Nightcry - Gregory M Thompson

Title: Nightcry
Author: Gregory M Thompson
Genre: Horror
Published: 2011
Formats: Paperback/Ebook

Available at:
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes & Nobel

The concept of "Nightcry" is an interesting one as Gregory M Thompson has attempted to mix suspense, mystery and horror together. The story follows the protagonist Grant Sykes, a man in his mid twenties and the editor of the local paper in a small town in the US Midwest. The book does get off the mark quickly with the discovery of a dead body in the first few pages and it continues at this fast pace as other deaths begin to occur around the town. The evidence begins to point to Grant being the murderer and soon the whole town is talking about how he may be responsible for the deaths. However, Grant has started to see and hear a supernatural being that he believes may be related to the deaths. He therefore bites the bullet and calls in a ghost hunter named Mavis to help him track down the apparition and hopefully solve the murders.

The story itself is rather enjoyable and I have to admit that I especially liked the ending. It was an interesting and clever plot twist that I wasn't expecting, although I do wish that there had been a greater explanation of why the murders had taken place. I had hoped the epilogue would have maybe done this but it closes out some of the other aspects of the story without actually touching on this.

The biggest issue I had with the novel was the number of grammatical errors that I noticed throughout. The most common issue that I saw was the incorrect use of past and present tense and at times it caused me to stop and pause mid-sentence as it affected my ability to easily read the book. I try not to really complain much about grammar as my own is pretty bad at times, however I felt that the various errors in "Nightcry" did cause me to get distracted from the story at times.

Other than this, I found that some of the back-story sections to be rather meaningless in regards to both Grant and Mavis. I will admit that they were actually quite interesting at times, but I don't think it actually added anything at all to the story and they more or less appeared to be filler. In regards to Grant specifically, I actually thought the back-story was being used to set-up some sort of reveal about why this was all happening to him. However, I don't think it ended up doing anything beyond telling us a bit about his family history.

Overall, I am finding it hard on what to really say about this book. I actually think it has a good premise and interesting plot at its core. In my opinion the delivery is not the best; even ignoring the grammar issues, I think the flashback sections could have been better incorporated and utilised in explaining some aspect of the overall story and that there had been some sort of decent reasoning at the end to why the murders had occurred. I believe doing that would have turned the novel from being an okay, yet enjoyable novel into something much better.