Title: The Bright Lands
Author: John Fram
Genre: Thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5
The town of Bentley holds two things dear: its football, and its secrets. But when star quarterback Dylan Whitley goes missing, an unremitting fear grips this remote corner of Texas.
Joel Whitley was shamed out of conservative Bentley ten years ago, and while he’s finally made a life for himself as a gay man in New York, his younger brother’s disappearance soon brings him back to a place he thought he’d escaped for good. Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Deputy Starsha Clark stayed in Bentley; Joel’s return brings back painful memories—not to mention questions—about her own missing brother. And in the high school hallways, Dylan’s friends begin to suspect that their classmates know far more than they’re telling the police. Together, these unlikely allies will stir up secrets their town has long tried to ignore, drawing the attention of dangerous men who will stop at nothing to see that their crimes stay buried.
But no one is quite prepared to face the darkness that’s begun to haunt their nightmares, whispering about a place long thought to be nothing but an urban legend: an empty night, a flicker of light on the horizon—The Bright Lands.
John Fram seems to have a knack for creating believable, sympathetic characters and embroiling them in unbelievable situations. I had to stop reading at one point to make sure the author wasn’t Stephen King or his son, because it had that creepy sort of feel to it. But King’s novels—including the giant spider and the clown in the sewers—are more believable for me than the premise of this novel. Despite the compelling prose, the unbelievability of the main plot idea made me lose faith in the author to a certain extent.
John Fram is from Texas but now lives in New York. The Bright Lands is his debut novel.
(Galley courtesy of Harlequin/Hanover Square Press in exchange for an honest review.)
Tomorrow Is Another Day 