Inside the Devil's Nest - A Perfect Combination of Horror and Crime
I love to read horror—especially if it has supernatural elements. I don’t think that’s a surprise. I also love crime fiction. The one that the world doesn’t have enough of, is crime-horror mashups. There aren’t many books that combine the aspects of crime fiction with the supernatural aspects of horror fiction. I can think of a few, but there are not a lot.
What John Durgin has done with his second novel Inside The Devil’s Nest, is create a great crime novel that is also a great horror novel. What Durgin manages to do in just the first few chapters is weave a compelling horror story that draws the reader in and makes them want to continue reading. Then he creates a great crime story that also brings the reader in. Once you’ve read the first few chapters you’re hooked. Not only do you want to know what happens with each aspect of this novel, but you keep asking yourself how everything fits together and how it will get resolved.
There are certain sections of the book when you will think you know what’s coming next as often times crime fiction is very formulaic. This book is not formulaic however and every time you think you know what’s coming next, Durgin takes things in a completely different direction.
I flew through this book especially the final third of the book. The action really picks up and everything comes to a head. You can’t stop reading because you have to know what happens with each character and Durgin doesn’t give the reader time to catch their breath. There are some pretty strong connections to The Shining by Stephen King so if you’re a fan of that, you’ll probably love this. My suggestion is to read this book ASAP but make sure you have a good chunk of time set aside when you get to that last third of the book because you won’t be able to stop.
