Review: Sorta spoilers ahead - tread lightly
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 13, 2014
If you've ever hesitated in buying a full series to find out what happens in the end, don't with this trilogy by A.R. Wise -- buy all three books, take a week from your job, kiss the spouse and kids goodbye for a week, get your most comfy pillow and blanket -- then read.I truly could not stop reading. There are gory, and graphical descriptions within but for the most part I skipped over those. I do think the author went a touch overboard with the gory considering the rest of the story is riveting.Anyway, to warn all, this first book ends on a cliffhanger. It's one of those -- oh gosh! That was tense! My soda needs a refill! -- cliffhangers. In my case, the Kindle wanted charging. I set the battery to charging and bought the second, and third book. I have to know how it ends!!You can consider this book the very long introduction to all the characters, and believe me it is worth it. All the characters are written well -- you, the reader, are like the staunch best friend of Alma the heroine of the story who has a mystery in her past that involves her brother who vanished one night in Widowsfield, MO. You will approve of her snake-tattooed beau, Paul, even though he comes off as the lowest of jerks initially. You will love Jacker - a great big teddy bear of a man who hides a dangerous temper. You'll be wary of Rachel - the reporter, but maybe she's a solid person, and her husband Stephen - the manic ghost hunter -- I think he's a sleaze. Maybe you will, too.March 14 is closer than anyone thinks, and it's more than just a meth lab gone wrong. Something is seriously wrong in Widowsfield, and Alma intends to find out, and to fix it. She's not running this time.I don't like teaser books as much as anyone else does but I do not consider this a teaser; it is the structure of who is involved in this event of March 14, the laying of the groundwork for the horror that's been going on since 1996, and the reader getting introduced, and invested in each of the characters. So, to me, this is an introduction to the trilogy.The author is really very good at the tale that is spun (again, just a touch too gory) and I found I just could not put the book down for more than a few hours at a time. I just kept asking, "What are they going to do now?"Bonus for folks in Missouri that are familiar with the Ozarks, Forsyth, and Branson. Widowsfield is not far from Forsyth, and Branson. I used to work in Branson when it was still a developing town with only one road that would get traffic congestion in the Summer. I also worked in the Ozarks just a hop, skip, and a jump from Silver Dollar City in the heart of the Ozarks. Forsyth was the place to go for doughnuts on the weekend. I wonder if it's still just a quiet, "spit in the road" anymore.Buy all three books, folks. You'll want to know -- who, and what is The Skeleton Man.