When the Corn is Waist High is an absurdist thriller by Jeremy Scott with tons of dry humor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When the Corn is Waist High is a mystery/thriller by Jeremy Scott with tons of dry and absurdist humor. The eBook version is 294 pages. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in just shy of nine hours and is narrated wondrously by Thom Rivera. We follow our main character with a first-person point-of-view.

Sometime in the 1980s, Father Solomon Lancaster is both the elected sheriff and the priest of the community Catholic church in Crooked Creek, Indiana, though he may have lied on his resume a bit. Up until a series of murders begin occurring in their small town, he was able to keep his two jobs fairly separate. But once FBI agents, analysts, and profilers take the town–and the case–by storm, things get a little muddy. And Father Lancaster isn’t really all that he seems.

This was a really fun read! I laughed out loud several times. There are also several “recipes” in this book as well. If you don’t like swear words, this book is not for you because Father Lancaster has a mouth like a sailor. There’s a twist at the 60% mark that was one of my potential theories but the one I least expected. This book would be good for fans of absurdist mysteries/thrillers like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich or Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto.

Thom Rivera is an amazing narrator! His voices for the different characters were very captivating and I’m definitely going to look into other books he has done the narration for in the future.

Tropes in this book include: serial killer, unreliable narrator

CW: cheating, murder, death, foul language

Special thanks to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for providing an audio ARC of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own. When the Corn is Waist High releases on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022.

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