A Ruthless Echo


Fiction - Horror
402 Pages
Reviewed on 11/16/2012
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Alysha Allen for Readers' Favorite

Haunted by his wife’s death -- a suicide -- and the day he found her dead and cold, floating in the lake behind his house, Alex Crawford has spent almost two years longing to escape from the guilt of his wife’s death. After writing what he thought would be a critically groundbreaking novel popular with the critics, which has proven to be mostly praised by Twilight teeny-boppers, Alex decides, at the suggestion of his agent, to restore himself at a writer’s retreat in the small town of Second Hollow. It isn’t long before things begin to become topsy-turvy there soon after he was allowed to borrow a vintage Remington Compact Portable typewriter. Alex has written of a fictional horror writer named Aldous Creed, but Alex later comes to know that he was actually a famous horror writer living in the town of Second Hollow. But as Alex goes on writing on his typewriter, he finds things changing overnight, always reflecting what he has just written. With the help of a gorgeous and alluring barista, Alex must plunge into the depths of this measureless labyrinth that obfuscates the enigma behind the typewriter and its link to Aldous Creed.

Those wanting a good mind trip must read "A Ruthless Echo". C.K. Burch has crafted a horror novel that can penetrate the sanity of the reader far more strongly than most other novels. Our submersion into Alex’s raw narrative disturbs any remaining self-possession of rational thought, as we get into a demonic roller-coaster ride throwing us about, matching that of Alex’s near eventual descent into madness. Fog saturates and sweeps the town of Second Hollow as swirling autumn leaves whisper ominously, creating a noir ambiance and an intensifying sinister feeling. The horror that is channeled in a ruthless echo mirrors a chilling schizophrenic overtaking of the mind, deconstructing the very definition of reality. This is the true definition of horror.