Christian fiction readers and those who enjoy a chilling, tense thriller will relish the trip to Night Hollow, a desolate part of rural Kentucky that locals call “the holler.” Set deep in Appalachian hills, the holler is darker than its surroundings, in both meager daylight and social conditions. It’s particularly bad for women, but the holler keeps all its residents in its sad grip, while outsiders leave the poverty and crime to continue providing it stays contained. That ends when the FBI shows up to investigate the murder of several local women who’ve been found beaten and with their eyes removed and eyelids sewn shut (a process that happens “offstage,” thankfully). Two very different protagonists lead the story: FBI psychologist Violet Rainwater, who’s a product of her mother’s lengthy abduction and rape years ago and struggles to face the current crime’s echoes of that past, and John Orlando, a detective whose FBI-agent wife’s killing may have a link to the Blind Eye Killer, as the media has dubbed the area’s monster. Patch offers spiritual insights via believer John’s kind advice and support of atheist Violet, with the religious theme taking a back seat to the characters’ personalities and the layered mysteries that swirl in the holler. The scary ending, which also has a great twist, will leave readers ready for more from Patch.
