Bone White

A top-drawer five-star read in the wonderful world of Ronald Malfi.

There's something about the name Malfi that says motherf*cker or mothballs or not very good that maybe you wouldn't associate with top-quality horror or thrillers? Boy, would you be wrong.

This is a tremendous read for all right reasons: foreboding slow-burning structure and a perfect amount of restraint and if, like me, you hadn't discovered this amazing author until now, get onto it and read this or one of his other books.

I'll be thinking about Bone White for days to come while trying to piece together the final details of why events unfolded the way they did? There's a tiny amount of ambiguity right to the end that's really clever.

Are you local?

The key phrase on everybody's Alaskan chapped lips as you enter the town of Dread's Hand.

You're not from around here, are you?

We've all been there - some strange place in the middle of nowhere - walking in from the carpark and feeling more like an alien teleported down from its UFO (or Chevy Tahoe).

For all the hospitality and warmth you're not gonna get, figuratively arriving from Mars in a War of The Worlds capsule, surrounded by the local and hostile military who give no quarter or remote slither of aid.

That's a proud reference to H.G. Wells 👆!

That's how the devil feels: Unwanted, a perpetual outsider in backwoods or is it backwards Dread's Hand, the most savage and abandoned of little hamlets where everyone is local except YOU.

And that's what Ronald Malfi does so well! Creates a scary atmosphere with creepy writing that builds up and up, which rarely goes for the commercial lights, but remains in realistic boundaries instead of going jumpy/silly for fame and attention - a mistake many contemporary horror authors make these days.

To exercise that restraint takes a lot of discipline, determination and guts.

Ronald Malfi has done a stellar job of keeping it on the rails and I will be reading more of his work as a new found fan!

My only reservation is giving this five stars as it's perhaps not his best book?

But five stars is five stars!