Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsDon't Know What The f*** Has Gone Down Here...
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 31, 2022
No spoilers. 3 stars. When the carnival comes to Sallow Bend there is sure to be excitement... NOT!!
Caleb Jackson...
... a mild mannered, somewhat antisocial school janitor who, along with his friend Tricia Brent...
... team up to solve a spate of child disappearances in The Bend while enjoying hot dogs and cotton candy at the carnival...
The pair will get a little help from carnival manager Ashley and her lesbian lover and clairvoyant sideshow palm reader Sarah...
There are indeed many carnival folk trying to help the pair....
Some of them...
Such as Saul, who runs a lurid Nazi chamber of horrors, who people the story but leave readers wondering "WHY?"...
The cast of characters are left saying: I don't know what the f*** has gone down here...
... and I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiment!
This was mediocre story which left many unanswered questions and, at times, seemed to repeat itself over and over (sorry, am I repeating myself?).
The story moved at a glacial pace until the 80% mark when it looked like something interesting in the way of character Saul was about to go down but, alas, nothing about the mystery and danger of this bit part character was explained and expounded upon.
There was, near the end of the novel, parts that seemed familiar to the author's excellent series TALES FROM THE GULP which is the author's forte but that, too, led nowhere.
