Ghost Road Blues (2006)

Thirty years ago in the town of Pine Deep, under the light of a Halloween moon, an evil child killer by the name of Griswold ate the pointy end of a guitar when a blues guitarist known as "The Boneman" put an end to his reign of terror. Griswold's body was thrown into a swamp never to be found again. The funny thing about evil is that it has this tendency to linger and fester. It lays in wait. Thirty years later a career criminal and his two cronies stall out in the town of Pine Deep while fleeing from a drug deal gone bad. This little event is the hairpin trigger that sets off events in Pine Deep once again.

Potential reader, be forewarned, Ghost Road Blues is part of a trilogy and will leave you with closure issues. This is the book of questions not answers, so make sure to have at least book two in hand if you find yourself drawn into Maberry's horrific world of Pine Deep. ( )

Ghost Road Blues is the first novel in the Pine Deep trilogy by Jonathan Maberry, and was also Maberry's first novel. This was the first novel I've ever read by Maberry and found it very hard to put down.

The book starts out strong and keeps a good pace throughout. I didn't find any of the characters dry or uninteresting. Maberry did a great job at making the characters and dialog believable and well defined. I cared for the characters I was suppose to, and hated the characters that Maberry set me up to hate.

The author set some nice surprises up in Ghost Road Blues to keep the reader on their toes, so there aren't really any parts that you will ever skim over. You will want to read and take every word in. There is no unnecessary gore (I hate random gore) thrown in just to gross the reader out. It's really just a great good vs. evil story. This book easily went into my favorites pile. I can't wait to read the other two books in the trilogy. This would be a great story for someone looking for a good Halloween read.

The only qualm I had with this book was one very noticeable inconsistency (and the reason I went with 4 stars instead of 5) was with chapter 16, section 2 and section 4. Why this wasn't caught I'm really not sure, but this was an absolutely great book and I highly recommend it!

*Book Hollow* ( )

Had I known before I started this longish book that it wasn't going to end, that it was the first of a trilogy, then I might not have pick it up to read. Only some parts were good and had me on the edge of my seat. In general, Maberry was way too descriptive; and he employed too many "likes" to set scenes: things looked like spooky things, things smelled like bad things, things felt like bad things. Why can't things just "be?" I wish I had the book in front of me now to pull refs to these, but there were so many it was annoying after a while. But the biggest annoyance was there was no conclusion. One thread that interested me was Mike (boy often battered by his step father); maybe this is continued in the next of the series, but I just wish there was some sort of conclusion there (and it didn't have to end favorable for Mike; just something). I would hate to invest the time in the second 500pp (if that is how long it is) to only again have to go to the next book for the hope of resolution. ( )

pretty good. Not really scary but still entertaining ( )

I chose Ghost Road Blues by Jonathan Maberry for my Halloween read, hoping for a spooky, atmospheric book that I could sink into, and although, this book almost came through, I was left feeling a little let down. I realize that this is the first book in a trilogy, but I didn’t realize that it would leave the readers totally hanging. The tension builds throughout the book, but there was little to no pay off. In fact, the book read more like the introduction with many characters being introduced and then just being left, I suspect they will come back into the story in future books.

The story revolves around evil. Both the evil that men can do and a supernatural evil that rests just below the surface of the seeming peaceful town of Pine Deep. But obviously this town has a history and appears to be the devil’s crossroad. Thirty years ago some very bad things happened and they appear to be starting up again.

The setting of a haunted small town in America brings Stephen King to mind, but Jonathan Maberry definitely writes in his own voice, and that voice is dark, descriptive and intense. You realize from page one that this is an uncompromising horror story that is bringing you full throttle action and thrills. But unfortunately, that action suddenly cuts out and you are left up in the air until you get your hands on the next book. ( )