Review by masterhawk88 -- Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole

[masterhawk88]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Raven's Peak" by Lincoln Cole.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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In my lifetime I’ve read somewhere around six thousand works of fiction. Some good, some bad, and some that made me want to gouge my eyes out instead of reading the next page. With that in mind, I speak no hyperbole when I say Raven’s Peak by Lincoln Cole should be counted among the greats of supernatural thrillers, horror stories, and perhaps even religious fiction.

Depressed after the death of his sister, his faith devastated, religious blogger Haatim returns to Phoenix Arizona to seek new inspiration, and try to escape his pain. After meeting a man who is certain a woman wants to kill him, Haatim takes on the job of following her to gather incriminating evidence to take to the police. This woman turns out to Abigail, a Hunter for a group that protects people from supernatural forces. After saving Haatim from the very man who hired him, Abi is requested to protect the young man and takes him with her to Raven’s Peak. It seems there have been strange happenings there, but neither is ready for what they find.

This book is a non-stop thrill ride. With pacing akin to waking up from a drunken night on the town with a parachute strapped to your back, and being kicked out the airplane door I was worried that at some point it’d come grinding to a halt when the need for a plot dump arose. That thankfully never happened. Cole weaves exposition into the plot in such a way it never slows down, because it never needs to.

My worry about the breakneck tempo of Raven’s Peak also lead me to worry about the characters. I feared that with the speed things were happening they would feel flat and two-dimensional. Again I was wrong. With almost nothing about the characters thrown at you in paragraphs of inner monolog or “exposition dumps”, we instead learn about the characters through their actions and conversations. It brings them to life in a way that made me feel almost as if I were a third character, following Haatim and Abi to document their adventure.

For a fairly short book, the plot is complex and highly entertaining. Several plot twists large and small kept things feeling fresh and interesting. Cole gives you just enough foreshadowing to keep you guessing, but never so much that when a twist came I pointed at the page and went “called it!”. As part of a series, I was also happy to find that the plot stands on its own. While there is a massive cliffhanger at the end as one might expect from the first book in a series, I didn’t feel as if I was required to read the next book to understand things from this one.

Since I’m starting to feel like I’ve become Lincoln Cole’s personal hype-man I think it’s necessary to voice the two minor complaints I have about Raven’s Peak. In one scene near the end of the book Abigail shoots a man in the chest with a sleep dart, later it’s said Haatim finds the same man with the dart in his neck. My other complaint is purely subjective, but I felt the times where gore was described fell a bit flat. Those scenes were described pretty matter-of-factly, and for me didn’t bring across the horror and disgust I think they were meant to.

I give Raven’s Peak by Lincoln Cole a solid 4 out of 4 stars. Anyone who enjoys the supernatural, religious or otherwise will enjoy having this one in their collection. It’s creepy, it’s horrifying, and it’s a thrill ride I never wanted to get off.

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Raven's Peak
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Like masterhawk88's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Rosemary Okoko]

I have not read this book but i have read reviews of it. It sounds like a very interesting read. Good to know that you enjoyed reading it. Thank you for the review.

[Kelebogile Mbangi]

I love how you build your credibility in the opening of the review. Your descriptions of the book arouse interest. I've never really been into the supernatural, but I think I could give this book a try, thanks to your review.

[Donatelloo]

I started it and left it because I lost interest . You have written a very nice review