When he was a little boy, there was a house behind Alex Lowry's house. Except he was the only one who could see it. Only he could hear the woman singing from within.
Decades later, after the pandemic costs Alex his corporate job, he picks up work delivering specialty items to homebound clientele and, against all odds, he realizes he enjoys his new life. His world is simpler. Quieter. Until he once more hears the tuneless, wordless song of the woman from the house behind. Until the cracks in the façade of his simple, quiet life begin to yawn, and a past he thought he had outrun begins to gain on him.
Until he finds himself slipping into the world behind.
Alex is a happily married man who tries not to think much about the past. He has never told anyone what he saw as a child, not even his wife Jennifer. He has given her the impression that he had a normal childhood. He may even have convinced himself that it's true. He never talks about the church, and only says that his parents passed away when he was young.
When Alex loses his job due to the pandemic, Jennifer thinks her father or his connections could be of some help. He's never gotten along well with his Father-in-law but complies with Jennifer's request to visit her parents. It is on this visit that the past catches up to him. There it stands. A house behind his in-laws' house. A house that should not be there in their suddenly too-big backyard. A house that's just a little bit wrong, with doors in the wrong place and not enough windows. The house where "she awaits."
I don't want to say anything else about the plot and spoil it for you. I will just say that if you have read Bentley Little before you know that his book titles that begin with "The" as in The Store, The Mailman, The Resort, etc tend to follow his usual formula. While those without, such as Dispatch, His Father's Son, Gloria, etc. tend to stray from that usual formula. Behind was not just my most anticipated read of the year, it is now among my favorites of all his books. I savored it slowly over the course of a week because I didn't want it to end.
Behind is delightfully dark and disturbing. The pervasive atmosphere of "wrongness" grew heavier with every page I turned. It takes a lot to scare me but this succeeded in appearing my nightmares.
My thanks to Dan Franklin and Cemetery Dance Publications.
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