Review: Miller’s Creek by R.G. Green

Author: R.G. Green

Pages/Word Count: 200 Pages

At a Glance: The story has an easy flow to it and had my attention from the start.

Reviewed By: Maryann

Blurb: Seventy-five years ago in the rural town of Miller’s Creek, Jacob Palmer massacred his family. Sixty years later, thirteen-year-old Jesse Ellis watched his best friend Geoff Meyers commit accidental murder in the cemetery where Palmer was buried when a childish prank went horribly wrong. Unable to cope, Geoff made a tragic decision, leaving Jesse to face the judgmental town and his own nightmares alone. Jesse and his family fled the tragedy, hoping to leave the past behind.

Fifteen years later, Jesse is hoping for his big break as a journalist for the Attingwood Journal. Then the anniversary of Palmer’s killing spree leads Jesse’s boss to assign him to the story, and Jesse reluctantly returns to Miller’s Creek, dreading the horrors he left there.

What he finds instead is gorgeous Dustin Weaver, a man with a past uncannily similar to his own. As Dustin helps Jesse put his demons into perspective, Jesse uncovers information that may prove Palmer was more than a vicious murderer. In the end, Jesse sees both the possibility to right an old wrong and the chance to gain the future and the man he wants—but only if he can finally lay his past to rest.

Review: Jesse Ellis and Geoff Meyer are two young boys just coming into their teens. They live in a small town in Indiana called Miller’s Creek. Geoff, being thirteen years old and new to Miller’s Creek, was labeled a troublemaker because he is the take-charge type.

As boys go, Geoff and Jesse were always getting into innocent mischief. As most small towns go, Miller’s Creek has its stories. Sixty years ago, Jacob Palmer, a forty-two year old school teacher, had gone crazy. He killed his parents, the milkman, and other family members. He wounded a deputy in the standoff and then took his own life.

Geoff had listened to his grandpa tell this story, and decides to find Jacob Palmer’s grave and take revenge. Jesse goes along with Geoff’s plan, and they find where Jacob Palmer is supposedly buried. This night brings along a horrible tragedy, which leaves Jesse with nightmares and his family moving from Miller’s Creek to the town of Attingwood.

Now, it’s been fifteen years since the tragedy in the cemetery, and the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Jacob Palmer murders. Jesse is now a journalist for the Attingwood Journal, and is told by his boss to take an assignment to cover the anniversary. Jesse doesn’t want this assignment, but he fears losing a job he likes. He especially doesn’t want to return to Miller’s Creek and the nightmares.

On his way into Miller’s Creek he stops at the convenience store. There he meets a stranger and they have a conversation. Dustin Weaver lives in Miller’s Creek and he has his own nightmares to deal with. As Jesse starts his investigation of Jacob Palmer, he finds how rumors, gossip, jealousy and fear of change can destroy people.

There is suspense, sadness and love in this story. Dustin is a strong, supportive character to Jesse, and the description R.G. Green gives us of Miller’s Creek as a small town was vivid. The story has an easy flow to it and had my attention from the start.