House of Echoes

Fear. Readers who like creepy page turners will find a lot to enjoy from Brendan Duffy’s debut novel titled, House of Echoes. The Tierney family was ready for a change. Ben has writer’s block on his novel. Caroline lost her banking job. Young Charlie is being bullied at his Manhattan school. They pour buckets of money into restoring a huge property in a remote valley in rural New York State. The town of Swannhaven was where some of Ben’s Lowell ancestors lived, so he felt a connection to this place. The creepy people in the town felt the connection to him and his family as well in ways that led me to yell at the page: “don’t go into the woods” and other assorted exclamations as Ben and Caroline do the wrong thing at the wrong time with great frequency. Despite the implausibility of much of the story, I felt well entertained by the plot’s pacing and the ways in which Duffy kept the fear level at a low boil for hundreds of pages. Rating: Four-star (I like it) Click here to purchase House of Echoes from amazon.com.