Night Chill

Night Chill by Jeff Gunhus    438 pages

I haven’t slept in three days. Jeff Gunhus’ first novel for adults scared the beejeezus out of me. It takes off fast and never slows down until the final page.

The book’s premise is the Jack Tremont has moved his family (wife Lauren, daughters Becky and Sarah) from California to the mountains of Western Maryland. The family, especially Jack, needed to start over after a horrible accident.

The book opens with the abduction of an eighteen-year-old girl by one of the novel’s central characters, Nate Huckley. This isn’t the first young woman/girl who has been one of Huckley’s victims. The story shifts to Jack and his daughters as he picks them up from school. After dropping the girls off for a play date, he goes to a local bar to console a friend who has a dying child. An ensuing rainstorm causes the gruesome death of a local n’er-do-well. (It’s closing in on bedtime as I finish this chapter, but knowing sleep won’t come easy, I read some more.)

The next few chapters are the most terrifying I have ever read. Since everyone hates spoilers, let’s just say you should read this in the daytime.  

The Tremont’s have been living in Prescott City for a year now, but they had no idea of the evil secrets they were about to encounter. It seems like everyone in town is involved, from the sheriff to the bartender.

Before Night Chill, Gunhus has written a YA series in order to induce his son to read. That this is his first adult novel may be more terrifying than the book----he’ll get better as he writes, I’m sure.

I give Night Chill 5 out of 5 stars.