Hell Hollow » (Signed)

Harmony, Tennessee possessed a disturbing secret; a secret so ancient that most of its residents were completely unaware of it. Even the last survivors of a vigilante raid long ago have filed the tragic events of that autumn night away, totally unaware of the evil that remains, dormant, but forever patient, among the tall pines and thick-leaved kudzu of a place known only as Hell Hollow.

Publishers Weekly

Braiding together three distinct story lines—a coming-of-age tale involving a quartet of adventurous kids, a woman's quest for vengeance against a maniacal hitchhiker and the vigilante murder of a serial killer—Kelly (Blood Kin) ingeniously blends unapologetically graphic horror, supernatural suspense and poignant mystery. When 12-year-old Keith Bishop is sent from Atlanta to rural Tennessee for the summer, he stumbles across one of the area's darkest secrets: a haunted backwoods hollow where, back in 1917, a nomadic murderer allegedly “harvesting souls for Satan” was hunted down and killed. Somewhere in the shadowy, kudzu-covered grove, the madman's spirit remains alive, waiting for unholy retribution. Kelly's use of dichotomy, from the contrasting urban and rural settings to the generational dissimilarities between Keith and his 95-year-old grandfather, helps to accentuate the intensity and otherworldliness of evil in this well-crafted and wildly entertaining bloodcurdler. (Nov.)