“Downtrodden architect Glenn Washington and his none-too-bright sidekick Lennie help a crooked real estate baron flip houses in downtrodden Detroit. A house comes up that is too good to gut for parts. Too good to be true. Waaaay too good. Thing is, nothing leads where it should — go through the front door, step out the door on the back porch. Best library ever. And why are the cops nosing around? Non-Euclidian architectural petty-crime adventure, and all that implies.”—Adrian Simmons, writing for Black Gate magazine.
“This is a very entertaining and readable story, and what makes it even better is the sheer amount of incidental detail that Nelson includes. At the end, just when I thought it was coming off the boil a little, there is a neat little twist that pulls it back up again, as well as allowing for sequels. One for the ‘Best of the Year’ collections.”—Paul Fraser, writing for sfmagazines.com
“absorbing horror novella” (Recommended Story)—Rich Horton, Locus, Sept 2017
I received an audio copy of this book through Audioboom for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.
Oh man! Talk about a twist! The first thing that got me about this book was the narrator’s voice, which I love in a non creepy way. The narrator was a perfect choice for Glen Washington, our main character and narrator. Add in the author’s style of writing and there is a serious hit in this story.
What to say about this house . . . Or story for that matter. Well, the story is set in Detroit, Michigan. Our MC is a man who loves the history of old houses, the intricacies of their development from the designing stage to the hard manual labor, and falls victim to the mystery of a house he is hired to flip.
To keep this review spoiler free, I can only say that there were laughs and gasps while listening to this audiobook. I was creeped out on more than one occasion and my brother had me set it aside so that he wouldn’t have to listen to it.
About being creeped out, I should revise that by saying I wasn’t scared. It is rare for me to be scared of a story. However, did this book give me the chills? Did it make me smile from ear to ear just because the story was so different? Did I have the chills from both creepy content and well written prose?
Yes. YES. AND YES.
I definitely recommend for the audio lover, audio newbie, or even the person who wants to read instead of listening(even though you are missing an amazing narrator, just saying).
Final Rating: 5/5, hands down
Casia's Corner 