With all that is going on this year (2025), I have found I have gotten the reading bug again and I am spending more and more time in the realm of fiction to escape my own nightmares. With this, I have also gotten the urge to write reviews again. I’m sure I can go back and find numerous posts here where I have mentioned I’m back to blogging and things will be different; only to go back to being sporadic.This time I will just say, let’s see how it goes.
As I finished this book today I went to social media to share my joy with my #Booksky friends. One of them had just posted about another book and she said she struggled to write a review because all she could say was “It’s Great”. Incompletely understand this feeling. I loved this book but I’m having a hard time stating exactly why, I may be still caught up in my emotions and it’s clouding my thoughts or there are just so many I can’t pick one.
For me, one sign a book is going to be good is when I connect with the main character right away. We meet Andrew Larimer talking about his fears of being a new Dad. Andrew is constantly worried something was going to happen to his wife or unborn child. I was the exact same way. The paranoia of being a new dad and not being able to feel the baby all the time was a struggle. At night I couldn’t fall asleep until I felt my son push on my arm through my wife’s stomach.
Andrew has no idea how is life is going to be changed when a call from a childhood friend calls him home. Dale’s wife has gone missing and he may be looked at as a suspect and he knows Andrew is an attorney and needs to get back to Kingsport immediately.
This is my first read by Malfi and I loved the complex and interesting characters brought to life in this book. I could feel these people through the words on the page like I lived their experiences with them. Malfi also created the most vivid setting. I could see in my mind’s eye everything so clearly like it was right outside my window. Malfi’s style reminds me of Stephen King and when I visit Derry or Castle Rock, I feel like I’ve lived there my whole life.
I hate spoilers and I do not want to ruin even the smallest detail so I will keep this vague. The story was very detailed shifting between the present and the past but there was never a lull in the story. The pacing moves steadily and my attention was always engaged. I loved learning about each character to see how the were brought together in the past and what has gotten between them to the present. There are revelations that are timed so perfectly to keep the reader turning page after page. I will admit, sometimes a revelation would come at the end of a chapter and then Malfi would shift to a flashback in the next and that drove me NUTS!!! I just wanted more explanation and had to wade through the past to get there.
Frequently one of the characters would say “This isn’t a ghost story” which of course means it is. This book is full of ghosts Ghosts of the past, present, guilt, lies, and secrets are a constant theme in this book. Sometimes there may be literal ghosts, but other times it is the characters creating what haunts them and the mental turmoil.
I have gone on enough, and believe me I could go longer. It seems I have to many thoughts this time. The bottom line, I loved this book. For 2025 this is the first book I couldn’t put down and found any opportunity to read. I’m hooked on Malfi and cannot wait to pick up another of his books to read. If they are as well written as this one, then I will be a fan for life. It should be no surprise this book gets 🥃🥃🥃🥃🥃. I believe this is my first 5 glass review of the year. I have read 10 books so far and none have gone above 4 glasses. If you are looking for an engaging spooky thriller plagued by secrets and lies, then I cannot recommend this book enough. As a matter of fact, I suggested this to my Wife’s bookclub as one they should read.
Have you read Ronald Malfi? What’s your favorite? Let me pour you a drink and let’s talk.
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