May 18, 2009
At the start of this bloated thriller from Crouch (Desert Places
), Abigail Foster, a Manhattan freelance journalist, reluctantly agrees to accompany her father, Lawrence Kendall—who abandoned her as a child—and paranormal photographers Emmett and June Tozer, to the remote remains of Abandon, Colo. The inhabitants of Abandon all vanished without a trace on Christmas Day 1893, and Abigail thinks she’ll write an article on the Tozers and the ghost town’s history. The present-day hikers face a number of obstacles, starting with an unexpected blizzard and including the arrival of ex-Marines intent on finding millions of dollars worth of gold supposedly stashed somewhere in Abandon. Despite the book’s intriguing premise, the action soon devolves into a Rambo
-style melee, with enough blood and guts to put off weak stomachs. By the time Abandon’s fate is revealed in the overly drawn-out climax, few readers will care.
March 1, 2023
Crouch's (Upgrade) latest goes to a remote ghost town steeped in mystery. On Christmas night in 1893, all the residents of mining-settlement Abandon disappeared without a trace. In the present day, a team of nature guides, photographers, an academic, and his estranged daughter venture into what's left of Abandon, but weather and nefarious forces might make them disappear as well. The two narratives of past and present run somewhat parallel, but they could also exist in separate novels, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The book oscillates between being a blood-red Western (the stronger story, with more fleshed-out characters) and a white-knuckle action thriller. However, the narratives have an undercurrent of survival horror in common, especially when compared to the short story included in this audiobook. The voices of Soneela Nankani, Jennifer Jill Araya, Timothy Jackson, and Max Meyers embody the characters, all of whom have lived very full and tragic lives before stepping into Abandon's maw. VERDICT This early work of Crouch, only recently brought to life as an audiobook, is ultimately a tale of how humanity, under the right circumstances, can become very inhumane.--James Gardner
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