Fourth of July Creek

This was a gripping story right up to the end. The main character, Pete Snow, is a likeable social worker with a huge district in Montana and a lot of personal problems. He becomes involved with a reclusive millennialist through trying to help the man's young son, who shows up in town malnourished and inadequately clothed one day. The main reason I didn't give this book a higher rating is that the story of the millennialist and Pete's personal problems get such big build ups that the ending feels abrupt and completely anticlimactic. Still, the setting of Montana in the late 70's/early 80's, the drinking habits and personal foibles of many of the characters, the impossible burden of keeping sane while taking care of kids in terrible circumstances, the paranoia of the federal government at the time of President Reagan's shooting–it all combines to make a really great read.