Kill Creek by Scott Thomas

This is such a treat for horror fans. Honestly, I'm not entirely convinced I shouldn't just give this 5 stars straight off the bat because I loved it so much. The only thing that is stopping me is that I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it which is quite a different experience (the audiobook is many, many hours long). I would very much like to read this again and I'm almost certain I will be giving it 5 stars when I do.

Kill Creek tells the story of four horror authors, brought together to a haunted house in a publicity stunt. Each of the four authors represents a different kind of horror. You have Sam McGarver the protagonist, kind of a Steven King type everyman. There is TC Moore, a female writer who loves gore and graphic sex scenes. Sebastian Cole is the elderly pioneer of the genre while Daniel Slaughter is a loose parody of RL Stine. All four of these characters are incredibly fleshed out and I truly enjoyed reading about them. You can tell Scott Thomas is a lover of the horror genre and this shines through his writing.

Only the first part of this book is about the publicity stunt visit. I was expecting more of the story to be taken up by this but, while I was initially disappointed, ultimately the story is stronger for this not being the case. Instead of a bog standard haunted house story, you get something a little deeper and more interesting. I was unsure where the story was heading and there is a lot of creativity to be found here. Again, Scott Thomas clearly loves horror and I was impressed by how he managed to invoke a lot of tropes whilst still putting his own spin on them.

There were a few elements I wasn't so keen on. There is some weird sexual stuff earlier on in the book which sadly isn't uncommon in horror. Thankfully this did not play a big part in the story and there were only two instances overall which I was glad about. I found the ending a little hard to follow as well in parts, though this could easily be due to me listening to the audiobook. Overall, I would strongly recommend the audiobook itself. The narrator had an easy-to-listen-to voice and gave each of the characters distinctive voices, which made for a very enjoyable listening experience.

I have made it my mission to read more horror that isn't by Stephen King in 2019 and Kill Creek has gotten this off to a fantastic start. The blurb may sound like a cliche storm but it is a well-paced, fantastically detailed and above all entertaining horror book. Fans of horror will appreciate the nuances of each of the author characters, and those less familiar with horror will appreciate the strong plot and intriguing story. I cannot recommend this more.

Overall Rating:

.5