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A review by brownflopsy
Hinton Hollow Death Trip by Will Carver
4.0
Things in the small town of Hinton Hollow, population 5,120, are about to go seriously awry...
It all starts with a boy put on a train by his mother, in an attempt to keep him safe from the something that is about to visit this small town.
That something is Evil, who is travelling in the wake of DS Pace as he returns to his childhood home in search refuge from the terrible events that haunt him.
Unfortunately, Evil has a plan to occupy the attentions of DS Pace and the next five days are about to have very little to do with rest and relaxation.
Hinton Hollow is abut to become famous for the worst of reasons....
**********************************************
This is the kind of book that is very difficult to review, because it follows the darkest of paths and it quite simply, is not going to be for everyone - although to be fair Will Carver goes to great lengths to let us know this is not going to be a hearts and flowers, happy ending kind of story from the start.
DS Pace is a troubled man, who is bogged down with the weight of his past deeds... and misdeeds. He seems to have been chosen by the personification of Evil to follow a dark and tortured star, and you know from the outset that very bad things are going to happen in Hinton Hollow on his return.... and happen they do. Events in this small town take on a wicked momentum with the arrival of Pace and his shadowy companion, and as Evil's plan unfolds the inhabitants are forced to dance to his dastardly tune.
The action plays out is an unusual and rather original way, as series of vignettes interspersed with the sardonic and philosophical narration of Evil himself, and we actually get to know him and his way of thinking pretty well over the course of the book. In fact, he is rather likeable in a strange way, unlike the inhabitants of Hinton Hollow, and you almost find yourself agreeing that they had it coming simply because they could have chosen to live good lives if they had really wanted to.
Coming in cold to the trials and tribulations of DS Pace, as I have by not having read the first two books (yet!), I am still not sure what to make of this unsettling tale. It is as disjointed and shocking as the twitching corpse of an RTA casualty - and yet, it is also a darkly compelling exercise in human frailty. Our tale may be narrated and the action directed by Evil himself, and yet it only takes for him to nudge the characters, sometimes with the very lightest of touches, to awaken their basest instincts and force them off the straight and narrow onto a course of action that leads to a downward spiral into depravity, murder and mayhem - it's strangely voyeuristic.
There is also something quite unnerving about the implication that the bar of what is now considered "good" in this day and age has been set so low that it does not take much to nudge even so called upstanding citizens towards the dark side, that will stay with me for a long time.
Be in no doubt, this is a chiller of a book, and parts of it are so disturbing that they are hard to read - think the combination of the insidious menace and violent happenings of a Stephen King tale and you will get the picture. If this is not your bag, then you should pass this one by, but if you are up for something quite original and discomfiting that will challenge your view of what can be done with a crime fiction tale then Will Carver's Hinton Hollow Death Trip should definitely be on your to-be-read pile.
It all starts with a boy put on a train by his mother, in an attempt to keep him safe from the something that is about to visit this small town.
That something is Evil, who is travelling in the wake of DS Pace as he returns to his childhood home in search refuge from the terrible events that haunt him.
Unfortunately, Evil has a plan to occupy the attentions of DS Pace and the next five days are about to have very little to do with rest and relaxation.
Hinton Hollow is abut to become famous for the worst of reasons....
**********************************************
This is the kind of book that is very difficult to review, because it follows the darkest of paths and it quite simply, is not going to be for everyone - although to be fair Will Carver goes to great lengths to let us know this is not going to be a hearts and flowers, happy ending kind of story from the start.
DS Pace is a troubled man, who is bogged down with the weight of his past deeds... and misdeeds. He seems to have been chosen by the personification of Evil to follow a dark and tortured star, and you know from the outset that very bad things are going to happen in Hinton Hollow on his return.... and happen they do. Events in this small town take on a wicked momentum with the arrival of Pace and his shadowy companion, and as Evil's plan unfolds the inhabitants are forced to dance to his dastardly tune.
The action plays out is an unusual and rather original way, as series of vignettes interspersed with the sardonic and philosophical narration of Evil himself, and we actually get to know him and his way of thinking pretty well over the course of the book. In fact, he is rather likeable in a strange way, unlike the inhabitants of Hinton Hollow, and you almost find yourself agreeing that they had it coming simply because they could have chosen to live good lives if they had really wanted to.
Coming in cold to the trials and tribulations of DS Pace, as I have by not having read the first two books (yet!), I am still not sure what to make of this unsettling tale. It is as disjointed and shocking as the twitching corpse of an RTA casualty - and yet, it is also a darkly compelling exercise in human frailty. Our tale may be narrated and the action directed by Evil himself, and yet it only takes for him to nudge the characters, sometimes with the very lightest of touches, to awaken their basest instincts and force them off the straight and narrow onto a course of action that leads to a downward spiral into depravity, murder and mayhem - it's strangely voyeuristic.
There is also something quite unnerving about the implication that the bar of what is now considered "good" in this day and age has been set so low that it does not take much to nudge even so called upstanding citizens towards the dark side, that will stay with me for a long time.
Be in no doubt, this is a chiller of a book, and parts of it are so disturbing that they are hard to read - think the combination of the insidious menace and violent happenings of a Stephen King tale and you will get the picture. If this is not your bag, then you should pass this one by, but if you are up for something quite original and discomfiting that will challenge your view of what can be done with a crime fiction tale then Will Carver's Hinton Hollow Death Trip should definitely be on your to-be-read pile.