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The beautiful resort town of Heaven’s Peak is home to gorgeous landscapes and terrifying secrets.After the tragic death of his mother, teenage photographer Kevin Miller moves to a new town with his alcoholic father and eight-year-old sister in the hope of bringing the family together and starting over. However, everything changes when Kevin witnesses his sister … everything changes when Kevin witnesses his sister being kidnapped by a bizarre creature. The police are skeptical of his story, so he decides to unveil the mysteries surrounding the town on his own.
On the other side of the investigation, FBI agent Norman James will do anything to solve the baffling case, except believe a traumatized teenager’s nonsense.
Meanwhile, newscasts predict a blizzard approaching in the next couple of days, as people in the town begin to behave strangely.
Will Kevin and Norman find Kevin’s little sister before Heaven’s Peak is consumed by darkness?
Heaven’s Peak is the first full-length horror-thriller novel from author Miguel Estrada. If you like suspense, mystery and dread, prepare for a ride you won’t forget.
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Heaven’s Peak was a good read by Miguel Estrada. Kevin Miller moved to a new town with his alcoholic father and eight year old sister after the tragic death of his mother. Kevin witnesses his sister’s kidnapping by a scary creature. The police don’t believe him so he decides to investigate on his own. FBI agent Norman James will do anything to solve the case, except believing Kevin’s “nonsense”. A blizzard is coming at the same time the people in town start behaving strangely. I enjoyed reading this book and cant wait to read more by the author.
This story is an horror thriller that you end up not knowing if it’s a bit of a supernatural or natural disease let loose.
The ending is a bit surprising as we follow 2 main characters (a boy living in the town and an FBI agent investigating the strange disappearances) and they don’t get both to live in the end.
I miss a bit of the open ending that usual characterizes these type of stories.
As for the narration, it’s ok, but doesn’t add that much to the story, despise the narrator good efforts.
If you can handle scary/ horror books this is a good one. I did have issues but enjoyed reading it.
Heaven’s Peak by Miguel Estrada comes with a warning, “This book contains scenes of violence and disturbing themes. Please enjoy at your own discretion.” (Kindle location 8). I was surprised to see the warning because it is categorized as Teen and Young Adult Thrillers, Suspense, and Horror (two categories) on an Amazon book page. Would my teenage son come to me with the novel, point out the warning, and ask my permission to read it? Only in my imagination. And yes, I would permit with a few caveats that come with my experiences of reading novels with similar warnings.
As it turned out, the warning was unnecessary. Scenes of violence as monsters dismember human victims are no more disturbing than similar scenes which can be found in many graphic novels. There is no sexual language or situation that is inappropriate. I have no idea what the author meant by “disturbing themes.” I feel this is a case of being overly fearful of the Political Correctness (PC) Police. The novel was published in 2018. We should have gotten over this abundance of caution by now. There is more horror on news channels than is in this novel.
As I read through this story, an old movie came to mind. Creatures from another world selectively target people from an isolated town and begin subjecting them to change. Either the outside creatures would succeed and begin migrating from city to city in their quest to control the world, or they would be stopped by a few brave souls in the isolated village. Pods were involved in nurturing the targeted humans during the change. That is the story of this novel.
Heaven’s Peak is an isolated community. After only twenty-seven children had disappeared over five years, the FBI had been called and agent Norman James had responded with technical assistance. The local police did not appreciate interference from another agency, and the local police assured James the situation was under control. Twenty-seven children.
Sofia’s seven-year-old brother Rudy had disappeared five years before. In the present time, Kevin was taking care of his sister Jenny because Mom had died earlier, and Dad could not reliably be counted on to emerge from an alcoholic stupor. Jenny would also disappear. Grief-stricken Sofia and equally grief-stricken Kevin would bond over the similarities of their loss. The two would also embark on a quest to find either the missing siblings alive or their corpses and an answer to what had happened. Would they even find true love on the way? Readers might suspect that to be the case. Read the novel to find out.
There is a mysterious forest, an abandoned mansion, and a closed, abandoned mine. Monsters could be anywhere. Heaven’s Peak police resist all attempts at independent investigation, to include that of FBI James, out of fear their reputations will be damaged. For their part, monsters make occasional forays into the public vomiting a black goo onto mostly adult victims. Recipients of the noxious liquid become raging homicidal maniacs, killing everyone around them until they are themselves destroyed. Young people (re Rudy and Jenny) are saved for nurturing and development in the pods.
I found this 293-page story a slow, predictable read. I started to pay more attention to how it was written than the content. I was never drawn into the story. I was happy to read it on Kindle Unlimited because it was free. After writing these comments, I looked at what other reviewers submitted. There were 24 reviews (now 25?) with 54% five-star ratings and 21% four-star ratings. The next largest score was one-star at 13%. I don’t know what novel the first two groups read. I agreed with everything the one-star reviewers wrote, but there were enough good elements in the book for me to rate Heaven’s Peak at three Amazon stars.
I love this book.