Hell Hollow
Ronald Kelly
Cemetery Dance, Nov 2009, $40.00
ISBN 9781587671869

Over breakfast in Atlanta, his dad the corporate attorney and his mom the psychiatrist inform twelve year old Keith Bishop that he will spend four weeks with his nonagenarian grandfather on the old guy's Mcleod farm in Harmony, Tennessee. His parents plan to vacation in Europe while their son rusticates. Keith expects one month of boredom.

With not much to do, Keith and three friends (Chuck, Rusty and Maggie) he meets explore the woods near his grandfather rural locale. They find HELL HOLLOW hidden in the eerie woods; a place where back in 1917, Dr. Augustus Leech's Traveling Medicine Show stopped. The townsfolk lynched Leech whom they thought collected souls for Satan. However, most of those who were involved have passed on while the few who still live conceal the deadly deed by avoiding the area where Keith and company walk unaware that his wicked spirit lives. Soon the tweeners, an escaped killer, and a rape victim collide with the malevolence who has patiently waited for decades to steal more souls.

This is a terrific horror tale starring a solid ensemble of humans of all ages and temperament, and a vile evil able to live even after his body died. Readers will enjoy Ronald Kelly's one sitting suspense laden supernatural thriller as "the evil that men do lives after them" (Shakespeare).

Harriet Klausner