Book of Shadows

Book of Shadows
By Alexandra Sokoloff (320 pages)
Published by St. Martin's Press
Bookish rating: 3.75

Well, it's October and that means it's time for spooky, scary stories, no?

I discovered Sokoloff's thriller and somewhat demonic writing while at a huge publishing expo I attended for work. In the exhibition hall, publishers literally hand you books (ahead of print). I was wandering along and a marketing guy literally pulled me aside and said I looked like their demographic (I was youthfully in my mid-20s at the time) and said I should read this spiffy new book, The Harrowing. The author, Sokoloff, was there and she signed the book for me. I was too shy to explain that thrillers ain't really my thing, so I left with the signed book and it sat on my shelf for a year or two.

For whatever autumnal reason, I got in the mood for something dark, picked the book and loved it. It was bubble gum entertainment, but well done spooky bubble gum entertainment. A win.

So, I picked up my second Sokoloff novel, Book of Shadows. In Boston, a wealthy college girl is murdered in what seems like a satanic ritual. Ruh-roh. We get the story from the point of view of one of the embittered detectives, which works fine. The plotting and pacing are very good and the writing is tight and not cheesy. (I hate cheesiness when it comes to whodunnits or thrillers or investigative whatever--I can't even be in the same room as an NCIS episode because I roll my eyes and editorialize too much, driving Chris batty).

The book is dark, gruesome, genuinely scary, and engrossing. Everything you'd want from a mid-October read.