Review: Keep the lights on!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
Harvey Cloutier hates many things: his harsh, bitter father, cops and game wardens, wealthy people who look down upon him, his nagging, unhappy wife, anyone who thwarts his desire to get what he wants. But at the end of the day, what Harvey hates most of all is loneliness.WAITING FOR HARVEY is a chilling, claustrophobic, classic ghost story that will run shivers down your spine and send you scurrying to make sure all the lights are on. A gripping read, its tension and horror creep up on the reader in a relentless, tightening noose of increasingly inescapable danger.When writer Erik Rivard leaves his Manhattan apartment due to the threat of a major hurricane on the Atlantic seaboard, his brother suggests he spend a couple of weeks in the family's remote, but newly renovated, Maine cabin. Still troubled by an eerie childhood experience at the cabin, Erik is not at all eager to return. However, when his brother persuades him the peace and quiet will be a perfect setting in which to work on his stalled novel, Erik agrees.Both the natural and the supernatural conspire to trap Erik in circumstances that grow more dire and threatening every day. Ms. North (Kim Scott) has written nail-biting suspense and breath-catching terror, and she has done so with such plausible realism that the reader, more and more caught up in Erik's desperate pain, isolation, and fear, can't turn the pages fast enough.This original, imaginative, and well-written story is a scary delight, full of chills both natural and supernatural. Dialog is natural and, when necessary, era-appropriate. The wilderness setting is vividly described, taking on both overwhelming beauty and threat. One can feel the bone-chilling cold of the forest and the blessed warmth of the wood stove. Although the text had some noticeable editing glitches, such as occasional misplaced words or " 's" on plurals, they did not spoil the flow and powerful mood of the story.If you like ghost stories, I highly recommend WAITING FOR HARVEY!