Trout, The

After the publication of his most recent book, Alex Smyth receives a trout fly in the mail at his home address in rural Canada - with no message and no return address. It stirs a fear in him that he is being stalked, and it awakens deeply buried, inchoate memories from his childhood in Ireland, a time before he was old enough to understand the adult world around him. It also evokes the guilt that he may have murdered a man, a feeling so strong it changes him and threatens his marriage. Soon, in hopes of solving the mysteries that surround him, Alex feels that he has no choice but to return home to Ireland and to his estranged father. A novel of great literary beauty that is structured as a tense psychological thriller, The Trout is a tale of predators and prey, deception, and the hidden crimes that can shape a life.