Book Review: Small Town Horror, by Ronald Malfi
A lawyer returns to his hometown to face the skeletons in his past.
Titan Books, 2024, 400 pages
Maybe this is a ghost story . . .
Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
Coming home means returning to his late father's house, which has seen better days. It means lying to his wife. But it also means reuniting with his friends: Eric, now the town's sheriff; Dale, a real-estate mogul living in the shadow of a failed career; his childhood sweetheart Tig who never could escape town; and poor Meach, whose ravings about a curse upon the group have driven him to drugs and alcohol.
Together, the five friends will have to confront the memories-and the horror-of a night, years ago, that changed everything for them.
Because Andrew and his friends have a secret. A thing they have kept to themselves for twenty years. Something no one else should know. But the past is not dead, and Kingsport is a town with secrets of its own.
One dark secret . . .
One small-town horror . . .
This book has a lot in common with the first book I read by Ronald Malfi, Bone White. His preferred theme seems to be guys who left their pasts behind and went off to the big city, only to be pulled back to their crappy hometown to deal with the skeletons buried in their closets. With hints of the supernatural that never quite come out into the open.
Small Town Horror is basically I Know What You Did Last Summer with Stephen King childhood-friendship-is-dark-magic vibes. The main character, Andrew Larimer, is a big shot New York lawyer, with a beautiful pregnant wife. Life is good. Until he gets a call from an old friend back in his home town in Maryland, on the Chesapeake shore. So he returns to his old haunts, where he hasn't been since his father died years ago.
It turns out his old gang never left - one of them has become a cop, one has become a failed real estate developer, one has become a junkie, and the girl in the group has become a single mother waiting tables.
The plot revolves around a secret they've all been keeping since they were teens, about a high school classmate who died in a tragic accident. Everyone has been carrying the guilt of what happened back then, and things start unraveling. The "supernatural" element is introduced with the mother of the dead kid, who's got a reputation as the town "witch."
The plot was suspenseful even if the "secret" is pretty obvious from the beginning, and the hints of supernatural add an atmosphere of creepiness without really turning it into a proper horror novel.
I was annoyed by what seemed to be some baffling decisions by the main character, and when the reason for those decisions was revealed, I was annoyed by the fact that the author sort of "cheated" by hiding a major revelation from the reader until near the end. Big reveals should not be things that the main character knows all along but just doesn't mention until it's convenient.
That said, I still liked how it all came together in the end. It's a gloomy, tragic small town horror.
Also by Ronald Malfi: My review of Bone White.
My complete list of book reviews.
Titan Books, 2024, 400 pages
Maybe this is a ghost story . . .
Andrew Larimer has left his past behind. Rising up the ranks in a New York law firm, and with a heavily pregnant wife, he is settling into a new life far from Kingsport, the town in which he grew up. But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he has no choice but to return home.
Coming home means returning to his late father's house, which has seen better days. It means lying to his wife. But it also means reuniting with his friends: Eric, now the town's sheriff; Dale, a real-estate mogul living in the shadow of a failed career; his childhood sweetheart Tig who never could escape town; and poor Meach, whose ravings about a curse upon the group have driven him to drugs and alcohol.
Together, the five friends will have to confront the memories-and the horror-of a night, years ago, that changed everything for them.
Because Andrew and his friends have a secret. A thing they have kept to themselves for twenty years. Something no one else should know. But the past is not dead, and Kingsport is a town with secrets of its own.
One dark secret . . .
One small-town horror . . .
This book has a lot in common with the first book I read by Ronald Malfi, Bone White. His preferred theme seems to be guys who left their pasts behind and went off to the big city, only to be pulled back to their crappy hometown to deal with the skeletons buried in their closets. With hints of the supernatural that never quite come out into the open.
Small Town Horror is basically I Know What You Did Last Summer with Stephen King childhood-friendship-is-dark-magic vibes. The main character, Andrew Larimer, is a big shot New York lawyer, with a beautiful pregnant wife. Life is good. Until he gets a call from an old friend back in his home town in Maryland, on the Chesapeake shore. So he returns to his old haunts, where he hasn't been since his father died years ago.
It turns out his old gang never left - one of them has become a cop, one has become a failed real estate developer, one has become a junkie, and the girl in the group has become a single mother waiting tables.
The plot revolves around a secret they've all been keeping since they were teens, about a high school classmate who died in a tragic accident. Everyone has been carrying the guilt of what happened back then, and things start unraveling. The "supernatural" element is introduced with the mother of the dead kid, who's got a reputation as the town "witch."
The plot was suspenseful even if the "secret" is pretty obvious from the beginning, and the hints of supernatural add an atmosphere of creepiness without really turning it into a proper horror novel.
I was annoyed by what seemed to be some baffling decisions by the main character, and when the reason for those decisions was revealed, I was annoyed by the fact that the author sort of "cheated" by hiding a major revelation from the reader until near the end. Big reveals should not be things that the main character knows all along but just doesn't mention until it's convenient.
That said, I still liked how it all came together in the end. It's a gloomy, tragic small town horror.
Also by Ronald Malfi: My review of Bone White.
My complete list of book reviews.