KILLING HURT

A recovering alcoholic with a violent past gets mixed up with the wrong people in Thatcher’s debut novel.

In 2020, retired cop Troy Martin chooses to go to Nicaragua for a vacation, hoping to surf bigger waves than Florida has to offer. He’s in his mid-40s and lonely because his grown daughters are away at college. He heads south with a couple of friends who, like Troy, are sober alcoholics. When the men aren’t hitting Nicaraguan beaches, they’re attending local Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It’s at one of these meetings that Troy meets a man named Andy. Although the two grow close, Troy quickly tires of Andy’s trying to weasel money out of him and of his dubious property deals. Before long, when Andy owes too much to some very scary people, he drags Troy into his troubles. Troy’s violent days in law enforcement earned him the nickname Hurt, and this tendency is something he wants to remedy as part of his recovery. He may need to rely on that ferocity, however, in order to survive. Thatcher’s breezy, character-driven tale bounces between the modern day and Troy’s past. The flawed hero continually has conflicts with people in his life, whether it’s his ex-girlfriend, his “crazy” (or perhaps eccentric) mom, or his estranged drug-smuggling dad. For the most part though, he’s appealingly easygoing, which is reflected in his first-person narration. He’s a well-developed character who judges people not by their looks or reputation but by their conduct and beliefs. The story also teems with concise surfing details: “I only got two waves and one of them nearly ended in a collision, when I got to the turn in the horseshoe and a Nica ripper was pumping down the line right at me.” The tension effectively picks up after it becomes clear Andy is bad news (which the opening scene teases), and the taut final act sprints to a worthwhile payoff.

An often riveting thriller with a compelling hero.