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Book Review: Scavenger Hunt by Michaelbrent Collings

Scavenger Hunt by Michaelbrent Collings

Written Insomnia Press, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-699207-49-9

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Five strangers wake up in a room, with no memory of how they got there.  They find out they are part of a game controlled by a sinister mastermind, who wears a mask and communicates through electronic means.  The mastermind expects them to do bad things.  That’s the plot of Michaelbrent Collings’s newest thriller, and it’s a plot you’ve seen before, many times.  Collings himself used it in his previous novel, Terminal, and many authors, from King to Koontz, have also recycled it.  Unlike certain purveyors of said plot (example: the SAW and CUBE film franchises) Collings actually knows how to make an old plot seem new and fresh, due to the speed of the writing and the unseen twists that pop up throughout the book.  Scavenger Hunt is a fast ride through a familiar plot, and is worth the time to read.

Aside from the basic plot, there are elements that you can guess will show up.  The obvious one is that all the strangers were chosen for a reason.  Even though they don’t know each other, their lives were all connected at some point in the past.  Collings wisely spaces interlude chapters throughout the book, one for each character.  Each chapter fills in the backstory of one character, and it helps you see how the plot slowly ties together.  Collings also has a variety of chapters detailing police online investigations throughout the book that don’t seem related to the plot, but are, although the reasons don’t become apparent until later.  The whole story works this way: the reader gets a clue at a time to figure out the puzzle, but it’s a very difficult one to figure out, as Collings doesn’t give away anything obvious.

Therein lies the strength of this novel.  Not everything is as it seems, and the perception of the characters changes throughout the book, turning the story into a maddeningly elliptical puzzle.

The protagonists and antagonists flip roles throughout the book, and even what seems like a sick game might be perceived as salvation by the end.  Collings does an excellent job confounding expectations with this commonly used plot.   A nice touch was the creative way to keep the game players from simply running away, once they are free to go out on the streets.  Each player has a collar and wristwatch fitted with explosives, giving the game’s mastermind the freedom to blow a limb-or head-off of any of the players whenever he sees fit.  This is also one of the few stories of this type where some of the players are actually given a chance to leave the game, if they are fine with abandoning the other players to their fate.  It’s the little things that make an old plotline seem new and exciting.

Overall, this is a well-written, fast-paced story that should please fans of horror or thriller novels.  It has elements of both, but doesn’t swing too strongly one way or the other.  If you want excitement, don’t miss this one.  Recommended.

 

Contains: violence, profanity

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Book Review: Girl Most Likely by Max Allan Collins

Girl Most Likely by Max Allan Collins
2019, Thomas and Mercer
ISBN-13: 978-1542040587
Available: Kindle, Paperback, Audiobook, Audio CD

Girl Most Likely is the new novel from Max Allan Collins, who is famed for his graphic novel The Road to Perdition. Like the first work, Girl Most Likely is a tale that happens in the Midwest. Unlike the first story, this novel takes place in the present day.

Girl Most Likely is the first book in a planned series concerning the adventures of the new chief of police, Krista Larson. In this book, Larson’s high school reunion brings out the worst in people. As people from her high school class come to town and occupy a lake house, bodies start to pile up. Worse, secrets Larson thought people had forgotten after  high school start to resurface.
This is a fantatsic whodunit, a quality mystery that people who like such dramas will find most engrossing. Highly recommended for young adults.

Reviewed by Ben Franz

Book Review: The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay

The Cabin at the End of the World  by Paul Tremblay

William Morrow. 2018

ISBN-13: 978-0062679109

Available: Hardcover, paperback, mass market paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook

 

Paul Tremblay is at it again, screwing with the minds of readers, playing a morality game that results in a twisted read worthy of film version due to its close characters, claustrophobic setting, and themes that he refuses to shy away from.

Tremblay’s previous books, A Head Full of Ghosts and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, both toyed with the reader’s sense of reality and the supernatural. In The Cabin at the End of the World, Tremblay drags the reader into what seems to be a simple home invasion story. Nothing is what it seems, though: this is a tight, utterly uncomfortable, well-told tale of horror that requires the reader’s intellect and intuition to untangle whether there is a supernatural factor to the story

A young girl, Wen, plays outside with her grasshoppers, while her parents, Eric and Andrew, are inside, relaxing on a peaceful family vacation in the woods of New Hampshire. Nothing is supposed to be anywhere near them: no stores, neighbors, or distractions.

Then Leonard arrives. A hulking man, he speaks calmly to her and appeals to her innocence before announcing, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault. You haven’t done anything wrong, but the three of you will have to make some tough decisions. I wish with all my broken heart you didn’t have to.” Three strangers emerge from the woods and enter the cabin. They  inform the family that the end of the world is inevitable, unless the parents make a heart-wrenching decision that will ruin them.  Are these strangers cold-blooded psychopaths who sought out this family, or is there something more at play?

The way Tremblay paints the characters of both the family and the intruders, is what drives the story. To say more would kill the suspense, but suffice it to say, the emotional heft of this tale will leave a scar behind.

Highly recommended reading for readers of great suspense.

 

Reviewed by Dave Simms

Editor’s note: The Cabin at the End of the World  is a nominee for the 2018 Stoker Award in the category Superior Achievement in a Novel.