A Rough Way to Go is the debut novel by New Yorker, Sam Garonzik, and it’s an exciting one.
It focuses on the life and preoccupation of Peter Greene, husband of Lauren and devoted father to little Luke.
Between jobs, Peter appears to be a failure and somewhat of a deadbeat in every area in which men are supposed to succeed. With marital bliss being a distant memory, while his helicopter wife works, he excels as a loving and involved stay at home dad.
As an escape and diversion, he surfs. He strikes up a friendship with a fellow surfer dad.
One day a body is discovered washed up on the beach. Peter knows the man to be Robert Townsend. The surprising part, is that Pete knows him and actually talked to him near the water the previous week.
Townsend was a high profile member of a controversial investment firm, so his death is big news.
It appears to be an accidental drowning, so the police have closed their investigation, yet Peter believes that the circumstances don’t entirely make sense. He simply can’t let go of his idea that foul play was involved, and that’s where he gets himself into trouble.
As tenacious as a pit bull, Peter dives deep into his own investigation. Warned by unsavory characters and dismissed by the police, he uncovers more and more inconsistencies that suggest that Townsend’s death was not an accident. Threats received and sometimes carried out, he puts his own life and that of his family at risk, yet he keeps pushing to find the truth.
As you may have guessed, A Rough Way to Go by Sam Garonzik is an exciting mystery, with whodunit and more importantly, why, being in the forefront.
Kudos to the author who makes it easy to get sucked into Peter’s world. His dramatic shifts are so jaw-dropping, you will not believe what happens. There is way more than meets the eye.
A Rough Way to Go is a compelling, well-written book, and a great read.
I can’t wait for Garonzik’s next one.
A Rough Way To Go
Sam Garonzik
Grand Central Publishing 2024
379 pages
J Curran
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