When Paula Mitchell follows her husband Bill into the remote Colorado wilderness, she never expects them to stumble upon a deserted ghost town. Devil's Briar has been abandoned for many decades, but it soon becomes clear that the town harbors some dark secrets. What happened to the people of Devil's Briar, and why are both Paula and Bill starting to see and hear strange things as they explore the town?
Meanwhile, back in 1925, the people of Devil's Briar welcome a new arrival. Thomas Paternoster is a secretive scientist who immediately becomes a central figure in the community. However, just as it seems that Devil's Briar is poised to achieve greatness, the true extent of Paternoster's plan becomes apparent, setting in chain a series of events that will have terrible repercussions not only for the townsfolk, but also for Paula and Bill almost a century later.
This volume contains all 8 books in the series.
Book 1: Arrival Book 2: The Drum Book 3: Cloth Man Book 4: Fingernails Book 5: The Face at the Window Book 6: Lost Book 7: Weatherman Book 8: Electrolyte
Also included is Abigail (Dark Season 3.1), a book from the Dark Season series.
Please note: This book contains violence, swearing and sex scenes. Not suitable for children.
Amy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.
I liked this book early on, but the story got too repetitive for me. I found it to be a hard read -- I kept putting it down, not wanting to pick it up and continue.
However, it was well written, and did have a number or interesting twists to the story. I just never really cared about any of the characters, so I really never got involved in the story.
This was a well crafted supernatural thriller which had me enthralled from start to finish. Complete with elements of sci-fi this was a book for all adherents of ghost/horror fiction. I highly recommend it.
Another interesting rabbit hole from Amy Cross. This story felt a little unfinished and slightly difficult to understand at times, but a fascinating story anyway
That was the most painful book I’ve forced myself to read in a long time. This woman needs an editor in the worst way. The story itself had a great backbone and could have been excellent, but she made it ridiculously repetitive even given the subject matter. At the end, she had written herself into a corner and it’s like she just gave up on the book. Also, I’m certainly no prude, but this book had some pretty vulgar sexual references that I could have passed on. Aside from her awful grammar and misuse of words, Amy Cross has issues with using British vernacular for American characters in all of her books. It makes it very hard to take seriously. I keep trying to give her another shot, because she clearly knows how to tell a story, but the last few I’ve read have been terrible. I truly think hiring an editor would fix all of her problems and make her an A+ author.
This is one twisted story! This book might not be for everyone, so be advised. It is Not for the gentle-hearted nor is it appropriate for young adults! It is scary in places, gory in places, and contains on-page sex. The plot takes a couple chapters for it to begin it's unraveling. When I finally thought that I had caught on to what was happening, the story twisted once again. So much so that by the time I reached the end of the story, I realize that this was not the book that I had started off reading. It ends with a glorious zing, which made me smile as I realized the author was still messing with my head. I recommend this to readers of the Horror, Paranormal, and Psychological Thrillers genres.
Another excellent and original story from this imaginative author. This time the tale centres on a small town, one that holds the secrets of... no spoilers from me.
Great storytelling with believable and intriguing characters, where jumps back and forth in time make for a compelling read.
Wow! Talk about the cycle repeating.... I love Amy Cross. She has a new fan! I highly recommend this book. There's time traveling mysteries then there's Devil's Briar. Suggest reading, you'll love this. Warning!!!! Adult audiences suggested. ( LSV rating ) from me.
First of all, I gave up around the halfway point. I had to really stick at it to make it that far. The concept of the story is pretty cool, I'll say that. It's imaginative and I was really looking forward to settling down with it. However, the execution of it wasn't great in my opinion.
Firstly there is a lot of repetition. To the point that it really gets annoying. It feels like a good edit is needed to sharpen things up for conciseness and flow. The other issue for me was the characters. I didn't like any of them, I just couldn't relate to a single one of them.
The other issue was that no matter who was speaking, all the characters were basically voiced exactly the same way. It's set across different time periods, and everyone just spoke exactly the same. If you dipped randomly into the book you wouldn't be able to tell which character was the focal point aside from circumstance.
Ultimately I couldn't drag myself through the second half of it. The creepiness wasn't creepy enough, the rationale of the scientists didn't resonate at all, the crude language just felt super forced and out of place, there's so much repetition and in the end (well the middle), I just didn't care enough as why Devil's Briar was a "ghost town" or what happened to anyone.
Entertaining, but all of Amy's books seem to follow a formula, have a lot of the same elements. While scenes practically repeated in some cases. And it's sometimes painfully obvious that she is a British writer... not that that's a bad thing! But when her books are set in the States, certain terms just don't fit in and may have some Americans scratching their heads. That said, I still read quite a few of her books, as I said before, still entertaining!
I have become quite the Amy Cross fan. She always gives her readings exactly what they're looking for. All I can say is it is def worth the read! (I don't like to spoil any parts of the book) Just finishing the book, I am now off to see which Amy Cross book I'm going to read next!
Not your typical ghost story this author combines apparent time travel and a ghost story. The characters are well described and believable. I have been really impressed by Amy Cross since the first book I received of hers in a free offer and have been reading every book I can since then.
Amy cross does it again. This one was a bit different from her other books. It is also one of her bigger books. If you haven't read Any Cross I would suggest buying some of her earlier work to see how her mind works. This is part ghost story, science fiction and time that seems to go on forever. Maybe it does...you decide
Why would the characters believe gasoline from the 1920’s would still be around and viable from a ghost town? Why make it seem like a town appears and disappears? So many things had no reason to be included and it kept swapping to different characters point of view. Just not a fan of this book
This is the first story from Cross that I've read. I can truly say that after this one, i'm a fan! In this book, she does a great job with story flow and always leaves you wanting to see what happens next. I recommend this book.
Devil's Briar was a little hard to get into, but later on Amy Cross pulls you into the depths of insanity! She carefully develops each character letting you know each one. Then she takes you down the winding road full of twists and turns.
Such a fascinating book. I read it straight through trying to figure out what happened with the clues from the story. I found myself wondering what the heck? Many times. This was another book that lets me know Amy Cross is one of my favorite authors.
I really enjoyed the mystery aspect of this book. I had no idea what was truly happening until the end of the book. I've been recommending this book to everyone. Read it!
There is no end to Amy Cross's extensive knowledge about so many areas. She amazes me and I'm in awe of her. Every book I read that she's written has a different subject and they are all very interesting. Devil's Briar is a prime example. Love her books.
What can I say about this monster 600 page read?? Clever, unique, twisted, creepy, true horror. A good, long read with all the elements of a bone chilling, ruthless scary story.
Well written but a few spelling and grammatical errors. Also, the use of Ms to a woman living in 1925 is a big mistake since its use only started in the 1970s.
The book started off most interestingly but became quite repetitive And difficult to remain focused. I had to really force myself to finish this book off.