It’s not often that a crime story dips into the psyche of the perpetrator, but that’s what Alexandra Weis and Lucas Astor have sought to do in the first book in their upcoming St. Benedict series. RIVER OF ASHES is the story of teenage twins Dawn and Leslie Moore and their connection to Beau Devereaux, the local golden boy with a dark secret. Beau, high school football star and son of the town’s biggest business magnate, is dating Dawn, the popular cheerleader half of the two sisters. But all he can think about is having Leslie. And that’s meant literally: he fixates on possessing her, his thoughts filled with violent avarice. It’s clear from the outset that Beau sees her and other women (and people, really) around him as nothing more than objects. Leslie is one of the few who can see this, but unfortunately, she can’t seem to show her sister that it’s true.
Beau’s father, Gage Devereaux, sees it all too clearly, too. Gage thinks he’s created a fence around his son sufficiently to keep this dark nature from being exposed, and in turn to protect his own image and family name. Gage is mistaken in this belief. Over the course of the novel, Beau devolves into this truest self and leaves behind very human wreckage, in a nail-biting series of events that readers watch from multiple perspectives – including Beau’s. Undoubtedly a monster, it’s never clear–even from his point of view–whether Beau’s evil was born or made. Either way, the results of his impulses, which are revealed as the story progresses, are harrowing. Authors Weis and Astor do an excellent job making the alternating perspectives work, as well as delving into Beau’s mindset, especially as they head towards an ending that no one could have seen coming. They also craft a bond between Leslie and Dawn that’s quite true to life, and the wedge that Beau attempts to drive between them is equally realistic.
Set in a small town outside New Orleans, the mood is a dark one from the get-go, adorned with Southern gothic touches. The story is intriguing, filled with well-drawn characters, and it’s only held back by the speedy, somewhat stilted nature of the dialogue and, on occasion, the characters’ inner monologues. The pacing of the events can consequently unfold more quickly than is arguably due. Overall, though, this doesn’t erase the fact that RIVER OF ASHES is compelling and heartbreaking. It highlights the truth that appearances and impressions so often take precedence over truth and justice, and the consequences are all too real and, sometimes, even permanent. It is very true to its epigraph, in the end – a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that hearkens to “men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air.”
Alexandrea Weis and Lucas Astor’s RIVER OF ASHES addresses a perennially topical yet under-explored theme: violence against women in a story that is compelling and filled with heart and intrigue.
~Jennifer Weatherly for IndieReader