The Houseboat

December 1, 2021
Summoned from Minneapolis to take over a murder investigation in an Iowa river town--the year is 1960--federal agent Edward Ness must contend with his own inescapable violent past. The murder, of a teenage boy during a campground tryst with his now-traumatized girlfriend, was committed by an extreme lowlife named Rigby Sellers, a jailbird who lives on a dilapidated houseboat with stolen mannequins dressed in women's garments. His mother, a prostitute, abandoned him when he was young to raise two children from another father. Seven years ago, agent Ness' wife and 4-year-old son were shot to death by a purse-snatcher. A habitual drinker ever since, he has been disciplined on the job for serious indiscretions, but he can be a real charmer. He effortlessly attracts an innocent young female hotel worker, raising eyebrows around town. She drops out of the story without comment, one of the unusual strokes in a novel filled with them. After introducing Ness at the start and filling in his tale of woe, Bahr pushes him aside for a long section detailing Rigby's peccadillos and sociopathic origins. When Ness finally returns to the narrative to go after the killer, the dark clouds of his existence reflected by the dank landscape and ominously flooding Mississippi, it is clear that this bleak tale is not going to end predictably. Told in colorful dialect ("Yeh always been this morose?") with collectible small-town-isms, the novel combines poetry (a dying star reflected on the water "blinked away forever") and unsettling horror (there's never been a graveyard scene quite like the one here). An impressive debut. A hypnotic blend of noir and goth.

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December 6, 2021
One day in 1960, police detective Edward Ness, the central investigator in Bahr’s assured debut, is nursing a hangover behind his desk in downtown Minneapolis when he gets a call from a Deputy Clinton in Oscar, Iowa, a town “about as plain as a white wall.” Clinton needs Ness’s expertise in the case of Billy Rose, a high school senior who was murdered while camping with his girlfriend, Hannah Dahl, who survived the attack. In Oscar, Ness focuses on the prime suspect, Rigby Sellers, who lives alone on a houseboat on the Mississippi with female mannequins for companions and is described as a “weirdn” in one of the short anonymous witness accounts that dot the novel. Bahr’s feel for place and people, such as the creepy Sellers, creates a moody atmosphere. That Dahl is never questioned about the details of her boyfriend’s murder, or Ness’s particular expertise fully explained, leaves certain practical elements of the story wanting. Bahr’s convincing regional dialect and spot-on depiction of a small, mid-century town are the book’s main draw. Readers will be curious to see what this talented author does next.

Starred review from January 1, 2022
Summer 1960. A demon is loose in Oscar, Iowa. It's a rainy year in the valley with the Mississippi running wild. Rigby Sellers, an "impish troll" of a man, is the town pariah. He lives on a rotting houseboat and revels in filth with two female mannequins to keep him company. All eyes turn to Sellers after a camper is shot dead inside a tent near the river and his female companion is found naked and delirious on the road. Vigilantism is rife in the steamy summer air. A regional marshal from Minnesota, Edward Ness, is sent out to help with the situation. More bodies are found, and Ness, in a toxic, alcohol-fueled haze, battling his torturous memories, tracks the killer. This riveting narrative is perfectly executed and begs for comparisons to William Faulkner (for the atmosphere), Cormac McCarthy (for the graphic descriptions), Eudora Welty (for the Grimm-like fable trappings), and Edgar Allan Poe (for the sense of the macabre). Gothic-tinged fiction is in revival, and debut-author Bahr will score high for this truly eloquent and haunting story. Expect a strong crossover audience, drawing from multiple genres, for what is likely to be one of the winter's most talked-about novels.

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