Disappearance at Devil's Rock - Paul Tremblay

Paul Tremblay's novel, A Head Full of Ghosts was the winner of the 2015 Bram Stoker award for superior achievement in a novel. His newest novel is Disappearance at Devil's Rock.

If you're a parent, you know the fear of loosening the ties - letting your child have a little more freedom, letting them go out without you right behind them. Letting them sleep over at someone else's house. But there's always that 'what if' worry in the back of your head.....

And that worry comes true for Elizabeth Sanderson - her thirteen year old son Tommy and his two friends had planned a sleepover at one of the other boy's houses. But first they grabbed some beers and went out exploring the woods of the Borderland park. Two came back, but Tommy is missing.....

As the hours tick by and turn into days, the police have no concrete leads or answers. But what does appear are pages from Tommy's diary, deposited on the living room floor in the middle of the night. And Elizabeth is sure she saw Tommy or a shadow or a vision or something in the corner of her room. And other town residents begin to see someone outside their windows in the middle of the night as well. And then the other two boys begin to slowly give up their secrets.....

Tremblay's story is driven by many things - the relationships between Elizabeth and her children, as well as her mother, the remaining boys and their parents and most importantly the dynamics between the boys. Tremblay portrays these relationships very well - especially those of the teen aged boy. What is so frightening is that what went on with the boys is not out of the realm of possibility at all.

And then he adds in those elements that make you wonder - how are those notebook pages getting there? Did Elizabeth see Tommy or was it pure want? Is there something about that Devil's Rock in the forest?

I appreciated the subtle, slow building tensions of these unanswered questions that cast doubt on my pragmatic thoughts and presented other possibilities. Tremblay has been classed as a horror writer, but it's not in your face, overt blood and gore horror.  Instead, it's the possibilities presented and the reader's own reaction and interpretation that will have you turning on another light. A very different read from my normal tastes - but it's good to step outside our reading comfort zones once in a while. Read an excerpt of Disappearance at Devil's Rock.

"Paul Tremblay is a multiple Bram Stoker Award finalist and the author of the crime novels The Little Sleep and No Sleep Till Wonderland. He has served as the president of the board of directors of the Shirley Jackson Awards, and his essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous year’s-best anthologies.

Find out more about Paul at his website, and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.


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