The Ploughmen by Kim Zupan

Published by Henry Holt on September 30, 2014

The Ploughmen will never be mistaken for a thriller or a typical crime novel. To a lesser and a greater extent, it is a discerning psychological study of two men. The lesser character is John Gload, a gristly man in his seventh decade of life who finds himself on trial for murder, one of the several he has committed, usually with greater success at concealing the victim's identity. Most law enforcement officers would prefer to keep their distance from Gload -- solving crimes isn't worth the risk of trying to deal with him -- and the animosity is mutual, but Gload seems willing to talk to Deputy Valentine Millimaki, who shares his interest in farming. They chat in the evening, after Gload finishes his days in court. Feeling a kinship with Millimaki, Gload discusses the origins of his antisocial life and confesses his sins (albeit without remorse for the blood he has spilled).

Millimaki is the more complex character and the one whose psychological profile is most finely tuned. When Millimaki isn't listening to Gload's confessions, he is using a dog to track missing persons in the woods. He usually finds them dead, a burden that adds to his mental deterioration during the course of the novel. Whether that deterioration is a cause or a result of his separation from his wife is difficult to say. Millimaki's inability to sleep, his growing depression, and his marital difficulties lead to some erratic behavior. He is nevertheless a likable character. Oddly, he finds Gload to be likable (or at least tolerable) although he would never admit it, even to himself.

In a strange competition with Millimaki are a couple of other deputies while the easy-going sheriff is on Millimaki's side. All of these characters are given believable personalities without wasting words. The novel is written with enormous sensitivity to the pain that people endure, pain that manifests itself in multiple ways -- emotional outbursts, suicide, and serial killing among them. Kim Zupan makes it possible to see beyond stereotypes, to understand that people who do good things and those who do evil all share the most common traits of humanity.

Understanding the affinity between Gload and Millimaki is the challenge that Zupan offers the reader. Do they have a friendship based on the fact that Millimaki is one of the few people Gload doesn't want to kill? "It doesn't get any truer than that," Gload says.

Zupan offers some excellent prose to the reader who follows the two men on their respective journeys. Here's a description of a prison: "He went slowly along a long gray corridor, the redoubtable masonry of clammy stone on either side stacked and mortared against the penetration of hope." Zupan also offers a truly chilling ending to the reader who follows the men to the final chapter.

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