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Book Review of The Oath

The Oath
reviewed on


The book started out like a few of his other novels - describing the scenery in the Washington state area. Once I got past that, the pace of the novel went faster and faster, and I couldn't put it down!

As it says on the back of the cover: "An ancient sin, an ancient oath, a town with a deadly secret.... Something sinister is at work in Hyde River, an isolated mining town in the mountains of teh Pacific Northwest. Something evil. Under the cover of darkness, it strikes without warning, taking life in the most chilling fashion. The latest victim, nature photographer Cliff Benson, was brutally killed while camping in the mountains.

With little hard evidence to go on, Sheriff Les Collins closes the case, chalking it up to the work of a rogue bear - just like so many other unsolvable deaths and disappearances that have plagued Hyde River over the years.

But wildlife Biologist Steve Benson refuses to let his brother's death remain a mystery. He is joined in his investigation by attractive, auburn-haired Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Ellis who, having grown up in Hyde River, has seen enough swept under the rug by local law enforcement to know that something's amiss.

The more townsfolk are pressed for information, the more they close ranks, as if sworn to secrecy. As Steve peels away the layers of mystery surrounding Hyde River, he and Tracy are drawn closer to each other and to the town's terrible secret. What they discover is a predator more terrifying than anything they had imagined and a town in the grip of unspeakable evil."