Catawba Falls
W.F. Ranew
Hard-Boiled Mystery
Does a killer roam the Western North Carolina mountains?
Red Farlow travels to Camp Ridgemont for Boys for a reunion with his summer camp friends. On arrival, he discovers two camp counselors have been found in the woods, hacked to death. Red’s investigation soon widens with more mysterious deaths, one of them a close friend.
Far-right extremist Troy Unsworthy knows the hills and hollows after a lifetime of growing up in these mountains. Red soon learns all the victims are connected to Unsworthy in the years leading up to a deadly auto accident which put him in prison.
When he learns Unsworthy was released just before the counselors’ deaths, Red goes into the mountains. His trek requires sure-footedness over rocky terrain and old-growth forest as he explores caves with endless tunnels, shafts, and deep-water pools searching for his suspect.
But, did Unsworthy really murder these people, or should Red turn his attention to other suspects?
Red treads a treacherous path on his quest to find the killer and bring him to justice.
Uncaged Review: This book started out a bit slow, and it threw me in a couple places throughout. First we are slapped right into a gruesome murder of some camp counselors that our main protagonist Red, finds during a trip into a summer camp for a reunion with some friends. Then the book backtracks a bit without a segway into his events leading up to the search. But this is a good mystery, but there are a lot of murders to this tale, and Red will have to trek through the forest to hunt down the suspect.
I had not read any of the previous books, but does well as a standalone. I would have liked to know more about Red and his background before going into this one, and I’m sure that’s probably in previous books, but it’s not necessary to read those first. The author does a great job describing the detail of the surrounding area and this book does a good job keeping the reader in suspense the whole way through. Reviewed by Cyrene
4 Stars
