Late one summer night, Elizabeth Sanderson receives the devastating news that every mother fears: her thirteen-year-old son, Tommy, has vanished without a trace in the woods of a local park.

The search isn’t yielding any answers, and Elizabeth and her young daughter, Kate, struggle to comprehend Tommy’s disappearance. Feeling helpless and alone, their sorrow is compounded by anger and frustration: the local and state police have uncovered no leads. Josh and Luis, the friends who were the last to see Tommy before he vanished, may not be telling the whole truth about that night in Borderland State Park, when they were supposedly hanging out a landmark the local teens have renamed Devil’s Rock.

Living in an all-too-real nightmare, riddled with worry, pain, and guilt, Elizabeth is wholly unprepared for the strange series of events that follow. She believes a ghostly shadow of Tommy materializes in her bedroom, while Kate and other local residents claim to see a shadow peering through their windows in the dead of night. Then, random pages torn from Tommy’s journal begin to mysteriously appear—entries that reveal an introverted teenager obsessed with the phantasmagoric; the loss of his father, killed in a drunk-driving accident a decade earlier; a folktale involving the devil and the woods of Borderland; and a horrific incident that Tommy believed connects them.

As the search grows more desperate, and the implications of what happened become more haunting and sinister, no one is prepared for the shocking truth about that night and Tommy’s disappearance at Devil’s Rock.

This was such a good read. I was immediately drawn into the story of Elizabeth and her family: Tommy and Kate. The characters and story are so well written that they seem real. I felt like I was there watching it unfold. Tommy goes out with his friends and never returns. What happened to him? The story comes together layer by layer and I did not want to put it down.

I don't want to give any spoilers here. If you want something good to read, here it is.

Reserved for T02S03B11D20.

Now traveling to T02S03B11D20 as part of the wishlist tag game. Enjoy my friend. Happy Reading and Happy BookCrossing!

Good way to start a new month, this book arrived today. Thanks

I will be honest...I went into this book with a 3 strikes and you're out attitude. I hated The Cabin At The End Of The World and I only read part one of A Headful of Ghosts before I passed it on. This book, however, caught my attention from the first and I wanted to keep reading it to find out what happened to Tommy. So, I guess I liked this book. But my take away is that I probably will not go looking for any of his books on purpose. If they come my way, fine, but I can not call him a favorite author.

A wish list tag, enjoy!

The book arrived safely on this rainy, foggy day - good atmosphere for reading suspense, eh? Thanks much!

Later: I enjoyed the book - most of the way through, though I admit that once the truth began to come out I got more and more peeved at everyone concerned. [What follows could be considered spoiler-ish, so read on at your own risk.]

While it's probably quite realistic that people involved in events with criminal and/or tragic outcomes might want to conceal evidence, especially if they fear reprisals from the perpetrator(s), the setup here was so strained that once the reveals began I found myself furious. The disappeared boy was supposedly the best friend of the two survivors, and it just... rankled, I guess.

And the reasons behind the appearance of those journal pages... yeah, that bothered me too. There's a hint that at least one of those appearances did not have a real-world explanation, but while I confess I rather hoped there'd be more arcane elements at work, this felt like too little, too late. [Though it could be interpreted as the actions of a person who was in denial... I dunno.]

That said, the switching of the viewpoints and the gradual buildup to the truth included so much wonderful atmosphere, heightened tension, and growing dread that I found it compelling and very effective.

Would I have preferred a different resolution? Yes, definitely - perhaps even a more ambiguous one. Would I read more by this author? Possibly - but I'd probably spend most of the book wondering if the ending was going to pay off {wry grin}.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library in front of the Revive center on this cold, windy day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2020 D for December challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2020 What's in a Name challenge, for the embedded "Rance" and "Rock" in the title. ***

*** Released for the 2020 Keep Them Moving challenge. ***