Ashes of the Earth

Starred review from February 28, 2011
Having successfully portrayed both modern-day Tibet and Colonial America in two series, Edgar-winner Pattison (Eye of the Raven) launches a third with this brilliant if grim mystery set in the 21st century 25 years after global mega-acts of terror have destroyed all U.S. government entities and almost all infrastructure. Hadrian Boone, one of the cofounders of the struggling colony of Carthage, located near the Great Lakes, is one of those who remembers the former world, as the time before the apocalypse is referred to, but he's on the outs with the community's leaders and on the verge of being exiled. The chance discovery of a body triggers a series of events that reintroduces murder and other crimes to a community reliant on 19th-century technology. Boone's efforts to find the truth and what it implies for Carthage's future put him in harm's way time after time. Pattison blends the bleakness of The Road with a well-crafted whodunit plot for another winner.

Starred review from March 15, 2011
From his award-winning tales of Chinese-occupied Tibet to his New World drama, Eye of the Raven (2010), to this complexly plotted, postapocalyptic crime story set along the shores of Lake Ontario, Pattisons precisely imagined mysteries evoke clashes between invaders and indigenous people and feature tormented, self-appointed sleuths who risk all to help dissidents. His latest champion is Hadrian Boone. Once a beloved educator and leader in Carthage, a community struggling to cohere in the wake of a nuclear holocaust, Hadrian turns to drink and lands repeatedly in prison as he grieves for his lost family and protests the increasingly dictatorial rule of the governor. When Jonah Beck, a brilliant scientist, is murdered, Hadrian investigates. Persevering against nearly fatal violence, he uncovers diabolical criminal endeavors involving drugs, smuggled consumer goods salvaged from distant warehouses, and child suicides. Hadrian also discovers a motley resistance movement, including a courageous couple guarding a vast secret library. With a vital cast of villains and heroes, a vividly grim setting, and inventive, hair-raising action, ingenious mystery-writer-of-conscience Pattison explores the psychological toll of mass destruction and the need to salvage ideas and values, rather than material riches, so that a just society can rise from the ashes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)