This one was close a few times. My rating for this swung from 2 to 4 stars at different times. The book opens and there is a section that I found so annoying that I was thinking "if it goes on this way I'm putting it down". The protagonist of the book Kevin Kimble, has an obsession with Jacqueline Mathis, a prison inmate who shot him (before the book begins). Whenever the character refers to her, thinks about her, talks to her, etc. he waxes almost poetic spouting superlitives about her.



It gets

This one was close a few times. My rating for this swung from 2 to 4 stars at different times. The book opens and there is a section that I found so annoying that I was thinking "if it goes on this way I'm putting it down". The protagonist of the book Kevin Kimble, has an obsession with Jacqueline Mathis, a prison inmate who shot him (before the book begins). Whenever the character refers to her, thinks about her, talks to her, etc. he waxes almost poetic spouting superlitives about her.



It gets wearing whenever she comes up, or it did for me anyway.



On his way to visit Jacqueline, as he does monthly (or I get the feeling, at least monthly) Kimble gets a cryptic call from Wyatt French an odd alcoholic who lives in a landlocked lighthouse atop The Ridge of the title. Wyatt at one time had what seemed to be a promising future, owning all the land around Blade Ridge where he plans a housing development. But now he lives a liquor soaked existence in the strange lighthouse he has built on the last of his property. He tells Kimble to "keep the light on".



The next day Wyatt is found dead in his lighthouse by Roy Darmus, the other person he has called. Darmus goes to the lighthouse, climbs the locked gate to get in, goes up the lighthouse stairs and is surprised by the gruesome sight that greets him at the top of said stairs, Wyatt's bloody body, with a self inflicted bullet wound in his head. In his surprise Darmus falls into the light...breaking the bulb and PUTTING THE LIGHT OUT...dum,dum,dum.



The book tends in my opinion to swing from thoughtful and interesting to yawningly cliched. The lighthouse overlooks the property of another of our main characters, Audrey Clark who has decided that The Ridge" would be a perfect place for her rescue facility of big cats. In spite of the fact that the cats, "don't like the place" and make sure to sound off about it...Audrey thinks it's, just dandy. The cats and their plight serve as both plot point and counterpoint throughout the book.



The book is what I suppose could be called a genre "breaker" or "bender" as it has elements of suspense, crime drama and of course paranormal thriller/horror novel. This is a point in its favor and (I'm told) it's something the author (Michael Koryta) is becoming known for. I (as mentioned) found myself (after we got past Kimble's obsessive love thoughts) interested in the book. I liked the plot and the way he tied together the plot lines. Unfortunately some of this was old hat and you'll have the "been there before" feeling if you've read many "haunting stories". The good news is that while it's not really new the source of the haunting or the way its said to have started isn't itself an over used one. On the other hand, I must say that, were I a betting man, I'd bet many of you will see the the plot point/twist (and I doubt you'll find it a surprising twist) with Kimble and Jacqueline coming the proverbial mile away.



All in all while I was more than ready for this book to be over I still liked much of it. Had it stretched out much longer I might had skimmed the end and moved on, but it didn't quite drive me to that.



All in all I don't hate it, but neither do I plan to search out anything else by the writer. Maybe later but why waste my time on something else that might at best be a lukewarm read when I have so many other books waiting?



As noted, a lukewarm 3 stars. Not great, not awful, can't really recommend it but realize many will like it immensely.