Publishers Weekly
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The cruelty and absurdity of family bonds drive this riveting crime saga from Currie (The One-Eyed Man). Babs Dionne, the domineering French American matriarch of her Waterville, Maine, community, maintains a sprawling criminal empire through sheer force of will. After surviving a near-fatal overdose, Babs’s oldest daughter, Lori—a military veteran grappling with PTSD—is tasked with finding her missing sister, Sis. Meanwhile, tensions escalate after Babs discovers that her grandson Jason has a black eye inflicted by his alcoholic father, and some of her formerly loyal lieutenants begin to challenge her authority. Complicating matters, a drug kingpin uncovers an aberration in his supply chain and sends a malevolent enforcer known as “The Man” to New England to investigate. When Sis turns up dead, grief and guilt ignite Bab’s fury, setting in motion a bloody revenge campaign that spares no one in town. Filled with idiosyncratic characters, Currie’s stirring, cinematic tale blends mystery, suspense, and domestic drama to incisively interrogate the limits of filial responsibility. It’s a major achievement. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Mar.)

Kirkus
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A matriarch struggles to keep her family alive and well in a drug-sick patch of Maine. Babs Dionne, the hero of Currie’s bracing fourth novel, has a chip on her shoulder, and who can blame her? In 1968, when she was 14, she was raped by a policeman in her hometown; after she killed him, she was sent to a convent that helped her evade punishment, but that also separated her from her Francophone upbringing. (Her town, Waterville, has a neighborhood named Little Canada in tribute to its Quebecois roots.) Fast-forward to 2016, and Babs’ role as the town’s doyenne—achieved by running the community’s opioid trade, passively supported by police and religious leaders looking the other way—is starting to collapse. One of her daughters, Sis, is a meth addict who’s gone missing; her grandson needs rescuing from an abusive father; another daughter, Lori, is an Afghan war vet who’s shuffling between heroin and oxy. (We first meet her overdosing in a bar bathroom before a dose of Narcan saves her.) Meanwhile, a hitman for a rival dealer has arrived in town, ready to kill anybody standing in his way. The setting is almost relentlessly tragic and violent—oh, and there’s a meth-dealing serial killer on the loose—but Currie’s focus on Babs’ intense care for her family gives the novel an almost cozy temperament. "If you loved like Babs does, it would break you," a friend says, and Babs exemplifies a family that loves deeply if not always wisely. The plot turns on Babs’ efforts during a summer week to resolve a death in the family, protect who’s left, and start a school that’ll support the community’s dying Francophone culture. Nobody will confuse this for an Anne Tyler novel, but Currie has created a charming community to root for, even if, as the title suggests, all victories here are pyrrhic. A hyperviolent family saga with surprising amounts of humor and empathy. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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Growing up in the Little Canada area of Waterville, ME, Barbara "Babs" Dionne learned early on that life isn't fair and that the only one who was going to fight for her was Babs herself. Now she is the de facto ruling power in Waterville, pulling the strings of local politicians and law enforcement while overseeing the sale of illegal drugs in her small town. However, the disappearance of her youngest daughter Sis and the arrival of a mysterious, nameless stranger in town are a signal to Babs that everything she has worked so long and hard for could come crashing down. Award-winning screenwriter and novelist Currie (The One-Eyed Man) doesn't pull any punches in this brutal character-driven mystery. Violence, heartbreak, sorrow, and a dash of grim humor are splashed across the pages with abandon as Currie carefully chronicles the fascinating, unforgettable life of a woman who will do anything for her family, her French American heritage, and her town. VERDICT Fans of Dennis Lehane's Mystic River, as well as readers who appreciate their crime fiction served straight up with no chaser, will be mesmerized by Currie's latest.—John Charles