The Trouble in Thor

By Charlotte Armstrong

The small mining town of Thor is nestled in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, near the Wisconsin border. Its only source of income is the two ore mines – one to the east, one to west – that its citizens cling to for security. Then, one calm day, the town's routine is shaken.   One of the mines collapses, and five men are trapped underground. They are the only survivors in the wake of the tragic accident. But as the good people of Thor wait and pray, they know that the catastrophe has already changed them forever. Some are coming together in fear and dread, others in grief and resounding faith. For a few, the tragedy will shatter what little is left of their struggling and vulnerable lives.   In her most personal novel of suspense, and of human behavior under the most trying conditions, Charlotte Armstrong lends her formidable talents to what the New York Times hailed as her knack for "day-lit terror." The Trouble in Thor is inspired by the very real landscape of Armstrong's own childhood on Hanbury Lake. It is a testament to how life in a mining town can define, smother, and confound its people, in particular the wives, daughters, and sisters often left to their own resources and resilience.   The Trouble in Thor was adapted for the stage in 2008. It debuted in Norway, Michigan, only miles from the town of Vulcan, where Armstrong was born and raised.

• Language: English
• Publisher: mysteriouspress.com
• Release date: Jan 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781788540759

Charlotte Armstrong

Edgar Award–winning Charlotte Armstrong (1905–1969) was one of the finest American authors of classic mystery and suspense. The daughter of an inventor, Armstrong was born in Vulcan, Michigan, and attended Barnard College, in New York City. After college she worked at the New York Times and the magazine Breath of the Avenue, before marrying and turning to literature in 1928. For a decade she wrote plays and poetry, with work produced on Broadway and published in the New Yorker. In the early 1940s, she began writing suspense. Success came quickly. Her first novel, Lay On, MacDuff! (1942) was well received, spawning a three-book series. Over the next two decades, she wrote more than two dozen novels, winning critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. The Unsuspected (1945) and Mischief (1950) were both made into films, and A Dram of Poison (1956) won the Edgar Award for best novel. She died in California in 1969.

Reviews for The Trouble in Thor

[cmbohn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thor is a little mining town in Michigan. The whole town, from top to bottom, depends on the mine. In this book, Armstrong takes a look at several different families, with all kinds of relationships, and then examines what happens when a mine caves in, trapping 5 men. All kinds of tensions and drama erupt in the little community while they wait to see who will emerge from underground alive.I enjoyed this story. Sometimes the dialogue was a little hard to follow, but the portrait of an older time was a convincing one. I wasn't quite clear on exactly when this was supposed to be set, but certainly times have changed. Still, just last year, here in Utah we had another cave in, and the drama and emotion while the whole town waited, holding their breath, that tension has not changed. Good solid book.