In 1977, six Colorado children were lost in an abandoned mine for several days. Five are found, and the search for the lost sixth, a boy named Frankie, is eventually called off. Over 30 years later, in 2011, a murderer is targeting the survivors, and Police Chief Cal Hunt suspects that they have been hiding details about their time in the mine. Even more puzzling are the impossibilities that the crime scenes present, strongly suggesting a supernatural force. For Hunt, who does not believe in an afterlife, his determination to prevent more murders forces him to confront his own beliefs and what all of this might mean for his deceased wife.
This is a horror story with dark corners and strong suspense. It does not rely on disturbing imagery or gore to scare the reader. I have a lot of respect for this approach, as it’s a more difficult and challenging way to get readers’ adrenaline pumping. Its scare level for me was on par with X-Files and Supernatural—not enough to linger with me, but more than enough to keep me turning pages, especially the scenes involving the attacks on the survivors-turned-victims.
I was especially interested in Chief Hunt. In a lot of horror stories, we have the regular-Joe guy who doesn’t believe in monsters and ghosts, but is forced to acknowledge them over the course of the story. For Hunt, however, the disbelief is amped up. He doesn’t ever declare as much, but he seems to lean toward an atheistic, existential view of the world, believing that death is the ultimate end. The possibility of an afterlife raises the stakes for him especially because of his wife’s recent death. Even in the darkness of the story, a glimmer of hope rises in this character, which he fights, of course. I thought this was a cool spin on the I-don’t-believe storyline.
I didn’t feel like I got an opportunity to solve the murders along with the characters. It’s fairly obvious early on who is behind the killing, so the driving question through the story is one of motive. What happened in the mine that the survivors aren’t talking about? Why does the murderer want them dead? The answers to these questions are laid out nicely in the ending chapters. It’s a good ending—probably the most intense moments of the book are found there—but I felt left out of the solving part. And since the motive encompasses a pretty complex story (much of which is brand new to the reader), I got overwhelmed when it was all put out there at once.
This is a good read for those who like a suspenseful supernatural story without the gore. It has a strong main character whose life changes dramatically during his journey through the story. It’s also good for the reader who likes a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Even though the story takes readers to dark places, a strong theme of redemption weaves through the storyline.
• No strong language or sexual situations
• Violence includes several murders, which the reader witnesses
• Some adult characters drink, the book addresses alcoholism