Near the Bone

January 11, 2021
Henry (The Ghost Tree) pits the characters in this lumpy thriller against two formidable menaces: a gun-toting religious zealot and a rampaging cryptid. Mattie lives in a remote mountaintop cabin with abusive, Bible-thumping William, who is introduced to the reader as her husband. Soon after the pair come across the tracks of an outsized predator, she and William cross paths with a trio of amateur cryptozoologists who are investigating urban legends about a monster that lives in the mountain’s wilds—and who recognize Mattie as Samantha Hunter, the victim of a kidnapping that occurred 12 years earlier when she was eight. The tale then turns into a pell-mell race down the mountainside as Mattie and her rescuers rush to escape both the murderous William and the cryptid that has caught their scent. Henry builds considerable suspense throughout, but the improbable behavior of her characters often undercuts it, as when they pause to discuss the merits of grilled cheese sandwiches for several pages while their lives are in danger. The nature of the cryptid and its sudden appearance, meanwhile, go frustratingly unexplained. This promises more than it delivers. Agent: Lucienne Diver, the Knight Agency.

April 1, 2021

Mattie lives off the grid in a cabin on the side of a mountain with her older, emotionally and physically abusive husband. An unreliable narrator who knows nothing of the outside world, Mattie has flashbacks to her past, memories that are incomplete and terrifying. When a violent creature clearly not of this world begins leaving mutilated animal corpses across their territory, Mattie expands her limited range to investigate and encounters hikers who help her come to terms with the true, sinister nature of her past and present. Overflowing with intensity, action, and an oppressive, isolated atmosphere, this is a violent, compelling, and disturbing mix of domestic suspense and creature-feature horror that will appeal to a wide swath of readers. VERDICT Henry has expertly walked the line between psychological suspense and horror to crowd-pleasing results for years, and this title is no exception. Hand out freely to fans of Sarah Pinborough, Jennifer McMahon, and Zoje Stage.

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