Grist Mill Road: A Novel

“Twisty and told from multiple perspectives, this meaty thriller” about the impact of a violent act on three friends “races to a satisfying finish” (People magazine)

The year is 1982; the setting, an Edenic hamlet some ninety miles north of New York City. There, among the craggy rock cliffs and glacial ponds of timeworn mountains, three friends—Patrick, Matthew, and Hannah—are bound together by a terrible and seemingly senseless crime. Twenty-six years later, in New York City, living lives their younger selves never could have predicted, the three meet again—with even more devastating results.

A sharp-edged love triangle that is character-driven, gorgeously written and wrenching, exposing the poisonous resentments, sexual longings, and reservoirs of violence that roil just below the orderly surface of small-town life. Like Yates’ critically acclaimed Black Chalk, this too is an “engrossing literary guessing game” (BBC) one that will keep readers in suspense until the final page.

An Entertainment Weekly "Must Read"

One of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year"

"Arresting . . . Twisting backward and forward in time, entering the minds of each character in turn, Yates examines. . . . [how] the past wreaks havoc on the present. . . . [A] sophisticated...elegant narrative." —The New York Times

"The intensity of the storytelling is exhilarating and unsettling." —Booklist, starred review

"Smart and funny and moving and merciless." —Tana French, New York Times–bestselling author of The Trespasser

© 2024 Picador (Ebook): 9781250150318

Release date

Ebook: September 4, 2024