Their Hearses – E.L. Giles

3/5 stars

‘Their Hearses’ is a blend of haunted house and grief horror as it follows a man who lost his son in a horrifying accident and is trying to escape his failing marriage and the town where his son’s killer is soon to be released from prison. He finds a dilapidated house in an out-of-the-way town where, unbeknownst to him, a triple murder had taken place many years prior, and there’s more than just memories lingering there…

This felt a little generic for me: couple loses kid, they fall apart a little, one of them is desperate to salvage the relationship so does something off-the-wall and inevitably gets caught up with a spirit with nefarious intentions who says it can bring their kid back if they do something horrible first. It was also a very quick read, though I think being longer would’ve helped round the plot out a bit more. There were a few holes and inconsistencies that could’ve been shored up if this story was a little longer.

That’s not to say that this was a bad book; it was a perfectly fine book. It had some really good elements and a solid foundation…it just didn’t blow me away. I couldn’t really understand Marc’s motivations since I never got to know much of his family or his son. They were more abstracts to me than actual characters, so they didn’t seem important enough for what Marc was willing to do.

Thank you to Horrorsmith Publishing for the ebook!