Coyote Fork by James Wilson

 

Coyote Fork by James Wilson.

Published 1st September 2020 by Slant Books.

From the cover of the book:

British journalist Robert Lovelace travels to California to report on the social media giant Global Village. He’s horrified by what he finds: a company—guided by the ruthless vision of its founder, Evan Bone—that seems to be making journalism itself redundant. Appalled, he decides to abandon the project and return home.

But as he leaves he has a disconcerting encounter that sends him off in a totally different direction. Soon he finds himself embarking on an increasingly fraught and dangerous mission. The aim: to uncover the murky truth about Evan Bone’s past and his pathological disregard for the human cost of the behemoth he has created.

Robert’s quest takes him from San Francisco to a small college town in the Midwest, to the site of a former hippie commune in northern California, introducing us to a range of vivid characters and confronting us with the price we pay—online trolling, the loss of privacy, 
professional ruin—for living in an “interconnected” world. Finally, he makes a startling discovery—and is thrown into a completely unforeseen existential dilemma.

A timely, stylishly written, and brilliantly conceived metaphysical thriller, Coyote Fork carries us on an unforgettable journey, before bringing us face to face with the darkness at the heart of Silicon Valley itself.

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Coyote Fork is the kind of thriller that takes you to unexpected places, and as such, it makes it very difficult to review without giving away too much... but here goes!

When journalist Robert Lovelace travels to California he intends to write a piece on the mysterious head of the media giant Global Village, Evan Bone, who has cost him his job, but what he encounters there sends him in quite a different direction.

What starts out as a journalistic investigation into possible corporate cover-ups, turns into an altogether different metaphysical beast, by way of gum shoe noir, road trip adventure, conspiracy chronicle, and menacing small town Wicker Man-esque yarn, with supernatural undertones. It's twisty, unpredictable and completely addictive.

This genre busting novel builds into a story that has fascinating characters leading us into mind boggling and far-reaching themes. There is a lot to get your teeth into - the role of social media and the responsibility of the corporations that own them; on-line communities, internet trolling and the toll they take on mental health; environmental issues; cybernetics; and the rights of indigenous peoples - not to mention the human elements of the story, which are ripe with love, loss, jealousy, betrayal and revenge.

And the whole entertaining, weirdly circular shebang will leave you pondering some of the biggest existential questions about the fate of human kind too!

I like to think of it as David Cronenberg does Michael Crichton... and if that doesn't make you want to read it, then I don't know what will!

Coyote Fork is available to buy from your favourite book retailer now, or from Bookshop.org HERE.

Thank you to James Wilson and Slant Books for gifting me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

James Wilson is a London-based writer. His previous novels include The Dark Clue, The Bastard Boy, The Woman in the Picture, Consolation, and The Summer of Broken Stories. 

He has written BBC TV and radio documentaries, and is the author of a work of narrative nonfiction, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America, which won a Myers Outstanding Book Award.