In terms of horror subjects, the haunted house is very near the top of the list, making it tough for authors to deliver anything particularly new to the subject. While The House of Long Shadows falls into the haunted house genre, it does enough to establish itself as a cut above many others.
In this story, we have an online video creator looking to renovate a house in just 30 days. Kevin Taylor has already made it online, but his goal is to take the next step and land a show on network TV. All signs point to this project being the one to get him there.
Taylor purchases a home in a mostly vacant Detroit suburb and discovers a body in the wall during the renovations. From that point forward, an already creepy house becomes a place of terror that he cannot stay in after the sun goes down.
The House of Long Shadows follows a familiar path in the genre, with some very creepy little set pieces along the way. Where it delivers is with a couple of twists that I did not see coming at all. This is the first in a 3-book series, and while I will not immediately be rushing out to grab the next one, it will make its way onto my TBR list at some point. I should mention that this one works as a standalone, so there is no cliffhanger warning required.
4 stars out of 5
"...making it tough for authors to deliver anything particularly new to the subject."
That did it! I had to think of a fresh take on the haunted house premise.
Amazingly I did!
And we all know, THAT never happens. At least, usually.
So, I dropped everything and wrote a note to myself. Which is the first rule of writing.