Under the Falls by Richard Russo

Published by  Knopf by August 11, 2026

Under the Falls is a novel of guilt. Tyler Sinclair feels guilty because he abruptly left town after shagging his best friend’s girlfriend, abandoning them both. The best friend, now a small-town police chief, feels guilty about looking the other way as his wife commits crimes. Despite their guilt, Tyler is fundamentally a decent person, while the chief doesn’t seem like a bad guy if you don’t hold his criminal behavior against him. While the chief lacks the moral courage to make ethical choices, he has a moral compass that tells him the difference between right and wrong. The guilt that accompanies a lack of courage is the theme that drives the story.

Tyler left Stone Mountain, his hometown in upstate New York, when he was eighteen. He admits that he left without saying goodbye to his friends because he was afraid they would talk him out of leaving. He took only his guitar with him.

Now Tyler is a celebrity living in Nashville. He is the lead singer in the band Stone Mountain. He co-writes songs with Beth, a band member who might love him but might also want to leave the band to be with Jason, the band’s manager.

Although Tyler hoped never to return to his birthplace, Jason booked Stone Mountain to perform at a benefit concert for Tyler’s childhood friend Tim “Doc” Dockery. Doc may or may not blame Tyler for the paralysis he suffered. While Tyler saved Doc from drowning, he also contributed to the accident that caused Doc’s disability.

Curt, Tyler’s best friend in childhood (they pinky swore to be BFFs), is now Stone Mountain’s chief of police. Curt and Freddie, the girlfriend Tyler shagged, are now married and have a son. Freddie has never confessed her relationship with Tyler to Curt. Tyler is afraid that he might see them both during his homecoming and doesn’t know how to handle his shame. Curt’s son, however, is a big fan of Stone Mountain and has a strong desire to meet Tyler — until he doesn’t.

Doc warns Tyler that some residents of Stone Mountain resent him for becoming a success or for writing songs about them without compensating them for the inspiration they provided. The warning proves to be prophetic, as the concert does not go well.

After the concert, a driver runs Tyler off the road, killing two people in his limo. Tyler survives but has fuzzy memories of the accident. Curt is reluctant to investigate for fear of what he might learn. Curt’s “star officer” Deb begins to suspect the truth, but she struggles with the divide between her loyalty to Curt and the rumors she hears about Freddie’s crimes.

The perpetrator of Tyler’s hit-and-run comes as no surprise. The resolution of each story element — Tyler’s relationships with Curt and Freddie and Beth, Deb’s resolution of her anxiety about her job, the reason Tyler’s limo was forced off the road, Curt's unwillingness to confront the truth — are predictable, and that predictability robs the story of its tension. The various endings all struck me as a bit too neat.

At the same time, Under the Falls maintains a steady pace and builds to an exciting moment. Each element resolves in a way that is calculated to please readers, but the resolutions find a careful balance between artificial sweetness and depressing hopelessness. The struggle with guilt and courage assures that key characters have a reasonable amount of depth. On balance, the novel’s strengths outweigh its shortcomings.

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