Review: Section Roads

Section Roads by Mike Murphey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a gloriously twisty mystery packed within a combination coming-of-age plus aging-and-looking-back literary feat! In a tiny little community inexplicably founded by settlers in Eastern New Mexico and homesteaded at the turn of the 20th century, a locale without rivers, mountains, or canyons to recommend it, life is slow and entertainment sometimes found at the expense of others. In October of 1966, a group of high school kids create a prank, causing injury, and inevitably as the consequences roll out, fatality and the ruination of a life.

As time passes, the high school graduation class reunions bring some of the former classmates back to little Arthur, New Mexico, and during the 40th reunion of 2009, trouble wakes its ugly head. From that point on, a series of unreliable characters, each of whom keeps secrets from the others, from the community, and even from themselves, reveal little by little a plot which has to be read to marvel at. I had to wonder how some of these folks managed to live to 40 years after high school graduation, because some of them are their own worst enemies. Nonetheless, their entwined troubles make for a fascinating novel.

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