The Chill is a supernatural thriller published in 2020 by Scott Carson and is one of the better reads for me in 2024. A village known as Galesburg, New York was drowned many decades ago, yet the souls of that lost town live on within the Chilewaukee Reservoir, and the town of Torrance is about the face them.
There is a dam that is about to break due to the onslaught of a relentless rainstorm, and it may release the spirits of the drowned Galesburg. A ghost is already influencing the engineer evaluating the integrity of the dam. A young man, who was recently discharged from the US Coast Guard Academy believes he had killed someone accidentally, however the apparent victim turned up alive. The spirits are still working under the reservoir to complete a work that was to be done while they still lived. The living and the dead meet when the dam breaks as prophesied.
I wish I had the gift of eloquence such as this author, Scott Carson, but I really enjoyed this novel. I dip into the horror genre occasionally, but I am often frustrated with resolutions in many tales in this form. This one really works. The characters are people I could like and stay interested in following. There are plenty of truly suspenseful scenes throughout. The twists were not that predictable. Carson is noted to be the pseudonym of an already well-known author. That does make sense in that this does appear to be written by someone with experience.
The Chill refers to the waters in the reservoir, but there were some chilling scenes that were quite effective. This particular novel is certainly a candidate for one of the better ones I am to read for 2024.
Next up, I was given the key to The House of Love and Death by author Andrew Klavan, so I will see what secrets await me.
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