DROWNED NIGHT by Chris Blaine2005, 324 pages
What a fun, odd, little series of books this is. The novels of the Abbadon Inn, are, as best I can tell from only reading this one, and looking up the others online, are a group of unconnected novels, each revolving around the mysterious and imposing Abbadon Inn located in Cape May, off of the Atlantic. Drowned Night tells of a family, come to run the Inn as temps, who hoped to put their troubles to rest and escape to the beach a bit. Unfortunately, there is a dark presence tied to the Inn and it's past. Chris Blaine (Nee Elizabeth Massie) weaves an interesting story, as ghosts, an evil presence, some horrible beast and creepy locals blend together to make the poor family's summer a bit more than they anticipated! I liked this book. At first, I kept wishing the author would make up their mind about what kind of book it was, whether ghost story, supernatural Horror or Monster Massacre, but in the end, its all tied together pretty well, and there's some great atmosphere and ideas in the book.
I love the Inn, naturally, as it's a gorgeous old Victorian Mansion, and while I kept picturing it taking place in the Pacific Northwest, rather than off of the Atlantic, I think that was more my own stubborn mind than anything. While I don't think the story totally worked (The evil creature/ghost/presence was never really explained...) I'm intrigued to track the other 2 books down and see how they fit in the mythology.
7/10
Next - The Closers by Michael Connelly
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