Recently-widowed Jason Crandall moves his family to the sleepy town of Shadow Springs, hoping it’ll give them all a better life. However, starting a new business as a massage therapist gets off to a bad start when Jason is confronted with man-eater and local socialite Savannah Sturgess, prompting her hulk of a husband to jump to the wrong conclusions.
Struggling to keep his young daughter and disruptive teenage son happy in the new house, Jason must also face a series of weird dreams and visions that seem to come from beyond the grave. Tormented by ghostly images, can he find the truth and uncover a killer before it’s too late?
This spooky horror crime thriller of a book has a lot going for it. Throwing a troubled family into a new situation where not everyone is what they seem, is a difficult thing to get right. Alistair Cross handles the drama well, mixing ghostly visions and a budding romance with a murder mystery that threatens to destroy the family’s attempts at a new beginning. The denouement was a surprise (though the clues were all there), and the ending wasn’t quite as neat as I’ve have liked, but apart from that my only criticism is the author’s use of exclamations marks! Good writing doesn’t need them, and if Mr Cross were to expunge every last one from the text, this would be a much better book.
All in all, a great read with some nice twists.
Colin Garrow 
Awww, come on, Colin, the odd exclamation mark is fun. This book sounds excellent. Thanks for the review.
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It is a good book, but I stand by my review – exclamation marks are the sign of bad writing (unless they’re used ironically, of course). 😉
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