‘Bethany’s Sin’ – Robert R. McCammon (Sphere Books)

Page Count: 342 Pages

Packing all of my books up, and then promptly unpacking all again about a day later (I really hate moving house…), re-introduced me to a whole load of books that had previously been hiding in the loft. These days, they’re a lot more accessible (a loft full of books sounds awesome but seriously, I hardly ever went up there…) and there isn’t really any excuses any more, I’ve got to read them or get rid. ‘Bethany’s Sin’ was an easy decision to make in that respect. My ‘Robert McCammon Reading’ has a few gaps in it and ‘Bethany’s Sin’ had been patiently waiting to be read for just over four years (me and my rash promises...) Last week ended up being just the right time to do something about both of those things. Let me tell you how it went.

Even God stays away from the village of BETHANY'S SIN.

For Evan Reid, his wife Kay, and their small daughter Laurie, the beautiful house in the small village was too good a bargain to pass up. Bethany's Sin was a weird name, but the village was quaint and far from the noise and pollution of the city.

But Bethany's Sin was too quiet. There were no sounds at all...almost as if the night had been frightened into silence.

Evan began to notice that there were very few men in the village, and that most of them were crippled. And then there was the sound of galloping horses. Women on horses. Riding in the night.

Soon he would learn their superhuman secret. And soon he would watch in terror as first his wife, then his daughter, entered their sinister cabal.

An ancient evil rejoiced in Bethany's Sin. A place where no man walks the streets after nightfall.

Well damn… That freaked me right out. I’m glad I finally got round to reading ‘Bethany’s Sin’. I shouldn’t have left it so long before picking it up. It’s not a perfect read, more on that in a bit, but it does its job so well, you can easily forgive those moments. When ‘Bethany’s Sin’ hits its target, you know all about it.

McCammon hooks the reader with an unexplained (violent) death and takes you right back to the start, building terror into the seemingly idyllic town of Bethany’s Sin, so subtly that you barely notice at firs t. One little thing that’s out of place? Anyone can explain that, and they do. Three or four things? A little more concerning but still not necessarily an issue… Until you get deep into the book and realise that all the deaths and these little moments have combined to show you what the town was the whole time, you just didn’t realise it. There’s a real tangible sense of menace here that’s like a shadow cast over the reader. In terms of what landscape does, ‘Bethany’s Sin’ isn’t too far off ‘Salem’s Lot’, at least from where I’m sat.

The secret at the heart of this all is a good payoff to all the build up and supplies a few of it’s own moments of terror. Everything combines to push the plot forward at just the right time, it’s just a bit of a shame that Evan Reid wasn’t quite the character to shoulder the responsibility of being the lead. I’ve got sympathy for where he came from but it stopped him really engaging with what was going on right in front of him and that could be frustrating at times, especially with his own otherworldly ability trying to help him out. And maybe that was the point and I’m just missing it? Maybe but all I know is that I got a lot more out of following Neely Ames’ story, a character who was a lot more engaging anyway but also able to fully interact with the weirdness in the town.

That really is a minor quibble though when the majority of the book easily took me through the whole range of emotions going from ‘vaguely unsettled’ all the way to ‘SHIT GET IN THE CAR!’ Like I said, I’m really glad I finally got round to giving ‘Bethany’s Sin’ a go. McCammon’s horror fiction isn’t cheap these days but if you do see a copy of ‘Bethany’s Sin’ floating about, I’d say grab it before someone else does. Definitely worth a read.