The Bitter Past:
A Novel
by Bruce Borgos takes readers to Nevada and Lincoln County. Retired FBI Agent
Ralph Atterbury is most definitely dead. It also was certainly not a peaceful
death. The 71-year-old man has been found strapped down to his recliner. He has
had patches of skin stripped off, every finger is broken, and his teeth were
pulled one by one. All this and quite a lot more was done as he was tortured
for reasons unknown by a person or persons unknown.
It is a brutal
case and one that Sheriff Beck knows is going to be bad. He is ex-military so
he knows a thing or two about what people can and will do to others. He has
seen the work of the Taliban and this far exceeds what they are known to do.
It is not long
before Sana Locke of the FBI shows up. She is beautiful and intriguing on many
levels, but there is something a little off about her. Not just because she
claims to be from nearby Las Vegas when it is far more likely she is out of
Washington. He does not have long to contemplate what is off about her as she makes
it very clear that wants to see the crime scene and the body.
What follows is
a complicated read that moves back and forth between current times and the late
50s and the Cold War. Nevada was the site of the nation’s nuclear testing
program. That program is a significant part of the book as the current case has
links to what happened then. I will leave it there as this is one of those
books where it is better to do a less is more approach to the review so as not
create spoilers and ruin the read for others.
The Bitter Past:
A Novel
by Bruce Borgas is a very complicated read and one that is incredibly good. I
suspect it will collect award nominations and some hardware. One hopes that
this is the first book in a series. Regardless of that fact, this is a book you
really need to read.
My reading copy
came by way of a NetGalley digital ARC.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2023
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