- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 360 KB
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
- Publisher: Haunted Computer Books (October 22, 2010)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0048EL5M6
- Source: purchased from Amazon
This is one of those novels where the Amazon blurb just tells you far too much of the story. Check it out if you want. For my part I'll just tell you about the beginning of the book from my point of view.
It opens with one of the most horrifying "hooks" that I have read this year.
Jacob Wells smelled smoke seventeen seconds before hell opened its door.
Jake and Renee are in their bedroom with the door locked and their 9 year old daughter Mattie is in her room down the passage behind a closed door. Jake manages to wake Renee and opens the door into the passage. He tells Renee to dial 911 and then to get out of the house herself. He will get Mattie. He struggles to crawl to Mattie's room beneath the smoke, and then realises that opening the door to her room will let the fire into it. The image of what happens when Jake opens the door is very graphic and memorable.
After the fire we learn that tragedy has already struck Jake and Renee. They lost a baby girl Christine to SIDS less than a year before.
The fire investigators believe the fire may have been deliberately lit. Joshua is back thinks Jake. Who is Joshua? the reader asks. Davidson, the female fire investigator, says they believe the fire was started downstairs by an intruder who entered through an open sliding glass door.
As we read on in this story, we realise that things are far from normal in the Wells family. Jake and his twin were warped in their upbringing by cruel manipulative parents. And that's not all. I think this story will shock most readers when you finally untangle its strands.
I think that Scott Nicholson has overdone the horror element just a bit. The imagery though is very strong. Towards the end the story resolves with one shock wave after another. For me it is a thriller rather than murder mystery although certainly murder (several actually) is done.
My rating 4.2
I wrote about Scott Nicholson's Kindle giveaway blog tour just a week ago, and he will be a guest on this blog in just 3 days.
1 comment:
Kerrie - Thanks for this great review (as always). I agree with you that the horror aspect of a novel can be overdone. I have to admit that I'm not one who enjoys wave after wave of horror. But it does sound as though this one paints vivid, vivid pictures....
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