For most writers it would not be a good thing to say that their latest novel is very, very much like their previous novel. Ron Carlson is an exception. His previous novel, Five Skies, is one of the best books I’ve read in years. The Signal is so similar that in the hands of almost any other author, it would be a failure. It has the same spare, almost breath-taking, writing – the landscape of the Wyoming mountains is so well-wrought that it made me want, no, need, to go hiking (and I’m a water person, not a woods person). The main character, Mack, could be the fourth man in Five Skies – full of flaws, but so earnest and hyper-competent in his field that I can’t help but love him. It has the same understated set-up that made the tension in Five Skies so perfect and surprising. This time he gives us a sort of reunion, a final coming together of two people who have loved each other deeply, but just can’t make it work.

If you haven’t read Five Skies, pick it up now – it is a smidge better than The Signal. If you loved Five Skies, The Signal is a welcome revisit to the world that Ron Carlson so beautifully evokes. ~Lillian