Book Reviews (XVI)

Book review: Glad Tithings by R.E.Wood

My Review

Glad Tithings is chilling and atmospheric. The plot and characters, especially Jill and Rick, are very well developed.  Jill and Rick the fifty-year-old city slickers leave behind the bustle of the big city and seek a quiet retirement life. They buy a country house, whose former owners are said to have died in a car crash six months before.

Jill taught school and tutored math for extra money. Rick worked as an insurance broker and also brokered leasing and financing deals for commercial clients. They’d spent twenty-eight years in a four room apartment, and now their dream of rural life was coming true with a spacious home that sat on ten acres of land awaiting them. It seemed a world apart from the life they knew, but it was their dream and they were making it happen.

But aren't appearances deceptive, most of the time? Parrish is far from being the peaceful, idyllic rural area as Jill and Rick think at first. It won't take them long to realize something is a bit odd about the community. The waitress Connie, the preacher and the sheriff behave in an unusual way towards the two new inhabitants of Parrish. Their every movement is watched and controlled. Little by little, the most desired retirement peace turns into nightmare. Tension builds slowly and gradually, as Rick tries to unravel the secrets and dangers hovering over the small town, at the same time making great efforts to save his twenty-eight years of marriage as Jill falls an easy prey to the evil trying to seize them.

The subject is one of my favorites and it kept me captivated the entire time. It is, definitely, a fast paced and gripping read. I can't tell you more as it means spoilers and I hate them. I will only quote the author.

As the author, R E Wood, states in the last lines of the story:"keep an open mind. Accept certain truths that you never thought that you would. Accept the awareness of how little we truly know about the world and the universe around us."

I can tell you that after finishing the story I felt like a kid who gulped his cake and was disappointed the cake's gone as he wanted more. I highly recommend this to fans of suspense and mystery! 

 

One more thing I'd like to add: Glad Tithings isn't just a gripping story; it has a message. It makes you think and wonder among other things, "Isn't it already happening?"

An electronic copy of the book was offered to me by the author in exchange for an honest opinion.