Authors Charlotte Zang and Alex Knudsen weave a well-knitted tale that surprises in not only its narrative but also its genre. Labeled a “thriller,” LOST GROVE: Part One certainly is that. After a brief, creepy prologue, the novel commences in sturdy crime-detective territory. Somebody is missing under strange circumstances, and Sgt. Seth Wolfe—who has returned to his small hometown after a career up the coast in San Francisco—sets out to investigate. Gradually, though, a whiff of the mystic begins to color the storyline as new characters see and enact increasingly bizarre things. Ghosts. Witchery. Spells. A Green Man. Not-Children. Memories that scare the bejeez out of Wolfe, an otherwise straightforward, no-nonsense fella with that extra touch of skill and appeal that all good literary detectives possess. Eventually the novel presses full-on into vampiric eating habits and zombie-like children, but LOST GROVE is really a mystery-thriller at heart—and it’s a corker.

Zang and Knudsen skillfully introduce a massive array of characters and balance them throughout the hefty read, tucking in reminders to help the reader keep track of everybody. Despite the vast array of characters, each is fully developed and interesting, from Wolfe and his colleague Chief of Police Bill Richards to schoolteacher Gretchen Young, town librarian Story Palmer, the parents of the missing college girl, and shop owner Clemency Pruitt (who matter-of-factly closes her doors when ghosts slip into her premises). The kids are especially well-drawn: Noble, Constance “Stan,” telepathic twins Ember and Emory, along with many others.

The kids are both smart and teenage-stupid in a very believable way. They banter, flirt, speak things both crass and profound—and, at their core, make up a tight, amiable group grappling with their identities at an awkward stage. Teacher Young observes, while being questioned by a former student, “The youth of today are much more open, about their feelings, their sexuality, their social and political opinions. They’re closer in a way to my generation, honestly. I’m not sure what happened to you early millennials.”

As the complexity of its characters suggests, this book is more than just horror. There are also moving scenes in which interviewees slowly realize that the individual they’re being asked about is dead. There is commentary about social awkwardness, not only in high school but also in society at large. A horrifically graphic (and clarion) reference to a woman’s botched childbirth experience functions by extension as a reference to her apparent lack of bodily autonomy. On a sentence level, fresh word choices liven up the prose: “Seth tried not to eviscerate the speed limit as he took the last turn to get back to the station.”

The book’s disappointments lie in a few small details. One scene describes a librarian telling a police officer the full reading history of a patron, raising the question: would a librarian reveal such information without a warrant or some other legal action, even in a small town? Perhaps. Of greater concern: in an early scene featuring cops Seth Wolfe and Bill Richards, a man named Walt pops in for a few pages, speaking lines that feel like Bill’s. Is Walt an earlier draft’s name for Bill that didn’t get expunged? His short appearance cannot otherwise be explained. One larger disappointment hangs over the rest, though: Only part one of the series was available for review. The authors have done a fine job of making the first part enjoyable—even fulfilling—but the part two is eagerly awaited.

Thriller, mystery, and gothic horror combine in Charlotte Zang and Alex Knudsen’s LOST GROVE: Part One. It is (so far) a page-turning novel about a missing-person investigation in a small coastal town that offers depth, surprise, eeriness, and great characters.

~Anne Welsbacher for IndieReader