Review: ‘Black Hills’

At the behest of her former friend and boss, Alice Riley leaves New York City for a small town in South Dakota hoping to clear a man - her former friend's husband - who has been charged with a violent crime. She no sooner arrives than she discovers a community where fracking and addictions to money, power, sex, and drugs have torn the social fabric.

Brother and sister writing team Franklin Schneider and Jennifer Schneider have collaborated to create 'Black Hills,” their debut novel. The authors are Iowa natives who both studied writing as undergraduates at the University of Iowa.

Their gritty noir novel finds Alice and an unlikely new partner - the mistress of the man she's trying to save - taking on a host of power-hungry, dangerous men. To defang the vipers, they get down in the pit, and the result is a bleak, violent, explicit adventure devoid of sentimentality.

In terms of tone, the book is wholly successful, and Alice convincingly exists on the knife edge separating hero from antihero. The interpersonal dynamics in the book frequently feel rushed, with Alice forming deep alliances and antipathies too quickly. Even her questionable decision-making and poor impulse control can't fully explain some of her quick loyalties or willingness to make powerful enemies with the slightest provocation.

Nevertheless, 'Black Hills” is a solid first entry in what could become a gripping series. Alice Riley isn't a character readers will like or admire, but she is complex, and that complexity makes her compelling. Readers who aren't afraid to follow her into the dark will find well-wrought tale in 'Black Hills.”