The Fields is a mystery that explores the community of a small Iowa town and offers a perceptive look at how agricultural conglomerates can obliterate family farms, destroying jobs and communities in the process. Erin Young, who has also written historical fiction as Robyn Young (the New World Rising series), tightly weaves themes of family, politics and greed into this series launch.
The first female sergeant of the Black Hawk County Sheriff's Office, newly promoted Riley Fisher, handles her first major case when the mutilated body of a woman is found in a cornfield near Cedar Falls. The victim is Chloe Miller, one of Riley's closest high school friends, whom she hasn't seen in years. John Brown finds Chloe's body; he's the owner of Zephyr Farms, one of the several cooperatives formed "to survive the relentless advances of Big Ag," described by one farmer as "too powerful to challenge. Too big to fail." The investigation expands when another woman is murdered, with wounds similar to Chloe's, and a teenage girl goes missing.
Young packs The Fields with a contentious gubernatorial race, politics within the sheriff's office and grain research, while keeping every subplot on point. Readers meet nuanced characters, particularly the appealing Riley, who faces sexism at work while attempting to live up to the legacy of her grandfather, the much-respected former sheriff.
In prose that vividly captures the scenery of this distinct location, The Fields depicts a wide range of issues specific to the Midwest, such as big agriculture and the corporate avarice that drives it, while illustrating the more universal problems that small towns face. --Oline H. Cogdill, freelance reviewer