Genre: Horror / Thriller / Suspense
During the summer of 1965, two young women were brutally murdered while camping in the woods. The police know who did it but cannot prove it. They believe the killer is Ray Pye, the assistant manager at the Starlight Motel, and regular deviant youth of their small New Jersey town. It is also believed that Ray’s friends know more than they’re saying. Four years later, the police are still watching Ray as he slowly comes undone, but no one could have foreseen his final act or predicted the tragic loss left in his wake.
The novel starts off right before the initial murders, with Ray and his friends Tim and Jennifer hanging out at a campground. When Ray sees two naked girls camping together, he decides he wants to kill them. What follows is a scene of carnage as the girls are brutally shot numerous times with Ray laughing through it all and Tim and Jennifer unable to stop him. They reluctantly help him clean up the crime scene rather than running when they have the chance and wind up wrapped up in the crime as accessories, fearing going to the police due to their own involvement. Come 1969, they are both experiencing varying degrees of guilt, but are somehow still loyal to Ray, despite the way he treats them.
The three central characters are fairly awful people and make their parts of the first 60% of the book hard to get through. The story is told from the alternating perspectives of Ray, Tim, Jennifer, Detective Charlie Schilling, retired Detective Ed Anderson, Sally, Katherine, and a stray cat (yes you read that correctly).
The most disturbing chapters are those from Ray’s perspective – the misogyny, the racism, the homophobia, and the narcissism. He’s both incredibly conceited and ridiculously insecure – taking great pride in his pretty face but wearing cowboy boots with crushed up cans inside to make up for his height of 5’3”. (With the amount of times the boots are mentioned alongside his difficulty walking in them, I was really hoping for a scene where they cause him to fall. No such luck.)
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| I kept picturing this scene and hoping for it. *sigh* |
He seems to think the world, and especially women, owe him something, and he should be able to have whatever and whoever he wants. When someone refuses to give him his way, disaster will strike.
Tim is Ray’s lapdog … I mean “best friend.” He is a weak, cowardly boy who occasionally has quiet moments of rebellion against Ray’s power over him, but, for the most part, has very little character development. Tim would possibly be happy being Ray’s doormat for the rest of his life if he wasn’t in love with Jennifer. Tim’s love for her is the only reason he does the one good thing he’s ever done in his life. So in the end, he does the right thing but for somewhat selfish reasons and I don’t feel any sympathy for him.
Jennifer is Ray’s girlfriend in the loosest sense of the word. He has her over to have sex and expects her to be faithful to only him while he hits on and/or has sex with every other attractive girl in town. She puts up with it because she both loves and fears him, but it becomes apparent her patience is wearing thin. She has a bit more development than Tim, and there are moments when I am proud of her for standing up for herself against Ray’s abuse, but overall she is still a crappy person by the end of the book.
At first I really did not like Katherine – she’s snotty and rude, judgmental, and always seems to be looking for trouble. She’s also the character with the most development, going from the spoiled rich girl with an attitude to a young woman realizing the causes of her misdirected anger. She grows from being nasty to other women to comforting and consoling them in frightening situations. Katherine is also one hell of a fighter. Not only is she feisty on her dates with Ray, giving him a run for his money, she defiantly stands up to him during his final rampage as well, both with her sass and violence. (Shoulder ramming him into the floor, beating him with the chair you’re tied to … Girl, are you Black Widow?)
Sally seems like such a sweet person with a big heart. She’s responsible, smart and kind, but also not willing to take crap from anyone, especially Ray Pye. She’s the only woman in town he can’t seduce and it irks him. She just wants to work and earn a little pocket money before leaving for college in the fall, but Ray can’t accept that. Nor does he like how much of a fighter she is. When she has the opportunity to run and possibly escape Ray’s frenzy, she chooses to risk her life and help her fellow captives instead.
For the most part, I really liked Detective Charlie Schilling. He really cares about the victims in the cases he investigates, having become attached to the girls murdered in 1965 and their families. So attached, in fact, that his marriage to his job caused his actual marriage to crumble and his wife to leave with their two children. They part on good terms and are still able to co-parent, even with her all the way across the country. Their ability to remain close and their obvious continued love for each other is touching and left me hoping for them to reunite at the resolution of the Ray Pye issue. Schilling will not rest until he proves Ray is responsible for the 1965 murders, but ends up blaming himself for pushing so hard when Ray finally snaps.
Given how much I typically loathe age-gap relationships, I really thought I would dislike Ed. However, the man really does seem to love Sally and treats her like an equal. He’s a lonely widower who spends his days cooking and gardening and she makes him feel alive again. There are no attempts to control her and he even tries to step back from their relationship to let her live her life without him weighing her down. He is very protective of Sally, especially when he realizes Ray has his sights set on her, and will stop at nothing to keep her safe.
I’m not entirely sure why there were sections from the perspective of a stray cat, but they were cute and eased the tension a bit. However, these chapters also had me anxiously grumbling, “You better not kill that sweet baby!” The cat becomes attached to Ed and he decides that it’s time for a pet.
The majority of the novel takes place between the events in 1965 and Ray’s breaking point in 1969, following him as he slowly loses control. As his little empire of sex, drugs and rock and roll begins to fall apart, the mask of charismatic normalcy he’s worn all these years begins to slip as well. When he snaps, he goes on the worst spree of assault, kidnapping and murder the small town of Sparta has ever seen. This rampage and the final build up to it made the final 40% of the novel intensely gripping. I couldn’t put it down until I finished the book. I needed to know what happened – and it was horrific.
The ending for me was a bit disappointing. I was not happy with who died and who survived, although there were some incredibly well-written heartbreaking scenes. Ray’s comeuppance is problematic and unsatisfying. I was really hoping for an ending like that of the films Death Proof (2007) or Fresh (2022), but alas, no.
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| This would have been a much better ending. |
I wanted happier endings for many of the characters, many of which remain just as lost as they were throughout the rest of the novel. Then again, maybe that was the point.
This is a fast-paced but disturbing read. Being in Ray’s head every few chapters is very uncomfortable and honestly feels a little violating. Just reading his thoughts made me want to cover myself, causing me to empathize with the female characters even more. Some of the other characters are just annoying and reading things from their perspectives irritated me. The midsection of the story is a bit slower than the beginning and end, and some find it hard to get through, but once things start falling apart on Ray, it picks up again and doesn’t let up until the “afterward” section at the end. The true ending is unsatisfying and problematic. An average novel that could have been better and is not on par with the other Ketchum novels I’ve read.
6.5/10
