[Book Review] Within These Walls
Within These Walls / Ania Ahlborn
In his heyday, Lucas Graham was a best selling true-crime author with a successful and brilliant wife. Now he hasn't sold a new book in years, his wife in an affair with a co-worker, and their marriage broken. Then hope comes in an offer from the mysterious and charismatic Jeffrey Halcomb, waiting on death-row since the orchestrated murder-suicide of his "faithful" years ago. Jeffrey offers Lucas the true story of what happened, something that he's never shared, provided Lucas take residence at the site of the crime. This story could be what saves Lucas, but it is soon clear that someone else is in control of the situation, and they may not have either Lucas' or his daughter's best interests at heart.
I'm not usually a reader of horror (though I suppose I've expanded a little bit of the course of last year into this genre). I have an active imagination and stuff sticks with me, or at the very least comes back to haunt me when I'm trying to fall asleep. But there's something to be said about a story that builds suspense and fills you with unease while captivating your interest. That's what Within These Walls really did for me, fill me with malaise as I read. The horror is in the emotions and psychological manipulation, not in blood and murder.
Entrancing read that makes you care about the characters and one that holds some surprises until the end.
Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of NetGalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.
In his heyday, Lucas Graham was a best selling true-crime author with a successful and brilliant wife. Now he hasn't sold a new book in years, his wife in an affair with a co-worker, and their marriage broken. Then hope comes in an offer from the mysterious and charismatic Jeffrey Halcomb, waiting on death-row since the orchestrated murder-suicide of his "faithful" years ago. Jeffrey offers Lucas the true story of what happened, something that he's never shared, provided Lucas take residence at the site of the crime. This story could be what saves Lucas, but it is soon clear that someone else is in control of the situation, and they may not have either Lucas' or his daughter's best interests at heart.
I'm not usually a reader of horror (though I suppose I've expanded a little bit of the course of last year into this genre). I have an active imagination and stuff sticks with me, or at the very least comes back to haunt me when I'm trying to fall asleep. But there's something to be said about a story that builds suspense and fills you with unease while captivating your interest. That's what Within These Walls really did for me, fill me with malaise as I read. The horror is in the emotions and psychological manipulation, not in blood and murder.
Entrancing read that makes you care about the characters and one that holds some surprises until the end.
Advanced Reader Copy copy courtesy of NetGalley; differences may exist between uncorrected galley text and the final edition.
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