Can you keep a secret?In the heart of the Sierra Nevada mountains, a freezing snowdrift blankets the June Lake Loop. For months, aspiring novelist Gallagher Finch has not written a single word. To pass the time awaiting inspiration, Gal satiates his boredom with Adderall, Evan Williams, and one call girl too many. On the eve of his twenty-sixth birthday, he indulges in all three… three…
And when he awakens, he discovers a bloody secret tangled in his bedsheets.
Still grieving from a tragic murder in the family thirteen years earlier, Gal wonders if old enemies are drawing near once again. He begins to process his nightmares, anxiety, and fear the only way he knows how – he writes. Quickly realizing his own story could be the best-seller he has been dying to publish, Gal weaves together the truth of who killed Daphne Castro, but in the process, he discovers the story that could launch his career may very well be his own deadly ending.
Family becomes foe, dark secrets resurface, and blood can be found on more than one pair of hands.
more
I enjoyed this book very much! There are many different POVs of each character, but it wasn’t confusing like some other books I have read using this format. It actually added to the story nicely. You will not want to put this book down as each new chapter has something happen that you wouldn’t expect. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from Book Siren.
Thank you to Book Siren for providing a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Wow! After suffering through so many so-so reads lately, I am glad I finally found a great one! I seldom hand out 5 stars, but The Loop was a fast paced Thriller that had me hooked from page 1 to the very end. I am normally pretty good at figuring the endings out, but I did not see this one coming. Excellent work! Looking forward to reading more books from Nicholas Holloway in the future.
Wildly imaginative! Wonderful characters. Interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. Simply a GREAT read!
*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.
Thank you to the publisher and BookSirens for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It has been published in September 2019.
“The Loop” by Nicholas Holloway is a gripping thriller that had me thoroughly engrossed from the first page until the very end.
The plot is full of twists and turns that will really take you by surprise. The premise is not particularly original: a hooker gets gruesomely murdered, her john wakes up with a hangover and no memory of what happened… is he the killer or is someone trying to frame him? Straight from the beginning, though, the novel strays from the not-so-special premise of a typical whodunit and becomes so much more: a story about family and secrets, about growing up and taking responsibility, a story that will demolish your prejudices and surpass your expectations.
The writing style is captivatingly direct, polished to perfection but somehow managing to retain an engaging naturalness. The characters are amazing, they all feel authentic and relatable, and I couldn’t help empathise even with the ones I hated.
All throughout the novel there’s an amazing care for the details–not in a pedantic way, more like in a “perfect clockwork” sort of way. Everything, even the most disjointed and unrelated pieces of information, end up fitting together just right in the beautiful tapestry that is revealed in the ending.
I was totally blindsided by most of the plot twists, including the last one in the epilogue.
I loved how the setting is treated more like a character in itself than a mere background for the action. You can really feel the author’s love and deep first-hand knowledge of the places he’s describing.
And what about the way the chapters are named? In a different novel, such an exercise of creative virtuosity could have felt pretentious, but this book is so perfectly crafted in every respect that choosing such a unique system to title the chapters is just the icing on the cake.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.