 After the murder of his wife a grieving husband discovers she had a secret life I have been a big fan of Ronald Malfi for several years and he has fast become one of those authors I look forward to bringing out new fiction. His novels offer an exquisite blend of traditional supernatural horror, often with convincing elements of thriller blended into them, backed up by realistic and well-drawn characters. Considering Malfi has been writing since 2000 and has published seventeen novels over that period, several novellas, and a single author collection he deserves to be more widely known beyond the horror community. His work should be adorning the shelves of mainstream bookshops with the bigger names of the genre and I hope Titan get 100% behind his first release for them. His seventeenth and latest full novel, Come With Me, is probably more thriller than horror and considering it is a relatively mainstream read has the potential to be picked up the wider non-horror reading audience, in the same manner Behind Her Eyes (2017) propelled Sarah Pinborough into the big leagues. My wife never reads horror, but is a huge thriller fan, and I believe this novel would be right up her street. If you have never tried Malfi Come With Me is an excellent entry point, it might not be his more terrifying or intense, but is a highly compelling thriller with encroaching horror elements and if you judge fiction such as Silence of the Lambs to be horror, then this is in the same ballpark. Since 2015 this author has been on an outstanding run of form with Little Girls (2015) an ambiguous and psychological haunted house story, The Night Parade (2016) an apocalyptic tale about a disease called ‘wanderer’s Folly’ and the terrifying Bone White (2017) which will put you off ever wanting to travel to Alaska. His short fiction is also first rate and his collection We Should Have Felt Well Enough Alone (2017) is littered with absolute gems. 2020 also saw the rerelease of the superb novella Mr Cables which had a genuinely outstanding and very original hook: bestselling horror author Wilson Paventeau is at a book signing when a woman in the queue presents him with a book to sign called ‘Mr Cables’, Wilson is surprised as he has never written a book of this name. My message is a simple one: if you have never read Ron Malfi, rectify that immediately, and there is much to choose from. This author has the complete literary toolkit: outstanding short stories, novellas and novels, the Holy Trinity of horror fiction. I really enjoyed Come With Me, and sped through 400-pages over three evenings, however, it is a tricky book to review without providing unwanted spoilers. It is populated with some very clever plot twists and I do not want to reveal any more than what the blurb spills. The novel opens shortly after Aaron Decker’s wife, Allison, is murdered in a shopping centre jewellery shop. The shooter had targeted his ex-girlfriend, who worked in the establishment, and Allison was collateral damage. These opening sequences were powerfully written, as Aaron waits to have it confirmed that his wife was one of those who lost their lives. On a personal level, we are a fly on the wall, as Aaron reflects back on the final occasion, he saw his wife alive, wondering whether things might have been different if he had accompanied her to the shopping centre. ‘What if?’ lurks in the background of Aaron’s subconscious for much of the story. Loss is undoubtedly one of the major themes of Come With Me and the fact that Aaron is not particularly open with his feelings and struggles with the outpouring of sympathies and media interest which he receives makes things worse. Interestingly, the novel is written with a first-person narrative and so the reader is fully aware of how Aaron is feeling, even if he is incapable of sharing this with his friends and Allison’s ex-colleagues. We, the reader, piggy-back on his pain and feel like intruders encroaching on his private moments with his wife. This narrative is a major strength of the novel, as most of the time it is written as if Aaron is talking to his wife, and at times you might be forgiven for forgetting the woman is dead. However, this is deliberate and very fine writing and through it we are able to dig deeper into the fractured psyche of Aaron. Come With Me has a great hook: Aaron finds a receipt, amongst Allison’s belongings, for a two-night stay in a motel when from when he was out of town some months earlier. Thinking the worst, and struggling to cope, he suspects his wife was having an affair, however, the plot is much more intricate than that with Malfi developing proceedings deliciously slowly as Aaron begins to investigate Allison. Lurking in the background is the question, did he really know his wife? And from that moment on the plot bobs and weaves in and out of thriller territory as the mild-mannered Aaron finds himself way (way) outside his comfort zone. As Aaron’s is the only voice we are presented with, for Come With Me to succeed it had to be both convincing and sympathetic, ultimately this is another great strength of the story. For a job, Aaron translates Japanese novels into English and it as far away from a hero as you can imagine. However, this narrative takes a quiet spoken academic far from his quiet world onto a path, almost a quest which becomes an obsession, to follow in the footsteps of his dead wife. And it is a fascinating journey, taking in corrupt cops, sleazy motels, revenge, alcoholism and all manner of lowlifes which inhabit the small towns of America. The picture Malfi paints of these forgotten locations, at times it felt like reading a read novel, was second to none and it was little wonder that many of the inhabitants are keen to move on to pastures new. Aaron is haunted by both the memory and secrets of his dead wife, with the latter leading him to question what kind of marriage him they truly had? Their relationship beats at the heart of the novel and even though Allison is dead for the entirety of Come With Me, but she dominates the book from the shadows of lonely hotel rooms and the grainy video footage he uncovers along the way. One could argue not all the questions are answered adequately and although this is an excellent thriller it was slightly one-paced and, although realistic, lacked the big climax it deserved. Having said that, make sure you stay focussed for an outstanding last couple of pages sucker-punch. Ronald Malfi is a genuine big dog of the horror genre and Come With Me maintains his excellent recent form with the first of two books to be published by Titan who, in recent times, have been releasing outstanding fiction, so Ron has found a very good home. Also, five of Malfi’s older and out-of-print novels, Cradle Cake, December Park, Snow, The Ascent and The Floating Staircase were recently republished by Open Road Media in January. This author has an outstanding back-catalogue and once Come With Me reels you in there are plenty of other great novels to dip into next time out. Tony Jones  A masterful, heart-palpitating novel of small-town horror and psychological dread from a Bram Stoker nominee. Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence and her ghost Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death. Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept, the death and horror that make up the tapestry of her hidden life. And with each dark secret revealed, Aaron becomes more and more consumed by his obsession to learn the terrifying truth about the woman who had been his wife, even if it puts his own life at risk.    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