The Controller, by Matt Brolly
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Oblong Books
Release Date: May 23, 2019

Summary of The Controller
Six years ago, former FBI agent Sam Lynch‘s young son Daniel disappeared. Lynch is convinced that a mysterious organization nicknamed The Railroad is responsible. Rumor has it that they kidnap people near railroads and that each member is branded with a railroad tattoo. Problem is, the FBI doesn’t believe the Railroad even exists. After leaving the Bureau, Lynch continues an unofficial investigation.

Special Agent Sandra Rose investigates a brutal murder, a seemingly random house invasion turned deadly. The killer Razinski bears the railroad tattoo. He refuses to talk to anyone other than Lynch, though Lynch has never met the man before, and seems to have connections within the FBI itself. The former agent and Rose join forces to investigate and as things take an even more violent turn, they are given a name, one clue about the railroad: the possible name of its head, The Controller.

My thoughts
Overall, I enjoyed this novel.

A few issues:

British spellings in an American novel
The novel takes place in America, with an all-American cast of characters, yet there were times when Brolly uses the British spelling of words. Colour instead of color; fibre, centre, honour, that sort of thing. There were also times when he used words more common in British than American English: grotty or fug, for example, aren’t used much in America. This seems petty, but it can be distracting to American readers. (Especially readers like me, who notice details like this. Sometimes I wish I could turn off my typo-radar!) I read an unedited ARC, though, and I trust that some of this will be corrected for the final version. I’m not “counting off” for this!

The sudden sexual relationship between Rose and Lynch
I don’t think this is quite a spoiler, really. It’s (almost) a truth universally (or in this genre, at least!) acknowledged that two investigators of the opposite gender must be sexually attracted to one another.

Here, though, I didn’t buy it. Having sex to relieve their tension makes sense. But there wasn’t enough buildup to this point. I didn’t see a lot of sparks flying. Granted, up until then, they’d been dealing with non-stop violence. But I wanted a bit more awareness of each other’s sexuality before this.

A little too much telling
This is a writer thing. There were times when I felt frustrated at being told when I wanted to be showed and experience the characters’ emotions. For example, a lot of Rose’s feelings about her troubled relationships with her younger sister and her mother, dying of dementia, felt like it was told to me. I never felt immersed in Rose’s emotions and her internal conflict between the demands of work and the demands of a sick mother.

Whether a normal thriller reader would feel bothered by this, I don’t know. Writers tend to be hyper-aware of itty-bitty story craft issues that regular people aren’t. But for me, this issue detracted from the story.

Now for the fun part: what I enjoyed!

The violence is well-handled.
The seeming-house-invasion-gone-wrong ends with extreme violence and multiple deaths. Many people die in the course of the novel. Toward the end, there are people being hurt. Given the nature of these criminals, this is expected.

Brolly gives just enough detail in describing the crime scenes that we understand the horrible nature of the crime without feeling like voyeurs. He doesn’t resort to sensationalism when showing crimes as they are committed, either. Lynch watches people being hurt, but instead of describing how or what is happening, we get his emotions and reactions. This lets us fill in the blanks for ourselves. Very effective.

Lynch is a complicated man.
He’s a courageous, intelligent man who strategizes and acts professionally, even in deadly circumstances. (Even though he’s been ousted from the FBI for years! I guess you can take a man out of the FBI but you can’t take the FBI out of a man.) Even though he is divorced from his wife, he wants to protect her from the Railroad’s violence. He also is surprisingly accepting and protective of her new boyfriend, and acknowledges that the new guy’s presence helps Lynch’s relationship with his ex-wife. Ironic. Definitely not what I expected. (Nicely played, Mr. Brolly!)

Yet there is great darkness in him, too. His drive to find the Railroad and his son has made him obsessive. There are glimpses of guilt, too, as he feels responsible for his son’s abduction. This grief and fear make for a compelling character and it really drives the story. (What parent can’t identify with this compulsion to protect their child?) He is capable of violence, though he takes no pleasure in it.

The backstory is woven into the story.
Obviously, there’s backstory: Daniel’s abduction, Lynch’s investigation, his divorce, and the FBI’s refusal to let him investigate. But we receive the necessary information at strategic points throughout the narrative, rather than all in one big wad somewhere at the beginning. We learn what we need to, when we need to. It’s difficult to do this without confusing the reader. My inner writer applauds.

There’s even a delightful hint that Lynch has been through a terrible traumatic experience sometime in the past involving captivity, a killer, and a SWAT team rescue. (Okay, delightful's a stretch. It really sounds horrible!) But it intrigued me, and though I didn’t get answers in this book, I hope to get them sometime in the future. Which brings me to my last point:

The ending sets up for sequels.
The last chapter–no spoilers, I promise!–hints at more books to come. Consider it a bit like MCU’s end scenes, whetting our appetite for the next big movie. Only here, it’s the next big book, and I didn’t have to sit through all the movie credits to get it! Nice.

The verdict
While there were definitely some distracting issues with the narrative, this is a good start to a series. Lynch and Rose are promising as series characters, and I’m interested in seeing how their relationship develops as they investigate crimes. Will Lynch be reinstated to the FBI? I don’t know. I hope so. 4 stars.

Thanks to #NetGalley, Oblong Books, and Matt Brolly for letting me read an ARC of #TheController in exchange for a honest review. I appreciate it.
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