The best way to catch a killer? Offer yourself as bait.
Becky Morgan’s family were the victims of the ‘crimes of the decade’. The lone survivor of a ritualistic killing, Becky’s been forever haunted by the memories of that night.
Twenty years later, with the killer never found, Becky is ready to hunt down and exact revenge. But the path to find the murderer is a slippery slope and she finds herself opening up some old wounds that should have been left sealed.
Will Becky avenge her family or join them?
It’s surprising really, that it’s taken me this long to get round to reading a novel by P.R. Black, simply because his stories look like just the kind I love to read. Dark, twisted, gruesome and addictive, there is nothing I enjoy more than curling up with a book like this, and delving deep into a plot so thick with tension that it’s impossible not to drown in it. I’d had my eye on The Family for quite a while, prior to actually purchasing the eBook. I have a bad habit of adding hundreds of books to a wish-list which I then don’t return to for a number of weeks, or more often, months. But I returned to this one because I felt entirely in the mood for something to rattle me, and rattle me it did.
In The Family by P.R. Black, readers are thrust straight into a sick and twisted nightmare. Deep in the woods, a young Becky Morgan and her family settle in for the night in their holiday cottage, snug in the South of France. Within the first chapter, we’re witness to the very event that haunts and terrorises Becky throughout her life, to the present day. Black writes with skill, such skill that has the ability to leave his reader reeling. Once I continued reading, and I became aware of the finer details of that fateful night, I genuinely felt sick to my stomach. It’s a horrific thing to happen to a person, to have your entire family wiped out like that. Black opens his novel in such a heart-throbbing way, I was instantly drawn into what I felt would be a wickedly addictive hunt, for revenge and for justice. It truly packed a punch, and I couldn’t wait to see where the author would take Becky Morgan in her search.
The characterisation in The Family by P.R. Black is excellent. Becky Morgan absolutely comes to life on the page and I loved getting to know her as the plot wore on. Black does a fantastic job of turning Becky’s character inside and out. We discover all of the reasons behind her being the way she is, and it only made me like her more. Being able to feel as though you understand a fictional character on such a deep level is something that has me respecting the author entirely. After all, feeling as though you know someone who isn’t actually a real person thanks to the storytelling, is rather impressive, isn’t it? Right from when we meet Becky Morgan in the present day, I found myself rooting for her.
I’ve also got to hand it to the author, the creation of the masked killer in The Family really was top-notch. This character was utterly terrifying, and had my skin crawling numerous times while reading. I’m not quite sure there is another villain who has managed to get beneath my skin in such a way. Brutal, savage and quite clearly sick in the brain, this character added such a hefty dose of terror to the storyline, it was impossible not to imagine what I’d do in a similar situation.
There really was nothing that I wanted more than for Becky to finally unearth the truth behind what happened to her family all those years ago. Chapter by chapter, watching Becky investigate on a deeper level, with the help of new friends from various corners of the web, I was hooked and adored watching her discoveries unravel. Piece by piece, the search for the man who killed her family was exciting and I just couldn’t look away. I had to know, just as much as Becky herself, what the reasoning was behind such a disgusting act, and who the man was behind the mask.
Black writes a truly terrifying, action-packed, gruesome and twisted serial-killer thriller in his novel The Family. From the first page to last, I was completely invested in Becky Morgan’s hunt for the truth, no matter how surprising it turned out to be. With twists and turns aplenty, I found myself gripped entirely by this book, and I’m already looking forward to read more of P.R. Black’s work in the very, very near future.
The Book Babe is giving The Family by P.R. Black a rating of four out of five stars today. This story gripped me by the throat and had me on the edge of my seat right the way through.
The Family by P.R. Black is available to purchase here.
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