing is a standalone mystery that is not part of the Tess Monaghan detective series. This dark story from Lippman was inspired by a real crime in which two ten-year-old boys killed a three-year-old boy. In Every Secret Thing, the perpetrators are two eleven-year-old lower class white girls, Alice and Ronnie, and the victim is a nine-month-old baby named Olivia from an upper class black family. Thus, Lippman explores not only the crime and the nature of the juvenile justice system, but also the intersection of race and class in Baltimore County.Alice and Ronnie are each automatically released from prison at age eighteen, and simultaneously, a rash of child abductions occur. Most of the children reappear shortly after they are taken, until Maveen Little’s three-year-old girl is taken, and she doesn’t return.Evaluation: Nothing is as straightforward as it seems in this story. Even the twists don’t resolve neatly; the book is in fact more like “real life” than one might want! Interestingly, almost all the characters are female. There is no romance to lighten the mood, nor actually much of anything that lightens the mood. This is a good book, but one that had me longing to go back to the brighter life of Tess Monaghan.Note: This book won both the Anthony Award (for mystery novels) and the Barry Award (for crime novels) in 2004.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book! This was my first book to read by this author. I was prompted to read this because it won the Anthony Award for 2004, and I am always interested in reading any books that have won this literary award. It was a page turner to the very end.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Two eleven year old girls are convicted after they kidnap the baby girl of a prominent public official. Seven years later, they are released and babies start disappearing again.The Take-Away: I really thought that this would be tough to read, but the violence stayed off the pages. It was referred to, but never in detail. In fact, the lack of detail added to the suspense of the story. Who really was the murderer? Was it the dutiful Alice Manning or the unpredictable Ronnie Fuller? Each girl blamed the other, but the true story doesn't come out until the end of the novel.Lippman is better known for her Tess Monaghan. I'm not familiar with them but would pick them up. The writing in this one was so fab that the others are probably good too.Recommendation: If the subject matter seems too tough, try a different title. This author is worth it.
    • 5/5
      elaborate thriller set in a world where everything is connected, where not just bullets can kill people. highly plausible how things could happen as described.
    • 2/5
      I read this book a couple years ago after seeing the excerpt in the back of the book I was reading. I anticipated the book, read it, and was thoroghly disappointed. It wasn't just that the characters were horrible people, it was the writing itself. There wasn't much to recommend it, and the story, since it wasn't well written, dragged forever for me. This is a book that lasted probably a month for me (really unheard of when it comes to me and reading), but I just couldn't get into it. When I was done I just let out a relieved sigh. Yeah, I could have set it asside, but as I've mentioned before, it was always really hard for me not to finish a book once I start it. Now I'm finding that it's ok...lifes too short to stick with the bad ones.
    • 2/5
      Andrew Gross has had a seven-year partnership with James Patterson and it shows. I'm mixed about James Patterson who I thought wrote some great books early in his career - the first Alex Cross books were truly outstanding thrillers - and then became, quite frankly, a hack spewing out indifferent thrillers back-to-back. Andrew Gross has benefited in a sense from both sides of this equation - he's definitely learned the elements of a successful thriller and he's definitely learned to spew out the formula. You can probably guess that I'm not impressed with the latter half of the equation.I read a lot of thrillers and many of them are very good. Sure, they follow a formula, but the best ones go beyond that to deliver both plot and characters that make you want to keep turning the pages. Unfortunately for me this just didn't deliver anything beyond the average. The plot premise was definitely interesting: What if the recent economic crisis was actually evidence of a complex terrorist action targeting the financial sector? It's an idea with a lot of promise - a sort of Law and Order ripped from the headlines kind of thing (and I do love Law and Order).Where the problems come is in the characters who are pretty lackluster and typical. Yes, yes, the intrepid hero is intrepid and, well, heroic. Yes, yes, the government agent is female, skinny, and model-beautiful - can you see the TV mini-series being cast? If the book was skewed more towards the female agent, it'd be on Lifetime, but since it's skewed towards the intrepid hero think FX.Don't get me wrong, this was fairly entertaining, but not entertaining enough to keep me up reading and that's the minimum requirement for me to think it was a great thriller.
    • 3/5
      This was the first book I've read by this author. She writes the Tess Monaghan mystery series, but this title is a standalone. It's well written and in some ways reminded me of Minette Walters with the way it delved into characters, offering insights from the past to explain the present. At its heart, it's the story of how the past can come back to haunt the present and the powerless of some people to change things for the better.Alice and Ronnie were eleven years old when they happened across a baby in a stroller in front of a house. Convinced the baby had been abandoned, they took her, and were blamed for Olivia Barnes' death. Now, 7 years later, they've been released from "kid prison" to start their lives over. But when another child disappears, suspicion falls on the two young women.But it's not just Alice and Ronnie's lives that have been altered. There is the detective who, as a police cadet enlisted in the search for Olivia Barnes, found the baby's body and is now one of the investigators on the current missing child case. There is also Alice's public defender lawyer who still thinks Alice got a raw deal, and Alice's mother, who seems to have perfected her own brand of denial. And finally, there is Olivia's mother. Cynthia Barnes never got over her baby's death, and her need for vengeance propels much of the action and the inevitability of the conclusion.I enjoyed the book a lot, but felt at times, a bit manipulated. Lippman is careful to not tell us any detail before she's ready for us to know it. Yet by the end of the book, I felt as if I knew each character intimately and that's due to Lippman's engrossing, engaging prose. If you like a suspenseful page turner, you'll likely find it here.