Max Strong works as a baker in a diner in the small town of Essex (which I learned, about half way through the story, is in Minnesota). That’s not his real name, though. He’s in the federal witness protection program. He has a history in organized crime that’s not clearly explicated. But he’s trying to make a fresh start, to keep his nose clean. He likes the place and the people. That’s the setup for the thriller, Shaking the Tree.

One of the people Max likes is his roommate Stevie, an inveterate runner who is nearly beheaded by a briefcase falling from the sky, one morning out in a country road. When he gets the case open, he finds it contains millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, a man’s body is found impaled on an apple tree in a farmer’s orchard.

Suddenly a shady DEA agent and a Russian hit team show up in town. The local sheriff, who’s involved in cooking meth, is trying to figure a way to keep the heat off his operation while locating the missing money for himself. He will lie, bully, torture or kill to make his pile and get out of this town.

Innocent people are going to die. And that will make Max Strong mad.

There was a lot about Shaking the Tree that intrigued me. The story was complex, and the shifting points of view through which it was told were well-realized.

But I found the book hard to like. It was grim, grim, grim. Noir-ish in the sense that sin is punished brutally. It reminded me of No Country for Old Men. I didn’t like Max Strong well enough to care about reading the next book.

There are odd, obscure references to the Bible through the story, but I’m not sure what we’re supposed to make of them.

Cautions for language, violence, and mature themes.