In LATCHER by Mike Dineen, a trapped salt miner escapes with his life and undergoes a transformation. He is, by all accounts, a changed man. While that seems a logical response to surviving catastrophe, it’s the nature of the change that is surprising – and horrifying. At its core, this is a story about dark family dynamics so deeply rooted – literally – that they carry over into the adult lives of Joanna and Amanda, twin sisters born to a deeply disturbed, abusive single mother named Diane, whose family owns the salt mine and surrounding property. Once a hard-working nurse, Diane’s life takes an insurmountable dive the day the rescued miner presents for treatment of his injuries. Instead of a show of gratitude for the medical care, he promptly rapes her and suffers immediate consequences meted out by Diane’s father. But the damage has been done. The miner has planted the seeds of his hideous nature within Diane, and it’s a gift that keeps on giving.
After enduring an emotionally damaging childhood, grown-up Joanna becomes estranged from her mother and sister when she charts her course alone and leaves a pleading Amanda behind to deal with their ultra-scary mommy dearest. Joanna heads to the big city and pursues life as an author of dark, suspense novels. Writing under the pseudonym, Violet Stone – the name of her family’s property – she enjoys success though continues to hide her identity to keep a distance between herself and her unpleasant origins. But when Amanda calls years later to ask for help investigating their mother’s possible disappearance, the two come together to flesh things out.
What transpires on the way is unthinkable and terrifying as the sisters find themselves lost in the once-familiar forest while traveling to their mother’s house. Stalked by shadowy things, lurking wildlife and ominous people, they make gruesome discoveries, sustain injuries, outwit attackers, and battle for their lives. Once at the homestead, things eerily go from bad to worse with an ending in which the deeply rooted, bloody secrets of the family are revealed, and the resilient and determined Joanna must fight to save her soul.
Dineen weaves a compelling story by building psychological tension and driving it with high-energy action. But the continued use of graphic gore sometimes mires things down thanks to heavy-handed details that make it hard to envision the complex descriptions of the paranormal entities that come to bloody, murky life. That said, LATCHER plays out at an engaging pace with plenty of scares to keep readers reading and enough gruesomeness to please the most avid fans of the genre.
Chockful of gory detail, eerie family secrets, and menacing entities, author Mike Dineen’s LATCHER will satisfy horror fans with its fast-paced action and gutsy protagonist who is as formidable as the evil stalking her.
~Libby Wiersema for IndieReader