 Enthralling blend of thriller and horror in dark coming-of-age mystery told in convincing double 1998 and 2013 narrative If you’re never come across Silver Shamrock Publishing make a mental note to check their back-catalogue out; they impressed me greatly with their recent novella In the Scrape by James Newman and Mark Steensland and continue the good work with the excellent Cricket Hunters. This was one of those novels I was given for review which I knew little about but was quickly sucked into a very cleverly told tale which effortlessly moves between 1998 and 2013 with a great sense of time and place. Set in a small Texas town, Cricket Hunters is as much thriller as it is horror, and I going to be very light on the plot to avoid potential spoilers. Make sure you follow the narrative closely and prepare yourself for a satisfyingly clever ending which knits the time periods together. Cricket Hunters opens with Celia (known as ‘Cel’) reflecting on the poor state of her marriage; she has been with Parker for fourteen years and married for six, several miscarriages have put a strain on their relationship. She also suspects Parker is having an affair with a new teacher, Lauren Page, at the local school where he works. Early in proceedings, after an argument, Parker disappears, initially Cel thinks he is with Lauren, but soon the police become involved and Cel’s troubled relationship with Parker’s family only make things worse. The majority of the story is told from Celia’s point of view, but Parker is also featured and so the state of their marriage is seen from both points of view. Stephen King gave us the ‘Losers’ Club’ and Jeremy Hepler introduces us to the ‘Cricket Hunters’ when we head back to 1998 with the second story strand built around a group of old close-knit school friends. The 1998 and 2013 periods were balanced perfectly and complimented each other with their plots slowly making clever revelations which impacted events in the alternative. In 1998 Cel and Parker are around age 15/16 and have been friends for years, but attraction is beginning to deeper towards flirtation and more. Three other members of the ‘Cricket Hunters’ are also introduced; Abbey, Natalie and Omar. The latter two characters have small roles in the 2013 sequence, Abbey however, is the elephant in the room as at some point around 1998 she mysteriously disappears. This is mentioned in the blurb, so should not be seen as a spoiler, and so Cricket Hunters effectively runs who parallel mysteries in 1998 (the murder) and 2013 (the disappearance). Are they connected and if so how? It was good, old fashioned, fun joining the dots together. The 1998 sequences was also a terrific coming of age story with lifelong friends beginning to feel the pangs of attraction and leave childhood stuff behind, with thoughts of getting their driving licences and other more pressing business, like who to make out with. Abbey Powell matures physically quite early and soon catches the eye of Parker, who is also attracted to Celia and so tension develops as he is interested in both girls. Until this point Celia had often been the leader of the ‘Cricket Hunters’, which was the name the gang adopted after they used sharp sticks to kill crickets, the noise the insects make at night bothers the sister of Celia’s grandmother, with whom she lives. The mass killing of insects did seem like an unpleasant and odd pastime for teenagers, but it was an important part of the story. Does that sound weird? The grandmother pays the teenagers to kill crickets…. This is because the grandmother is a self-proclaimed ‘bruja’, or so we’re told, which is Spanish for witch. The grandmother is Mexican and believes her sister has been cursed in some way and one of the strengths of the book is the reader is never quite sure whether this is real or not. Either way, as Celia has been growing up with her grandmother has been teaching her the tricks of the ‘bruja’ trade and she even has her own ‘grimoire’ which is a spell-book to help her with the trials which life might throw up. Celia believes this stuff, and when the ‘Cricket Hunters’ were younger they thought this was all very cool, but as they approach the age of sixteen it seems more like mumbo-jumbo stuff for kids. Jeremy Kepler balances this potentially supernatural angle balanced perfectly throughout both stories and has fun keeping the reader on their toes. This is one of those stories where the children never truly leave their past behind and years later the shadows are still there clouding their judgment and personal relationships. Although I did not particularly empathise with any of the characters this did not detract from my enjoyment of the book and the 1998 sequence, in particular, had a dark vibe running through it which added an edge. If small town American life didn’t have this shadowy underbelly the world of dark fiction would be a much poorer place! Several minor gripes; I found using italics for the occasional Spanish word to be incredibly repetitive and unnecessary, particular ‘abuela’ for grandmother, all it did was draw attention to a word which seemed to be used way too often. Secondly, Melanie and Omar were very much bit players in the 2013 sequence and might have been given more to do in the plot. Thirdly, there was some quite unpleasant animal torture/mutilation scenes in the book which some readers might find unnecessary and might influence your opinion of a couple of characters. Overall though this was a book I sped through in no time at all which blended an entertaining coming-of-age mystery with elements of horror and suspense from an author to watch out for. I just picked up The Boulevard Monster and am ready to take more Kepler for a spin. Tony Jones  CRICKET HUNTERS BY JEREMY HEPLER Celia (Garcia) Lundy was fifteen in the fall of 1998 when Abby Powell, one of her five friends who called themselves the Cricket Hunters, disappeared without a trace. Cops scoured the central Texas town of Oak Mott searching for Abby. Interviewed everyone. Brought in the Texas Rangers to assist. Three key suspects emerged and were focused on, but no evidence was found. Eventually, the case went cold, and the passage of time buried the truth of Abby Powell’s fate. Fifteen years later, as the anniversary of Abby’s disappearance approaches, Cel’s life is upended when her husband Parker, also once a Cricket Hunter, goes missing. When bizarre clues surface that point to a link between Parker’s and Abby’s disappearances, Cel is forced to delve back into the past in order to navigate the present. With the help of her abuela, a self-proclaimed bruja, she embarks on a tumultuous journey fraught with confrontation and trickery, spells and spirits, theft and murder, in order to find out what happened to her husband, and why.   Comments are closed.
|
Archives
May 2023
|
RSS Feed
|
|