Review: Evil Harvest by Anthony Izzo

I love horror novels. My mom loved horror novels too. She had tons of them. In fact, it was from her collection I was introduced to Stephen King. But good horror is hard to find. A book that keeps you awake at night with the lights on because - you never know - the monsters might be real. Most horror just isn't that scary they are just genre books with some supernatural element ie a western with vampires. Yet ever the optomist, I scour the horror shelves of the library seeking a good book. This isn't one of them.

The protagonist, Matt Crowe, lost his parents and younger brother to monsters in Lincoln, New York. Now and adult and ex-Army Ranger, he heads back to his hometown to take seek revenge on the killers. The book starts out fast with Matt rescuing a woman, Jill, from one of the monsters. She is new in town and has trouble believing what she saw but, after briefly thinking Matt is crazy, she soon joins him in his quest. Of course they start to fall in love - and what a wonderful tale to tell the kids about how they met.

The writing is adequate. The action moves between the viewpoint of the good guys, see aforementioned, and the bad guys lead by Police Chief Rafferty. I hate corrupt cops or anyone abusing their positions of power and such characters annoy me to begin with. The problem I had with this character was that he was so over the top evil, oppressing an entire town, but I couldn't believe in the litigious ol' US of A, no one had tried to take this guy out via a law suit.

I started to lose interest after the big confrontation at the cabin which seemed ill advised to begin with. Matt's had years, in fact decades, to plot his revenge and holing up in a cabin, without even boarding up the windows, was the best he could do? Ex Army Ranger?

I was pissed off that Donna died. I was pissed off that Harry died, he was the best character in my opinion. I was pissed off but also relieved that Jill died as it made Matts' losses even more poignant. The ending was a complete let down.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Source of copy; Library