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Kyle Zona’s The Recordings is a mystery-thriller that unfolds across several provocative modern situations. A small town broken by grief from the mass loss of life in a gas explosion set off by a troubled young man. The specter of sexual abuse within a treasured boy scout troop. The possibility of AI home assistant technology being used for evil purposes. Woven together artfully by the author, these themes make for an excellent backdrop to a suspenseful (and twisted) murder drama.
The story is told through three rotating point of view characters. We first meet Joseph, a handsome, well-off, thirty-something author who recently moved into a luxury house in Baxtor Springs that he inherited from his father. Joseph has also written a bestselling spy thriller and is in the midst of a promotion tour. At a book reading, he’s distracted by a stranger who lurks around as though he may have more personal reasons for wanting to meet him. When it comes time for book signings, the man disappears, and Joseph is approached by an attractive local bar owner, Arturo, who came out to the event. Some flirting back and forth leads to a date for drinks followed by a trip to Joseph’s house.
The location of Baxtor Springs is never mentioned, other than to say it’s far away from California where Joseph used to live. It’s something of an Everytown–Midwest? Inland Atlantic?—and distinguished by its small and tight-knit community, in which just about everybody knows everything about everybody. Arturo is a central figure in the town and is in the midst of its collective grief. In the wake of the tragedy, he sees the loved ones’ survivors and members of the police department numbing their pain with alcohol, taking their own lives in some cases, and searching for someone to blame. With Joseph, who’s kind and seemingly removed from the town’s trauma, he sees the possibility of an escape from the heaviness that surrounds him and a lover who can heal his wounds.
Noah is the last and most mysterious point-of-view character to enter the story. His relationship to the town’s tragedy is gradually revealed so to explain too much would give away how all the storylines come together in the end. He’s introduced as a recently released convict who came to Baxtor Springs after reading Joseph’s novel. Something about the book aroused an ax to grind with the author that hints at psychopathology.
When a Boy Scout leader is found dead, the story ramps up to both a fast-paced murder who-done-it and a conspiracy thriller that may explain the massacre that befell the small town.
As an atmospheric, suspenseful tale, Zona’s novel works quite well. One feels the anguish of a community ripped apart from a senseless act of violence, and the search for answers is compelling, as is the drive to enforce accountability for the covert exploitation of boys at an organization that was meant to support their need for adult mentoring and belonging. Similarly, the omnipresent AI home device in scenes at Joseph’s house creates a mood of danger around the corner and the possibility that not everything is as it seems. Zona also does a great job keeping the reader off balance, with shocks of violence bursting into the narrative. One reads those scenes through the crevices of one’s fingers shielding the eyes, but they are effective in showing the high stakes for the characters as well as urging one to read on to see what happens next.
Zona hits many of the marks of an impactful mystery-thriller, though he’s less successful with the development of his primary characters. Only one, Arturo, comes out of the story with much of a reasonable explanation for his actions. Again, one can’t give too much away without ruining a plot that relies on a slow drip of bombshell information, but Joseph, in particular, undergoes a transformation that leaves a lot of unconnected dots. Noah’s descent into cold blooded violence also comes across as something readers must accept as is, and in the end, it’s a bit disappointing for a story that otherwise tackles complex issues with realistic nuance. Overall, a worthwhile read with the disclaimer that readers can expect a good dose of nihilism in the vein of Natural Born Killers.
Reviewed by Andrew J. Peters
Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews 