Ruthie Fear is a beautiful coming of age story. Loskutoff's descriptive style is vivid, immersing the reader into the bleakness of growing up poor in a beautiful part of Montana. The banality and tension of being raised an only child of a destitute, single, yet loving, father is visceral. The characters are deep and multidimensional; their conflicted emotions twisting the reader in knots -- from empathy to anger. If you ever wanted to read a mashup of "Catcher in the Rye" and "No Country for Old Men," this is it -- with a female heroine. Guns, taxidermy, high school football, good ol' boys, class conflict, sweeping landscapes... This one will stick with you for a long while.

The Sun Down Motel is a quick and enjoyable read that will appeal to baby boomers and millennials.

The novel consists of two converging mysteries taking place at the eponymous motel, 35 years apart. St. James is adept at jumping back-and-forth between the two mysteries to keep the reader invested in both.

Several major characters are a bit shallow, the supernatural elements are more icing than cake, and the ending is a bit anticlimactic. Yet, these flaws don't spoil the read.

Sun Down Motel is fun and engaging. A great page-turner and a solid recommend.