My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Stephen Dobyns is such a talented author. His depictions of small town, America are dead on.
Something is terribly wrong in Brewster. The disappearance of a newborn starts off a chain of events that boggles the mind.
Rumors of Satanist, weird parties out in the swampy woods and shapeshifters have law enforcement at a loss.
Then there is Carl Krause. He is becoming a menace, actually growling at people.
Then an insurance agent is murdered and scalped . A teenage girl reports a rape, then disappears.
As the town goes into panic mode, there are reports of various types of vandalism.
Hercel and his sister are on the run from their stepfather, Carl, and of all things, coyotes.
Woody and Bobby, working with the state police try to connect all these crimes together, while trying to keep the panic from rising to a fever pitch.
The people in Brewster, for the most part, are descent folks, and if it weren't for some observant residents more people may have died.
Small town politics, personal demons, desperation and loneliness lead people into making fatal choices.
This book has been promoted as a horror novel, but it's actually a good old fashioned police procedural. Maybe just a hint of a supernatural slant. There is pure evil, and very real horror as the story reaches it's climax. It is truly the stuff nightmares are made of.
This novel is very fast paced. Something is always going on and it nearly drove me crazy trying to figure out how all these single events would tie in together.
The characters were human, with flaws we recognize in ourselves and others. This nine day period of pure chaos brought out the best and the worst in human nature.
This is a dark and twisty mystery - not for the faint of heart.
Overall this one gets an A.
This book is an ARC copy I received from Netgalley.
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