Home Before Dark

Riley Sager never lets me down. I have now read and reviewed all of his books. He’s one of those authors where if he has a new book, I will pre-order it without even any idea of what the book is about. And that was the case with this: I ordered without even reading the description – I just knew it would be a scary treat. This one was very good, though I am only going to give it a B+ or so. Honestly, I think that after reading Patsy, The Vanishing Half, and Nickel Boys, I am a tougher crowd this month! I don’t want you to think it wasn’t good, because it was! I still loved it and teetered between giving it a B+ and an A-. It held my attention, it scared the shit out of me (seriously this one is v v scary – I don’t recommend reading it before bedtime!!!). Maggie Holt doesn’t believe in ghosts, but her father got rich writing about the terrifying, supernatural experiences in their first home in his book, House of Horrors. When he passes away, she mysteriously inherits the house (she had no idea he still owned it!) and returns to it with the idea of restoring it and selling it for a profit. But things go awry. The members of the town resent her for making their town infamous – and profiting from it. And then there is the issue of the house itself: things keep disappearing. There are strange noises at night. Scary things keep happening. The book alternates between (terrifying) chapters from her father’s book and modern day. And Maggie must confront the truth: was her father lying? Is the house really haunted? Or what if the truth about what really happened is even scarier than the book!?