Lone Star Book Blog Tour: The Water Lord by Matt Minor (Review)

The Water Lord is entertaining all the way through. John David (JD) Dothan is slammed with a full plate of both professional and personal problems that twist and tangle until the very end and beyond.

While a town gone dry is a big issue in The Water Lord, it becomes an even bigger issue for JD and his wife, Tryphena. What should be more of a honeymoon period for these two lovebirds turns out to be anything but as JD goes about his Representative duties and digs deeper into the mystery behind the missing water. When things turn dangerous and deadly, the plot takes off, and the characters can only hang on for dear life.

An interesting yet puzzling aspect of The Water Lord is that JD’s part is in the present tense, and Tryphena’s part is the past tense. This tense switching definitely encourages some heavy literary speculation on why the husband is living in the moment and the wife is reflecting on the past. Who can say except the author, of course, but conjecturing on all the reasons why has been quite engaging for me as an English literature major.

The tension in The Water Lord builds beautifully as the danger increases and the questions keep coming. The relationship between JD and Tryphena is dynamic and enigmatic and supplies a hefty amount of that tension. Their oscillating feelings for each other and Tryphena’s baffling stalker provide an odd yet exhilarating backdrop to the political tremors that are shaking up everybody’s world. 

The ending is both hopeful and unfinished, so perhaps there is more to come in this series. But let’s talk about JD’s cane because it is consistently mentioned and described. As a gift from his wife, the cane assists JD after his stroke, but the cane’s intricate design holds more meaning than even JD first thought and definitely opens up new avenues of speculation. Read The Water Lord and form your own opinion about this carved motif. You can also reflect on who can be trusted, who truly loves whom, and who the actual Water Lord is. This interesting mystery is packed with political upheaval, cracked relationships, and a cat named Galveston that just might have a more important role to fill than a simple feline companion.

While The Water Lord can stand on its own, I recommend diving into Matt Minor’s previous novels that have some of the same characters to obtain a fuller and more rounded view of this fabulous fictional political environment and characterization.

Enter the giveaway below for a chance to win an eBook of The Water Lord by Matt Minor.