Review: HINTON HOLLOW DEATH TRIP

HINTON HOLLOW DEATH TRIP by Will Carver (Orenda Books, 2019) 

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents. A visit that made them act in unnatural ways. Prodding at their insecurities. Nudging at their secrets and desires. Coaxing out the malevolence suppressed within them. Showing their true selves.

Making them cheat.

Making them steal.

Making them kill.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to

British crime writer Will Carver takes fiendish delight in veering from familiar paths and taking readers on discomforting journeys. He’s the kind of author that writes books that don't tread a safe middle ground or soak in the expected tropes. His novels are what some of us call 'marmite books' - you're more likely to either really love them, or rather hate them, rather than falling somewhere in between. 

Will Carver doesn't play it safe. 

Exhibit A: HINTON HOLLOW DEATH TRIP is set in an English village outside London. Someone is shooting locals. DS Pace has returned home to his small village after barely surviving some dark times while working as a cop in the big city. He wants to ease back, to take time to recover himself a little bit among the slower village life, but instead finds himself investigating some very troubling crimes.

So far, so familiar. 

But why was an eight-year-old boy put on a train out of town by his fearful mother, wearing a label asking for him to be kept safe for a week? Did she anticipate the horrors on the way? And why does our narrator seem to take some sort of pride or perverse pleasure in the killings and other twisted acts that are occurring, even though they didn’t commit them themselves. What is going on? 

HINTON HOLLOW DEATH TRIP is narrated by evil itself. 

But perhaps a different kind of ‘evil’ than you’d presume. One that seeks balance in a world increasingly gone mad, and bad. An entity that for various reasons has decided to make an example of this particular small town; five days of prodding its residents to give into their own darkest desires, their festering envies and fears. Of seeing just how far they may go, given just the smallest nudge... 

Can DS Pace uncover what’s really going on? Who will survive? 

Carver has crafted an exceptionally clever crime novel with a very strong voice that gives readers plenty to think about on several fronts. Marmite, but magnificent. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer from New Zealand, now living in London. In recent years he’s interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at books festivals on three continents. He has been a judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and the McIlvanney Prize, and is founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards and co-founder of Rotorua Noir. His first non-fiction book, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, was published in 2020. You can heckle him on Twitter.