By Blake Crouch
Publisher: Thomas &
Mercer
Published: Sept. 1, 2015
ASIN: B00UCLPC6E
Amazon Synopsis:
On
Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote gold-mining town
disappeared, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins—and not
a single bone was ever found.
One
hundred sixteen years later, two backcountry guides are hired by a history
professor and his journalist daughter to lead them to the abandoned mining town
so they can learn what happened. Recently, a similar party had also attempted
to explore the town and was never heard from again. Now the area is believed to
be haunted. This crew is about to discover, twenty miles from civilization with
a blizzard bearing down, that they are not alone, and the past is very much
alive.
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My Thoughts:
Blake Crouch’s books are known for suspense and Abandon is definitely no let-down in
this area. Moving back and forth between one town separated by 116 years he
tells the horrific tale of what happened on Christmas Day in 1893.
The twists and turns in the tale are surprisingly similar
between the two centuries as though history is repeating itself. Even Mother
Nature played its own role in trying to keep the secrets of the town of Abandon
from being fully discovered in both time periods.
Betrayals, murder and even a long overdue reconciliation are
part of Abandon’s story. What could
the secret be though? What could cause an entire population of a town to leave
their Christmas dinners on the table partially eaten and simply vanish without
a trace?
This fast-paced novel will have you reading until well into
the wee hours of the night just to get to the end of the book. Then you might think
twice about heading into a cave on your holidays. The ending in both centuries
was a surprise.
The characters in the novel really surprised me because they
totally did not turn out to be who they seemed to be. It’s not that they weren’t
realistic; they were. They simply had other agendas.
As a suspense novel with horror elements, I found Abandon to be top-notch. It grabbed my
attention and held on to it all the way through. The only negative thing I
would have to say about it in that regard is that I found the swearing rather
off-putting.
I could imagine seeing
Abandon as a movie. If you enjoy suspense novels, you are very much likely
to enjoy Abandon. I would recommend
it to you. I rated it 4 stars out of 5.
Thank you to the publishers for providing a copy of this
book via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not
required. All thoughts are my own.
About the Author:
Blake Crouch
was born near the piedmont town of Statesville, North Carolina in 1978. He
attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated Phi Beta
Kappa in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing.
He is the
author of over a dozen bestselling suspense novels. His short fiction has
appeared in numerous short-story anthologies—including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine,
and Cemetery Dance—as
well as many other publications. He has written for the television show Wayward Pines,
which was adapted from his book series.
Blake lives
with his family in southwest Colorado, where he is at work on a new book.
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