Scowler

Warning: This book depicts acts of heinous violence, abuse, murder and torture. I do not recommend this book to anyone who is triggered by gore or any of the aforementioned topics. Really, people. This book is intense. I also couldn't put it down. It is a fascinating story with so many fever-dream like twists and turns that you're never sure which end is up.

The depictions of physical and mental abuse in the first 50 pages were too much for me. I think this is edging too far into the gore category for me. Not for me; dropped.

Author needs to brush up on firearms - rifles and shotguns are not the same. And any object that a car has trouble pulling out of the water at the bottom of a hole would be impossible for a man to do so with his bare hands.

This book suffered from pacing issues. The middle was just too drawn out and that spoiled a lot of the buildup of tension that worked so well up to that point. If this were a shorter novel, maybe reduced by about a third, it would have been much more effective.