A review by robinsbooks
Bad Things by Michael Marshall

2.0

I had higher hopes for this book and thought for about the first 1/4 I would really like it. However, I read about half and ended up skimming the rest. It is a suspenseful tale of a father whose life falls apart after his young son's sudden death that isn't explained (cororner said there was no reason, the boy just suddenly died). At the start of the story (a couple of years after the death of his son) the father is divorced and living on the Oregon coast, working in a small restaurant that is eerily similar to Hawk Creek Cafe in Neskowin. After receiving a cryptic message from a woman who says she knows what happened to his son, he travels back to a small town on the east side of the Washington mountains and gets involved with the goings-on of various characters, which involves a similar death. For some reason this book just didn't keep my interest and after skimming the rest and reading the ending, it still didn’t make a whole lot of sense. This is billed as a Stephen King read-a-like but I didn't find it nearly as compelling. However, my disclaimer that I may not have been in the mood and maybe another time it would have held my interest.