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Closer
By F.E. Feeley, Jr.
Beaten Track Press, 2018
Five stars

“The opposite of love is indifference, and hatred is the perversion of love.��

A picturesque town, an ancient curse, the power of love to heal and to destroy. These are the classic elements that F.E. Feeley Jr. weaves together into this complex ghost story. Maplewood, Vermont, is an archetypal New England town, whose violent destruction and rebirth has all but been forgotten by its citizens. Summer visitors, leaf-peepers, and winter skiers are the mainstay of Maplewood’s economy, and nobody remembers or cares about the centuries-old diaries shuttered away in the town library.

Hayden Moore comes to Maplewood seeking solace and forgetting. A hotshot young Boston prosecutor who lost his husband to violence, Hayden hopes he’ll find peace in the Vermont backwoods. To help him renovate the beautiful, long-empty house on the shore of Lake Veronica, Hayden hires Tommy Law, ex GI and former town bad boy. Tommy, always a loner, discovers that this beautiful, melancholy city man stirs something in him that he has never recognized before. Indeed, unbeknownst to anyone in town, Hayden’s arrival in Maplewood stirs up something deeper and more sinister in the unexplored waters of Lake Veronica.

What makes this book such a pleasure to read is that the two men at its center are not the only important players, not the only love story. Hayden and Tommy are the pivotal pair in the story—its triggers and, ultimately, its moral center—but there are other people around them who play critical roles, without whom the story would have far less weight. From Suzie, the outgoing manager of the local diner, the Maple Leaf, to Paul, the lonely, nerdy geologist, the cast of characters are all lovingly portrayed as living members of this harrowing tale of violence and redemption. Hayden, the outsider, is not alone; Amanda and Terri, his best friend and former boss, respectively, are brought into the narrative to underscore Hayden’s worth and to remind us of the life he lived and lost in the name of duty.

I particularly like the way Feeley deals with religion in “Closer.�� Christianity is both the bogeyman and an ultimate source of good, as the author turns a gimlet eye to both the power of faith and its abuse, whether intentional or accidental. Feeley is something of a cynic in regard to religion and its misuse to control people; but he understands the power and healing that faith can bring. From the very start, the pre-Christian beliefs of Celtic Druidism swirl through the story, providing pointed opportunities to skewer the weaknesses as well as the strengths of any belief system.

F.E. Feeley Jr. brings a distinctively personal passion to his writing. He has a big heart and is not unfamiliar with suffering. He is a soldier, but he believes in magic. I suspect it is his personal duality that makes his story-telling so powerful. “Closer�� seems to be the beginning of a series. I look forward to it.

Wonderful review, Ulysses. I am looking forward to reading this novel.!