REVIEW: The Wise Friend

The Wise Friend
Author: Ramsey Campbell

Patrick Torrington thought his Aunt Thelma committed suicide. She was an artist and before her death her artwork got progressively more dark and disturbing. A shadowy figure with no face started to appear in her work. Some even said her work seemed to be alive...moving....breathing. When Patrick discovers his dead aunt's diary, he and his son Roy, go on a quest to find local places she wrote about. She left lines of poetry describing these mysterious places. As they follow in her footsteps unraveling the puzzle, they awaken something. A dark force that Patrick truly believes would have been better undisturbed.

This story is disturbing and has a delicious slow burn horror to it. As the diary and puzzles left behind by Thelma start to unravel, the story gets darker and darker. This was a total binge read for me today as I worked through my usual Sunday chores -- laundry, dishes, meal planning. My boring routine needed a bit of horror to liven things up. This was the perfect story to lend a bit of excitement to a dull, rainy, shelter-in-place-during-the-pandemic day.

I like Ramsey Campbell's style. This is the first of his books that I've read....and I will definitely be coming back for more! Some horror fiction is too understated and I end up wanting more. And some is too over-the-top that it gets cheesy. The Wise Friend was in the middle -- perfect atmospheric build, great characterizations to pull me into the plot quickly, and some great creepy moments to inject just the right amount of scare into the tale. This was just a good scary story -- loved it!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Flame Tree Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**