Rash does it again with his smooth prose. His writing is so easy to read, I'd finish even if I didn't care for the story, which wasn't the case here. I'm just a tad bit younger than the characters in this novel, and I grew up in the South, so I related to the times and setting. Another page turner from a great writer. ( )

The Risen is tragic and vivid. Rash is a master of storytelling, taking the reader back and fourth in time to weave the tale of the cost a brother is willing to pay to protect his sibling.

The story is told from the pov of Eugene as he searches his memory for clues to the death of Ligeia Mosely, a young woman he and his brother Bill spent a summer with in 1969. Her remains have been found recently after washing up from where they were buried. Through flashbacks of this summer along with the revelation of their unhappy childhood under their domineering grandfather.

Rash uses his knowledge of the NC mountains to create a simple world with an intense story. A must read, The Risen will stick with you long after closing the book. ( )

I first read Ron Rash last year with his book above the falls which I really liked. This book "The Risen" is a good story but it is quite short. It is almost as if the author either already had it written but it was around 100 pages and in order to make it a stand alone book, he had to plump it up with extra information, or he just ran out of steam with what to do with the story.
The book is about two brothers, Bill- older and in college, and Eugene- younger and impressionable, who live with their mother and are beholden to their grandfather- the towns Doctor and a huge force to be reckoned with, living in a small town in N Carolina. In the summer of 1969, ( wasn't this a Brian Adams song?),while fishing on a deserted section of a creek they meet a new girl, Ligeia, who is more San Francisco than anything they have ever been exposed to. The girl has been sent to the town to live with her strict very religious aunt and uncle, because of some trouble she got in in her home town of Daytona Florida, and is now missing the sex and drugs lifestyle she had adopted. The girl has sex with each brother, but latches onto the younger one who is more easily manipulated. In the fall of 1969 she gets into trouble needs money and needs out of town fast. Bill and Eugene come to her rescue and she flees. Or does she?
Jump to today.
Bill is a hugely successful surgeon, and Eugene is a disgraced, divorced alcoholic, who own family won't speak to. While reading the paper one morning Eugene see that a body has been discovered that was buried at their old fishing spot.
( )

So great! Things shouldn't be all resolved. This book just lets you wander off. I have the feeling this one will stay with me for a long while ( )

It's a decent enough mystery story, easily readable and understood , but it lacks complexity, artistry, or much beauty. Perhaps I'm biased having recently read major works by Updike and Cormac Mccarthy. I find Rash's short stories more interesting. ( )