Heart of a Runaway Girl - Trevor Wiltzen
Heart of a Runaway Girl by Trevor Wiltzen is the story of a young woman’s murder, a young man who is framed for it, and how a local woman makes it her mission to solve the mystery, and make sure that the right person is charged.
Heart of a Runaway Girl takes place in the early 80’s, in a small, rural town in Washington State. Mabel owns and runs the town’s local diner and motel, serving up food and providing guest rooms to both locals and temporary mine and construction workers who are passing through. When a young woman is found murdered, and her Black boyfriend is immediately charged without evidence, Mabel takes matters into her own hands to make sure that the real killer is found.
In addition to the murder mystery, Trevor Wiltzen brings together several different themes in this book: small town racism and exclusion, widespread white supremacy structures, and drug trafficking all have integral parts in the novel.
I enjoyed the story itself, and the main storyline stood strong through-out. I personally thought that the novel aimed more for a YA crowd, rather than a full adult thriller, but that is mainly because of the writing style. It didn’t bother me though. I did struggle with the characters a bit, they felt a little flat and stereotypical. Mabel was THE beloved woman who keeps the townspeople together, Larson is THE typical skinhead who scares the population into letting him do whatever he wants, Winston is THE stereotypical Black guy who is kinda bad but not bad enough to commit murder, Dan is THE useless town sheriff who kind of has a heart, and so on. I feel like there was too much focus on dialogue in the novel, and too little on actual descriptions. It would have been really good to have a more detailed overview on how Larson became the local drug lord rather than him just being there and ruling over everyone, for example, and on how the town worked in general. I commend Trevor Wiltzen for bringing up the theme of racism in his novel, but it would have been good to see a deeper dive into the causes and effects of it, especially in the small town dynamic. For example, the whole Winston was only tolerated by the racist drug lord because he sold drugs was a bit far-fetched, and played more into the stereotype in my opinion.
But! I could easily imagine all of these people on a screen, I could see the bustling diner, and the gorgeous scenery, and I could see how it all played out in my head. I wonder if Trevor Wiltzen has ever thought of developing his Blue River world into a screenplay? It would work really well as a TV series in my opinion!
In any case, this book is a solid 3 to 3.5 stars for me. Looking forward to seeing what the author comes up with next!
I received an advance copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.