‘The Crazy Season’ by Jim Ody

Synopsis

Joel Baxter is infamous for solving weird and bizarre cases that others avoid. So, when he receives an email from a teenage boy Tim saying his town is cursed, he cannot turn it down.

“…I will more than likely be dead when you read this. There is nothing I can do about it. It’s the curse, and we’ve hit The Crazy Season.” Every 20 years, there are a handful of unexplained teenage deaths and it’s started again.

With the help of his straight-talking friend Melody, they set out to get to the bottom of the alleged curse. Everybody in Black Rock has secrets and nobody wants to speak.

The closer they get to truth the more Joel and Melody realise that their involvement is far from coincidental.

My Review

So I have a little confession to make.  I haven’t actually read any of Jim’s books……until now that is.  I have heard lots of great things about his books from other book bloggers, so I decided that I would try one to see if I would like it.  Well like it I did and then some.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Crazy Season’ but more about that in a bit.

I have to say that ‘The Crazy Season’ is a little different to the usual sort of stuff I read in that I don’t often read stories with a horror and supernatural element to them.  They do say that a change is as good as a rest and so I started reading in eager anticipation.  It didn’t take me long at all to get into this story.  In fact by the time I got to the end of the first few pages, I knew that I would find it rather difficult to put the book down for any length of time.  The storylines and characters intrigued me and I had to keep reading to see how the story unfolded and if my suspicions were going to prove to be correct or if I had wandered down the wrong road.  The pages turned quickly as I worked my way through the story.  I found that I became so wrapped up in the story that I lost all track of time and just how quickly I was getting through the book.  I found ‘The Crazy Season’ to be a gripping read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

‘The Crazy Season’ is extremely well written.  The author certainly knows how to catch your eye with an intriguing synopsis and then draw you into the story from the start.  Jim can certainly tell one hell of a story and then some.  For me ‘The Crazy Season’ started with a bang and then maintained a fast pace throughout.  At times reading ‘The Crazy Season’ felt like being on a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.  I felt as though I was part of the story and that’s thanks to Jim’s very vivid and realistic storytelling.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Crazy Season’ and I would recommend it to other readers.  I will certainly be reading more of Jim’s work in the future.  Having enjoyed reading ‘The Crazy Season’ as much as I did, I am now rather ticked off at myself that I left it this long to discover how good Jim’s books are.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.