Quote:
Originally Posted by ZodWallop
The Shadows by Alex North is $2.99 at Amazon US.
This one is tough. It is sold as a horror novel and not a horror novel, but a thriller with supernatural elements (which sounds like horror to me). Point it, this sounds like a non-traditional horror novel, but with accolades from all over.
I think the cover is terrific.
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I just tried reading this. Do not recommend. The author is British, but the story is placed in a generic English-speaking town. It uses a mishmash of vernacular from the UK, Australia and the US, apparently in an effort to make it "accessible." This is not only distracting and annoying on its own, but shows an ignorance of US law enforcement that makes it unreadable (the cross-jurisdictional investigation by the detective would have seen
her thrown into jail before any crime-solving took place). I gave up at about the 20% point, and looked online for spoilers as to how it ends.
I'm glad I quit where I did, because if I had wasted my energy on completing the book, I would have been furious. The resolution is a total cheat. Both POV characters make deliberately deceitful statements about the identity of the past victim. This isn't an unreliable narrator, this is an author who wants you to think he's being clever in the way he obfuscates what would be plain facts in any well-written novel. Comparison? It's as though throughout a story, multiple characters who never trade notes with each other all refer to an item of clothing as a "green scarf." Then, in the denouement, we learn that the color of the scarf was red, and it was "Green" brand!
Never again, Alex North.