Set in the 1970s in Hallowell, Maine, Pack’s engrossing supernatural thriller successfully combines detection, horror, and human drama. 1976. Recently retired from the US Navy, Earnest Kemp is hoping to begin afresh with his wife Linda and one-year-old daughter Amy. But when Linda disappears with Amy without leaving any explanation, Earnest knows he must find his wife and daughter. His search takes him to Hallowell, a small town in Maine rocked by recent murders of a young couple. As bodies continue to pile up, Earnest teams up with Samantha Belcher, a reporter for Kennebec Journal, to solve the case. Told in alternating third-person omniscient narration and various characters’ journal entries, the page-turning narrative, which includes Earnest’s relevant memories of the Vietnam War as a medic, never slows down, and the balance of plot and character is perfect. Pack creates a vivid sense of doom, deftly portraying an intriguing world of brutal slayings, centuries-old curses, deadly rituals, otherworldly beings, and ordinary people who are caught between these anomalies. Readers will be on the edge of their seats until they turn the last page.
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Categories: horror
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