Two words I would describe April Henry as a writer are prolific and consistent. Prolific as in she puts out the books. Consistent as in if you're looking for a roller coaster ride of a chiller she won't let you down. Luckily last week when I picked up my inter library loans at Orono Public I found two of her masterpieces were in the pile waiting for me.
In a scene tailor made for a Hallmark movie a little girl goes into the woods with her parents looking for the perfect Christmas 🎄. Here all resemblance to Hallmark ends. The mom is found dead, stabbed nineteen times. Little Ariel has been dropped off at a nearby Walmart. And her dad is nowhere to be found. The concensus is that he's the killer, especially since police have been call to the family home to intervene in domestic fights.
Fourteen years later Ariel, now Olivia, protagonist of The Girl I Used To Be, opens her door to two police officers. A woman walking her dog discovered a human bone a mile from where her mother was killed. It was DNA identified as her father's. The murder investigation is being reopened on the basis of this new evidence.
The police aren't the only ones looking for answers. Returning to the small town where she first lived, Olivia rent her grandmother's old house, gets a job, and starts investigating...
...which is probably a BIG mistake. Medford is one of those creepily small towns where people are up in each other's business. The people are bound to discover her identity and intentions. If the killer is still around (which is very likely) the person who dropped her three-year-old self off to be found at a Walmart might find an entirely different way of disposing of her inconvenient teen self.
Maybe in the woods.
Are you a fan of those popular chillers in which a group of people are in a building which they can't get out of and a killer who could be any of them starts picking them off one by one? Two Truths And A Lie is an irresistible example of this genre.
Only a little ❄️ has been predicted. Not enough to necessitate cancelations. So Nell and and her acting club peers are enroute to a competition. Only six hours into a trip that should have only taken four they're in the middle of a blizzard. They start looking for shelter.
The teens and their chaperone end up in a creepy and largely abandoned motel along with a robotics team from another school, also en route to a competition, and some pretty sketchy adults. They and the robotics team decide to make the best of the situation by entertaining themselves. When a game of two truths and a lie segues into a seance they get pretty creeped out.
The electricity going out doesn't exactly help matters.
In the morning 🌄 light things look brighter...
...until one of the robotics girls is found dead with a note pinned to her: THIS IS THE FIRST. A killer is among them. And first implies more to come. And they're still unable to make contact with the outside world or leave the motel...
...which decades ago was the scene of an unsolved mystery: a gruesome bloody double homicide.
A good blizzard read, wouldn't you say?
On a purrrsonal note, years ago at the beginning of a major blizzard that would leave thousands of households, including ours, without power Amber and I decided to reread The Shining. That was quite the experience.
A great big shout out goes out to my very talented horror book writer daughter, Amber, who has a chiller coming out this summer.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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