Genre: Crime Fiction
Length: 231 Pages
Publisher: Crooked Cat Books
Release date: March 15, 2019
Synopsis: A suited man runs from a burning tower in Melbourne as bodies rain down upon him.
Before the city’s millions can compose, he boards a train into the countryside. Hiding his identity and changing his appearance, the man finds his way to Sulley Ridge, a lawless town in the heart of the harsh Victorian outback.
The following day, a burned man wakes up in a hospital bed. Surging with rage, he speaks a name. Within an hour, the suited man’s face is across every screen in the country. It’s the greatest manhunt Australia has ever seen.
But as he tries to camouflage in Sulley Ridge, he soon realises the town has its own problems. Under the iron fist of a violent leader, the locals are trapped within slow and torturous decay…
As we learn more about the night of the burning tower, the connection between the suited man and the burned man threatens to leave a trail of destruction across the state.
Here is the story of a man on the run from his past, as the line between sanity and evil is danced upon.
Here is the tale of This Strange Hell.
My Review-
The front end of This Strange Hell was slow going, after the first few good chapters. There were too many pages to slog through to get to the meat of the story and it was exhausting. The middle 100 pages could have been omitted leaving a leaner and engaging read. Several plot points lacked consistency, leaving me further frustrated. I kept waiting for some character development or action that felt legitimate but didn’t get them.
Many characters were referred to as ‘The man…’ or ‘That man…’ or ‘The guy with…’ instead of the character name, more exhaustion! The book had back story problems leaving me to guess why events or relationships were significant. But, the final handful of chapters contained some good action, finally! If not for the previously mentioned problems I might have enjoyed This Strange Hell. Instead, it left me feeling like I’d wasted two days reading it.
Link to purchase This Strange Hell
C.J. Sutton, biography
C.J. Sutton is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a Masters in journalism and creative writing and supports the value of study through correspondence. His fictional writing delves into the unpredictability of the human mind and the fears that drive us.
As a professional writer C. J. Sutton has worked within the hustle and bustle of newsrooms, the competitive offices of advertising and the trenches of marketing. But his interest in creating new characters and worlds has seen a move into fiction, which has always pleaded for complete attention. Dortmund Hibernate was his debut novel, released by Crooked Cat Books on July 18. It is available now – mybook.to/dortmundhibernate.
The Scary Reviews 