Duane Stewart makes a life-changing mistake when he has an affair with one of his students from his college English class. His wife divorces him and he’s forced to move out of their house in Montana. When his mistress brings their affair to an end, he decides to return to the town where grew up 1,400 miles away in Elm Haven, Illinois. But he’ll be renting the home of one his best friends who was killed in a farming accident when they were both in their preteen years. Now it’s winter time and the house has been abandoned for years, or so he thinks, and while he tries to relive that summer of 1960 by writing a novel about it, strange messages begin appearing on his computer while black dogs start haunting him.
By the time the story comes to its climax, Duane is left wondering what’s real and isn’t real.

anybody who enjoys a good horror story dealing with childhood memories and nightmares, where going home is not always the best idea to relive their past.

Dan Simmons prose. His writing is concise, but not so tight that he can’t go out of the lines and allow the reader to see the story from the outside as well. His use of flashbacks with his mistress, Clare, are well done and help to explain why Duane thinks he might be losing his mind.

the chapters that segued from one scene to another so abruptly. There were a few spots where the reader might have to back up a few pages to get caught up with the story.

read some more of Dan Simmons’s work and learn some more his history as a novelist.

Dan Simmons is an award-winning novelist who has been writing for a long time, and I was surprised I’ve never heard of him before. He has several critically acclaimed novels under his belt and been praised by some of the best horror novelists around.

‘A Winter Haunting’ deals with subtle horror, not in your face terror. His prose and style make for an easy reading experience. With the way he keeps the suspense growing and the action moving, this book is not easy to put down.

This the first book of Dan Simmons that I’ve read, and I was thoroughly impressed. Some of his other critically acclaimed novels include the classic horror tale ‘Summer of Night’, and his suspense novels ‘Darwin’s Blade’, ‘Song of Kali’, ‘The Crook Factory’, ‘Fires of Eden’, and ‘Hyperion’ and its sequels.

Interested in buying this? Support Writing.Com by making your purchase of A Winter Haunting (Seasons of Horror Book 2)   from Amazon.Com!

Created Jan 28, 2019 at 7:39pm • Submit your own review...