A smidge under 5*
I don’t read many thrillers, but this was neat, plausible, and downright creepy, with clean prose. Clever in keeping away from an OTT gorefest, the characters were ordinarily familiar, and could even be from over the road. That familiarity, I found added a layer or two to the creepiness as the story progresses and reality unravels.
The combination of regular folks, a tragedy and ordinary lives interwoven with the supernatural, occultism, academia and what could lay beyond, was well packaged and taut in delivery with a strong support cast of secondary characters.
I twigged part of the ending in advance, and if anything I would have preferred, all the support cast to have been directly involved in the conclusion, rather than some being peripheral in associated events to round matters off. It certainly ended on a chill and with severe psychological consequences, I’m curious to see the development further in future works, and whether becomes darker.
Up there with Michael Marshall (Smith), with the potential to be another Straw Men series. Matching in jumping genres on readability, with effortless characterisation and immersion.
