
First, the dream. Now this message from the mouth of a stranger. It was too much of a coincidence for Nate Carver, and has him dropping everything to help a woman he hasn’t even thought about in eight years, not since the overdose that almost took Cathy Deveraux’s life.
The prison escape of Thomas Elbert stirs up memories for Detective Alec Palmer, and the man’s death raises questions. Why would a catatonic convicted killer suddenly wake up and escape, only to commit suicide days later? Or was it murder? And what connection did he have to Nate Carver, a man on the run with a daughter he never knew he had?
All roads lead to Boston, where, in their search for answers, they will be drawn into the dark world of the occult and mysticism. Of parallel worlds and alternate realities. Of doors that open onto other times and other worlds. Of dreams that won’t be denied.
By the time they realize they are merely pawns in a much bigger game, a game where the fate of the world is at stake, will it be too late?
Dark bleatings everyone! What we have with today’s book is a story with an ending I really didn’t expect, with general shades of Stephen King’s Firestarter. Nate is an addict who hasn’t seen the love of his life, Cathy, in years. She’s been institutionalised, but this isn’t just any institution. The doctor caring for her has some unique interests, with Cathy being one of them.
Nate goes to see her and realises something is wrong, and plans to break her out, but ends up leaving with the daughter he never knew he had instead. Initially, I had a couple of problems with him finding his daughter in that place – it seemed, well, stupid. As if any such place would allow a child to stay with a parent in this scenario. However… there were… reasons…

We also have some cop characters trying to track Nate down, and what I didn’t like initially but grew to appreciate was that for a while, I wondered whose story this actually is. Everyone seems important. Our main cop starts digging into Nate and Cathy, their pasts, and what he uncovers delighted me because it’s occult shenanigans. And you all know how much I love occult shenanigans.
I guess if I have a criticism is that although I did enjoy the mix of elements and characters here, I do sort of wish the book had chosen a definitive lane and stayed in it. It didn’t truly feel like a paranormal story because then we crossed into a detective story, but it never really felt like a detective story because then we crossed into supernatural horror, but then it didn’t quite feel like supernatural.. you get where I’m going. There are works that pull off genre blends, lots of them, and though I did enjoy this story, I felt it could have been a little tighter.
Overall, it was a fun read, and I recommend it to fans of supernatural, cult horror. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, there are links below for you:
Bleeeat!

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