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A review by gnashchick
Salvage by Duncan Ralston
4.0
I like ghost stories. Salvage, the debut novel from Duncan Ralston, is a family drama where the ghosts of the past could be hallucinations, or they could be very real.
It's hard not to be invested in Owen Saddler. He starts out as a withdrawn, standoffish man, reeling from the death of his beloved sister. As he investigates her death, he relies on her memory--or is it her ghost?--to give himself the courage to keep prying into the past.
The story is layered with mystery, untimely deaths, and family ties. The trauma of the loss of an entire town to a hydroelectric dam mirrors the project that Owen is currently overseeing, and I thought that was a nice touch. The author builds an atmosphere of fear from the first chapter, and nurtures it into an ending that was a genuine surprise.
My only complaint about the book is that it lags in places. The information in the slow spots is vital to the story, but it needs a little nudge to keep it interesting. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big enough deal to make me put the book down.
When it comes to horror, the author doesn't hold back. I don't want to spoil it, so I will just say that people die. Some of the deaths are heartbreakingly sad, others are downright gruesome.
Overall, I recommend this for people who enjoy mysteries, ghost stories, and emotional horror. This is a solid debut novel and I think Duncan Ralston will be an author to keep an eye on as he hones his already sharp storytelling skills.
It's hard not to be invested in Owen Saddler. He starts out as a withdrawn, standoffish man, reeling from the death of his beloved sister. As he investigates her death, he relies on her memory--or is it her ghost?--to give himself the courage to keep prying into the past.
The story is layered with mystery, untimely deaths, and family ties. The trauma of the loss of an entire town to a hydroelectric dam mirrors the project that Owen is currently overseeing, and I thought that was a nice touch. The author builds an atmosphere of fear from the first chapter, and nurtures it into an ending that was a genuine surprise.
My only complaint about the book is that it lags in places. The information in the slow spots is vital to the story, but it needs a little nudge to keep it interesting. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a big enough deal to make me put the book down.
When it comes to horror, the author doesn't hold back. I don't want to spoil it, so I will just say that people die. Some of the deaths are heartbreakingly sad, others are downright gruesome.
Overall, I recommend this for people who enjoy mysteries, ghost stories, and emotional horror. This is a solid debut novel and I think Duncan Ralston will be an author to keep an eye on as he hones his already sharp storytelling skills.