2 out of 4 stars
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Crone: A Scarlet St. James Novel is written by Maria Mayer. In 1984 a heinous crime took place in Killdeer Park, Michigan. Five teenage boys were viciously murdered. Their remains were scattered throughout the cemetery and the nearby woods. Known as the Unholy 5, they were the town’s troublemakers. Thirty years later their deaths still remain a mystery and now similar murders are being committed. It’s up to Scarlet, a private investigator with psychic abilities, to solve them. She soon begins to suspect that there are supernatural forces behind these events. Her investigation leads her to a witch named Ezurra who haunts the woods.
This is a story that mixes the genres of horror and mystery. The author created a detailed fantasy world with a well-developed mythology. There are also many Christian themes in it as well. It’s not a book that would appeal to the non-religious.
Crone is a very descriptive book. The author’s talent for words was clearly evident. There are many vivid scenes that put you in the shoes of the characters. Some parts made me feel completely gross and uncomfortable, which is exactly what you would expect in a horror story.
However, what started as a positive soon turned into a negative when the book became too detailed. For instance, a quarter of the book is spent in 1984. Despite its subtitle, it’s not until we’re a hundred pages in that our heroine finally appears. There’s an entire page describing all the toys in a child’s bedroom. I think the book could have easily been much shorter without any great loss to the story.
The biggest flaw of the book is that Ezurra’s backstory is fully revealed in the first quarter. Later we see Scarlet trying to solve the crimes, but we already know who is behind them and what she wants. Crone started out as a page turner that was hard to put down, but by the second half I was getting bored and disinterested in the story.
Another big flaw is that I didn’t feel attached to the main character. Many times the book tells us that Scarlet is a gifted PI, but I can’t recall a single scene that showed that. Her success appears to come more from her privileges like beauty, wealth and influential connections. Unfortunately, the rest of the characters weren’t any more likable. In this book we see adults acting immature and throwing insults like high school kids. These were supposed to be the protagonists of the story, but I found most of them to be obnoxious. Their actions destroyed any sense of realism the book was trying to build.
Then there’s how the book described its characters. The good guys were all attractive and everyone in Scarlet’s way was depicted as ugly. Some examples would be:
appeared effeminate, a beak nosed little man
Jan “the Man” Peacock, a stocky gender confused cop
The book used a lot of double names. Scarlet is referred to as Sunni half the time, her niece Olivia as Livvy. The members of the Unholy 5 all have nicknames that are used intermittently with their proper names. After a while, it became hard to remember who is who.mathlete sissy
The oddest thing about Crone was that the evil forces of the book spoke in Arabic. The reasons for that were never given. The Arabic dialogues were then translated into Shakespearean English that used words like thou and doeth. How exactly one should interpret that I’ll leave for you to decide.
The book was also not without editing errors. Most of the time it was incorrect words like in instead of it and he instead of him. The chapter numbers skip 32 and go from 31 to 33. There are many little errors that make the book seem like it wasn’t professionally edited.
The most difficult part in writing this review was figuring out how I would answer the question, “Would I recommend this book?” One part of me wanted to say that I would not. The disappointing second half makes it feel like an incomplete manuscript that was later finished by someone else. On the other hand, the first hundred pages were so well written that I feel bad for saying you shouldn’t read it. It was exactly the kind of horror mystery that I expected after reading the plot summary.
In the end, I’ll say that you could try this book if you’re a fan of the horror genre. I’ll leave it up to you whether it is worth a possible letdown. Any prospective readers should also be warned that the book’s content is not suitable for everyone. It has bad language as well as graphic descriptions of violence and rape.
Overall, it was a very uneven book with an equal number of strengths and flaws. There’s a great story in Crone, but all the little errors pile up to bring my opinion of it down. Therefore, I can’t give it more than 2 out of 4 stars. However, I still think the author is very talented and has a lot of potential for future stories.
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Crone
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That's pretty much what I could say to the author. The book really lost its steam after that.
