The Hanging Tree

Bryan Gruley returns to Starvation Lake, a small Michigan town that's clearly seen better days, in the second Gus Carpenter novel, The Hanging Tree. As was apparent in Gruley's debut novel, Starvation Lake, Gus has seen better days as well. One of the great goalies ever to come out of a hockey-craze......more

I was hoping the second Gruley book would be more streamlined, but once again, I plowed through a convoluted story that half the time I didn't know what was going on or why. I read and re-read parts of the book so I could figure out how everyone was connected. I still don't. Gus, the protagonist, ha......more

From the moment Gracie McBride tied her pretty, pink sneaker to that of her boyfriend’s black, football cleat and hung the mismatched pair over the branch of an old, oak tree, the majority of other teens from the small town of Starvation Lake, Michigan, adopted her action. Meant as a sign of childho......more

"The Hanging Tree" is the second book in Gruley's "Starvation Lake" series and it is even better than the first. It is a solid mystery novel with all of the typical conventions of that genre, but what is really interesting about "The Hanging Tree" is the way that Gruley uses small details about eac......more

In Gruley's second Starvation Lake mystery we explore more of Gus's past when an old family friend is found dead in a near by shoe tree. Gus's tenacity and hunger for the truth are seriously put to the test as he uncovers some ugly truths about the people he loves and thinks he knows. The characters......more