In Sharfeddin's fleet fourth novel, Oregon auctioneer Hershel Swift suffers memory lapses and other mental miscues in the wake of a car accident that causes him to question what kind of man he's been. Once recovered, he has trouble recalling an object's name or provenance—but he knows its value. His attempts to return to the business of buying and selling property are interrupted when he rescues drifter Silvie Thorne from a roadside breakdown and gives her lodging for a few days. Though she has no intention of sticking around longer than that, she's forced to when Swift sells her car (along with everything in it) to a local gun dealer. Hershel and Silvie's recovery of her possessions reveals her troubled, dangerous past and his questionable business dealings. Together they confront their mistakes, revealing how the values a man gives something can lead to murder. Sharfeddin skillfully depicts both the rugged Willamette Valley landscape and the hard-luck people who inhabit it, and deepens the intrigue of Swift's lost memories—a somewhat tired trope—through nuanced characters and clear-eyed detail, making for a satisfying thriller. (Apr.)
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In her fourth novel, the first to be set in Oregon, Sharfeddin brings a finely detailed sense of place to a gritty story. Auctioneer Hershel Swift is recovering from a horrific car accident that has left him with severe headaches and large gaps in his memory. Most unsettling is the fact that he is beginning to realize that he was a very nasty person. His own mother refused to visit him in the hospital, and the employees at his auction house seem to be keeping their distance as well. Then he stops to help Silvie Thorne with her car and ends up providing her with a place to stay. She, too, is in the process of remaking her life, on the run from an abusive lawman who began molesting her when she was 12. When a box of compromising photos is stolen out of her car, Silvie must confide the details of her sordid past to Hershel. Although Sharfeddin’s plot sometimes strains credulity, she smoothly incorporates many interesting details about the auction business and vividly evokes the rural Oregon setting. --Joanne Wilkinson