Stranger Things: Five Gripping Tales
By: Lori Lamothe
Tags: Books, True Crime, Books And Authors, Fiction, Book Review

The Shadows is Alex North’s second novel, a follow-up to his wildly successful debut The Whisper Man. Like Whisper Man, this mystery centers on an eerie decades-old killing and features Detective Inspector Amanda Beck. The original murder has become an urban legend of sorts and now a copycat has emerged.

According to the legend, “Redhand Man” is a ghostly figure who lives in the forest and can make people disappear. It was his powers that led two teenage boys to brutally stab a classmate. One of the boys turned up in town hours after the murder, covered in blood and wielding a knife.

The other — Charlie Crabtree — was never seen again. If this rings any true-crime bells for you, read on.

Eventually, an entire internet culture springs up around the legend. Amateur detectives spend years combing through every detail of the case in hopes they will finally solve it. Teens and crime enthusiasts relive the killing on various web forums — including someone who goes by CC666 and claims to have been there. CC666’s posts aren’t just observations either: they goad others into continuing Charlie’s work.

Could the person behind the mysterious handle be Charlie Crabtree? Is it possible he really did escape 25 years earlier?

Aside from DI Beck, there is another person who wants to find out the truth. Paul Adams was a suspect in the original crime and now he’s returned to town because his mother is dying. Chapters alternate between Paul’s retelling of past events, his present-day narrative, and Amanda’s account of her current investigation.

Wickedly Eerie

There are many twists, including one big one, which took me by surprise. The atmosphere throughout is wickedly eerie and the flashbacks to Paul’s teen years reminded me of the character dynamics in a Stephen King novel. I kept expecting something supernatural to happen but this isn’t really that kind of tale.

One of the characters tells Paul “a ghost story is sadder than anything else.” I don’t often feel that, but I did when I finished The Shadows. In part, this is because I’d recently read about the real-life story that inspired Alex North to write the book.

I won’t say more, but if you finish the book and look up the actual case, you’ll find the details are as heartbreaking as they are haunting. North brings the sense of loss that accompanies such acts of fantastical violence into focus.

Last but not least, who the heck is Alex North? My Google sleuthing efforts to uncover his true identity came to nothing.

Want more creepy coming-of-age tales over the holiday? Try these four novels:

The Girls in the Garden

This mystery by British writer Lisa Jewell begins with an idyllic birthday party in a communal park. Before the night is over things take a very different turn, however. Thirteen-year-old Grace goes missing and when she’s finally located she has been assaulted and is partially undressed.

Grace, her older sister Pip and their mother Clare have already had their share of trauma: their father recently had a psychotic break and has been institutionalized after burning down their house. All the three wanted was safety and they thought they’d found it in the close-knit community whose homes border the picturesque London park.

Like The Whisper Man, the novel does a fabulous job depicting a neighborhood’s tangled teenage relationships, as well as the intricately woven adult connections. Unlike newcomer Clare, most of the parents have lived near Virginia Park all their lives. Which complicates things even further, because there was another girl who went missing years ago — and turned up dead.

This is a wonderful mystery with plenty of suspense as to who the guilty party (or parties) may be. It’s also as good as any “literary” novel in terms of its ability to capture the complexity of human interactions. If you want to get a good look at the darkness that lies beneath even the most beautiful surfaces, you’ll love this one.

The Body

Stephen King’s novella isn’t a mystery or a horror story but it is one of my favorite coming-of-age tales. It also happens to be one of my all-time favorite King books and I’ve read my share of them.

The story begins after a 12-year-old boy disappears from Castle Rock, Maine (where else?). Aspiring young writer Gordie LaChance and his three buddies set out on a mission to find the boy’s body along the railroad tracks where it is rumored to be located. Each boy comes from a dysfunctional family and they are all struggling to find their place, not only in the working class town but in the society as a whole. Though the quest to find a dead body seems like a thrilling adventure it comes to mean something very different by the end.

If you’re short on time, the movie version — Stand by Me — with River Phoenix and John Cusack is worth watching.

Sharp Objects

Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects is the reason I stopped eating pork, so keep that in mind when you start this book. Setting that aside, Flynn is a master of suspense who will keep you reading long into the night.

The novel begins when crime reporter Camille Preaker heads back to her hometown to investigate the disappearance of two young girls. One girl has been murdered and the other has gone missing. Camille’s boss thinks she is perfect for the job.

Camille disagrees. She avoids Windgap because the death of her younger sister still haunts her in one very tangible way. But she wants to prove herself as reporter so she soon settles in with her mother, stepfather and stepsister Amma, despite her deep misgivings about entering the family mansion again.

This is classic Gillian Flynn with the usual twisted plot and some lovely Southern gothic touches added in. Of all her novels, this is the one that affected me the most.

Sharp Objects has also been made into a mini-series on Hulu. I don’t like it as much as the book, but the Emmy-nominated show is extremely well done and Amy Adams is, well, just great.

In the Woods

Tana French is another master. If you haven’t read her Dublin Murder Squad mysteries, head for your local bookstore and start with In the Woods, which is the first in the series.

DI Rob Ryan is the sole survivor of an attack in the woods near the Irish town where he grew up as a child. He has no memory of what happened to his two best friends and he’s done everything he can to put his past behind him, including changing his name. Now twenty years later he’s called back to the area to investigate another death at the same site where his friends vanished.

Like The Whisper Man this isn’t a horror tale but it’s not quite a straight procedural either. There is the unresolved idea that something really might be out there in the woods, something that won’t ever be fully explained. As is true of North’s novel, there is a well-known myth that served as the basis for the tale, so feel free to look it up after you finish the book.

Runners-up: The Broken Girls by Simone St. James, The Secret Place by Tana French, The Absolution by Yrsa Sigurdardottir, and A Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett.

If you liked this review, you might also check out the ones below. Two of the books appear on my runners-up list.

Lori Lamothe’s book reviews have appeared in Curled up with a Good Book, Mostly Fiction, Daily Book Muse, The Chick Lit Review, Amateur Book Reviews and elsewhere.