#BookReview ‘Small Town Horror’ by Ronald Malfi

About the book…

Five childhood friends are forced to confront their own dark past as well as the curse placed upon them in this horror masterpiece from the bestselling author of Come with Me.

Maybe this is a ghost story…

Andrew Larimer thought he left the past behind.

But when he receives a late-night phone call from an old friend, he finds he has no choice but to return home, and to confront the memories—and the horror—of a night, years ago, that changed everything.

For Andrew and his friends, the past is not dead, and the curse that has befallen them now threatens to destroy all that they’ve become.

One dark secret…

One small-town horror…

Hugest of thanks once more to Bahar Kutluk for my gifted review copy of one of 2024’s most anticipated releases, ‘Small Town Horror’ It’s due to be published on 4th June, a bittersweet coincidence for this reader as it’s my dad’s birthday, the person who ignited and encouraged me to read far and wide and will be eternally pissed that he was only halfway through Dennis Lehane’s ‘The Given Day’ when he unexpectedly died. He would have loved this book, I am sure.

So many writers can create this huge, immense expanse of thrills, stories and settings that take on global themes and situations, but very few can turn this inward and create this on a small scale without losing any of the emotional impact. The town of Kingsport, it beckons like the lighthouse light which may or may not have pinpointed a crime in these 5 protagonist’s personal history, and pulls those inhabitants back in it’s tractor beam. You can think about leaving, but do you ever really? A moment of crisis propels Andrew Larrimer back to deal with unfinished business just as his own is about to in the form of his wife delivering their first child. His overwhelming sense of doom and finality of the one form of life ending as another begins is scaring both him and his wife, so, lying in spite of himself, he goes back to his father’s old house when called back by an old friend. The 5 of them, Andrew, Tig, Meach, Eric and Dale are caught up in the disappearance, maybe murder of Dale’s wife. Who he may or may not have told a secret which all 5 of them promised never to mention again. And in an insular environment where so many people know more about you than they have the right to, how can you stand against the perceptions, legends and folklore with facts, reality and the truth?

As incident after incident strikes hard and fast against the 5 former friends, it is clear that old sins have decades long shadows, and that may even spread to the next generation…. Steeped in atmosphere with fantastic use of imagery, you can use all 6 senses reading Small Town Horror, combining into a sense of deep unease between right and wrong, life and death, justice and perseverance in the face of insurmountable odds.

The life and death analogy compares the environment in which the children grew up in how it made, and sustained, certain truths as well as stories that it behoved residents of Kingsport to believe. It looks and feels like a place of safety-it’s on the sea, there is a lighthouse to protect from danger and even the name of the town stands strongly and mindful of safety. It’s directly opposite the small mindedness which thrives like a fungus on the tongues of small town small minded people who create the myths , the legends of a place that are passed down so frequently that the ‘facts’ they were based on become irrelevant.

Small towns excel in putting people in boxes and suffocating them till they give in-small Welsh town resident over here- and the journey they go on as children informs who, and what they will become as adults. I loved the way that the natural world acts as an umbilicus to subvert and claim back the world which is theirs, there is so much water, bird and swamp based emotions that it’s highly visceral. Also, as the umbilicus feeds and sustains a baby, it nourishes that sense of self which you can find so hard to leave behind.

Andrew is the clearest emblem of this, in trying to leave and create a world of justice based in facts as a lawyer he is kidding himself that he is doing anything other than coninue to lie, just that he is getting paid for it. Tig deal the alcohol she dares no longer drink as the single parent of a vulnerable child. Dale appears to have it all together except the land and housing he is selling is not worth the foundations it is based on . Eric uses his position as a shield in much the same way his dad did as sheriff before him, status as power and protection from the crimes which occurred behind closed doors. And Meach, poor, poor Meach who got the worst of it and whose story is achingly prescient and painful.

The story goes back and forth between who they were, and who they are, and whether or not this is a ghost story, as the cover says it maybe, is up to the reader. It all depends on what you define as a ghost, and what you define as a haunting. One thing is for sure, this story will haunt you, the reader.

*Also, there is a throwaway remark that links to a story in ‘They Lurk’, see if you can find it!

About the author…

Ronald Malfi is an award-winning author of many novels and novellas in the horror, mystery, and thriller categories from various publishers, including ‘Little Girls’, summer’s 2015 release from Kensington. In 2009, his crime drama, ‘‘Shamrock Alley’‘, won a Silver IPPY Award. In 2011, his ghost story/mystery novel, ‘Floating Staircase’, was a finalist for the Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Award for best novel, received a Gold IPPY Award for best horror novel, and the Vincent Preis International Horror Award. His novel ‘Cradle Lake’ garnered him the Benjamin Franklin Independent Book Award (silver) in 2014, while ‘‘December Park‘, his epic coming-of-age thriller, won the Beverly Hills International Book Award for suspense in 2015. Most recognized for his haunting, literary style and memorable characters, Malfi’s dark fiction has gained acceptance among readers of all genres. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1977, and eventually relocated to the Chesapeake Bay area, where he currently resides with his wife and two children Links-https://ronaldmalfi.com/ Twitter @RonaldMalfi @TitanBooks