Thrillers are literature’s guilty pleasures. Readers love to nibble on the suspense, bite into the fear, and binge on all the horrible things that continually happen to people other than themselves. There are more than enough horrible things happening to other people in this novel to assuage the heartiest of potboiler appetites.

On a star-filled night, at a cabin in a snow covered Christmas card setting, evil erupts. Unspeakable mayhem transpires with tentacles that pull a diverse cadre of characters into an unfolding mystery. While the hideously unexplained events are the engine driving this tale, it is the author’s rich characterization of the principals involved that make it compelling. There is the young FBI agent who is outwardly ambitious but inwardly unsure of himself. There is the abused female reporter seeking justice but settling for solace in drink. There is the Native American Sheriff torn between assimilation in the white world and separation from the ways of his ancestors. Plus there are supporting players whose profiles, back-stories, and character traits add solid human emotions to the suspense, danger, even terror that is never more than a chapter away.

What begins as a seeming police procedural involving heinous murders, eventually morphs into something altogether different. It would be unfair to give away too much of the story, as a good bit of the fun of this novel is unraveling the mystery along with those involved. It’s possible you may arrive at the solution before the participants, but even so, the author still packs the final pages of his tale with enough harrowing events to keep you wide-eyed. This is a good book to read with the lights on and the doors locked.

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