The Third Hill North of Town

Written by Noah Bly

Narrated by Caroline Price

When fifty-four-year-old Julianna Dapper slips out of a mental hospital in Bangor, Maine, on a June day in 1962, it's with one purpose in mind. Julianna knows she must go back to the tiny farming community in northern Missouri where she was born and raised. It's the place where she and her best friend, Ben Taylor, roamed as children, and where her life's course shifted irrevocably one night long ago.

Embarking on her journey, Julianna meets Elijah Hunter, a shy teenage African American boy, and Jon Tate, a young hitchhiker on the run from the law. The three become traveling companions, bound together by quirks of happenstance. And even as the emerging truth about Julianna's past steers them inexorably toward tragedy, their surprising bond may be the means to transform fear and heartache into the strength that finally guides Julianna home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Sep 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781630154028

Reviews for The Third Hill North of Town

[castlelass · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Set in 1962, fifty-something Julianna Dapper escapes from a mental hospital in Maine, “borrows” a car, and begins a journey to the midwestern US, accompanied by two young men. One is a fifteen-year-old black youth she mistakes for a childhood friend and the other is a seventeen-year-old hitchhiker running from troubles at home. They are pursued by the law and their families. It is a picaresque adventure, full of over-the-top action scenes and a string of improbable coincidences.

I liked the depiction of the unlikely friendship that formed among three diverse individuals. Other than that, I do not have much positive to say about it. Everything is exaggerated – one of the main characters is too saintly and the villains are too evil. There are many plot holes and anachronisms. It is filled with violence and racial scapegoating. For me, it is a failed attempt to combine tragedy and humor, with the humor generated at the expense of a person with mental illness.