Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Release
Date: 8th July 2021
Format:
Paperback [also available in eBook]
Price:
£8.99
Reviewed
by Amy Myers
Are you brave enough to visit
Hollow Falls? Best-selling author Mark Edwards’ website throws out this
challenge to his readers. I’m very glad I did visit it, although the characters
in this thrilling new novel would certainly have chosen otherwise, given the
chance. From his first psychological thriller in 2013, The Magpies, even the
titles of Mark Edwards’ novels lay the ground for the creepiness and menace
that lie ahead for the reader. The Hollows is no exception.
The author excels at creating
and building up the scary horrors that affect ordinary people. When Tom
Anderson comes over to the US from England to pick up his 14-year-old daughter
Frankie from the home of his former wife for a 10-day vacation in a splendid New
England resort nothing seems unusual about it. It seems to be meeting all their
requirements, especially when they meet David and Connie Butler in the
neighbouring cabin. Their 15-year-old son Ryan makes a good companion for
Frankie. There is no internet connection, but why worry about that?
But then David learns a little
more about Hollow Falls and the shadows that lie over it. Some years earlier a
naked man and woman engaged in extra-marital sex had been found murdered, lying
across a huge stone marked with pagan symbols. No one has been charged with their murder
because the chief suspect, Everett Miller, has disappeared. He is thought to be
living in the thick woodland that divides Hollow Falls from the small town of
Penance. Other than that murder, though, everything and everyone seems normal –
even if the teenagers of Penance seem hostile to the newcomers. Normal? Far
from it.
Mark Edwards controls the pace
brilliantly. It builds and builds, seemingly slowly but never losing its grip
on the reader. This is a thriller that truly thrills. Give yourself a
holiday and read The Hollows – if you’re brave enough.
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