Jericho
Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Alex Gordon
Harper Voyager
Release Date: April 5th, 2016

Lauren is in charge of a now dying town – economically dying that is. Having rid Gideon of evil, after finding out she was a witch Child of Endor, she is now in charge of a place where people are leaving in droves in order to feed their families. Her town may be evil free, but something is lurking just on the outskirts of reality, threatening to pull her in. She knew she might be called upon to protect other towns as well, and that time is now. That is where Jericho by Alex Gordon begins, the follow-up to Gideon.

More below.

Lauren gets pulled into the supernatural problems of Jericho in the Pacific-Northwest area, called upon by the employee of a wealthy man to enjoy “witch camp,” but really there to figure out what is going on with his daughter, and what that has to do with his dead wife. Gene Kaster is the mysterious stranger, who seems to be the only one she can really rely on, as the others dislike her. Unraveling this mystery, leads to an unexpected and fascinating chiller.

This novel was a lesson in horror – dark magic signaled by rotting death smells before the evil shows up to consume you. I am not sure I yet understand all of the reasons Jericho rotted, or what exactly drove Fernanda Carmody to join the darkness, but I liked that about the novel. It left more mystery for me to ponder, after it was over.

There is plenty of gore, and not a murderous-rampage-blood-and-entrails type of gore. It’s more the stench and rotting decay of gore.

The novel messed with the reader’s reality, losing swaths of time as you lost yourself in the story. I guess that is a quick read – so quick you do not realize how much time had passed.

Without giving away the end, I like how Jericho set up future novels for other magically possessed towns. I definitely recommend it – just start with Gideon, if you haven’t already, to understand Lauren before you meet her in Jericho.

Book synopsis:

For readers of Deborah Harkness, J.D. Horn, Lev Grossman, and any supernatural thriller, a young witch must risk death and damnation to defeat a powerful ancient evil in Alex Gordon’s follow-up to the masterful debut Gideon.

In unearthing her father’s secret past, Lauren Reardon discovered a shocking truth about herself. She is a Child of Endor, a sect of witches who believe they are the guardians of the “thin places”””areas across the globe where evil can seep through the divide between the worlds separating the living and the restless dead. At any time, she can be called upon to close one of these breaches and prevent demons from infiltrating our realm. When Lauren has a disturbing vision of an Oregon forest, she is drawn back to the familiar woods of the misty Pacific Northwest to investigate.

Locals had long whispered about an abandoned logging camp known as Jericho””of the strange disappearances and eerie sounds heard in the woods deep in the night. But these ghost stories only hint at the true evil lurking within the camp’s dilapidated buildings, a primeval malevolence far more terrifying than Lauren’s darkest imaginings. And now, Lauren must face this evil, even if it takes her life . . . even if it costs her soul.