Books that include the word “curse” in their titles don’t generally make it onto my reading list. But for a Billy Coffey book? I’d definitely make an exception! And this is one exception I’m thrilled to have made.

Scarlett, Cordelia, Naomi and Hays are seniors, getting ready to graduate from Crow Hollow’s high school. What’s Crow Hollow? It’s a tiny Southern town tucked up in the mountains. To say that it’s a town without hope would be pretty accurate. Its residents don’t expect much out of life, or even to find life outside of Crow Hollow; they think that they’ll be born there, attend school there, and quietly live out the rest of their lives there. No big dreams, no high aspirations.

This expectation that life is over after high school is the belief that gets the four in trouble to begin with --- trouble that affects and brings fear and destruction on nearly every resident. You see, they are looking for a big send-off before they graduate. With the help of social media, they plan a big party in a field outside the town. But the three girls, plus Cordelia’s boyfriend, aren’t headed to the field. They’re going to the boarded-up mines outside of town. Locked behind a gate, the mines have been expressly left alone for years. They have a terrible history; the superstitious say that evil came out of those holes in the ground.

"[I]f you love a suspenseful novel about fallen man and the hope of the gospel, read THE CURSE OF CROW HOLLOW. And then go and read all of Coffey’s other books. However, you might just want to do so with the light on!"

But high school seniors? They’re not afraid of anything. At least, so they say. And they have an appointment out there in the woods. Naomi’s brother, John David, has come home from war in the Middle East somewhat damaged. He has taken up with the local distiller and delivers forbidden moonshine around the countryside. The teens think he’s going to bring some to them.

They have a surprise, though (the first of many, but one that is less unpleasant than the rest of the assaults that are coming their way). John David hasn’t come up to deliver forbidden drinks to the teens, but to talk them out of the harebrained plan to sleep outside next to the closed mines. Naturally, this causes an altercation, and John David angrily leaves after warning the four…who, of course, don’t heed his warning. But Scarlett, who has had secret hopes about John David, runs off, ashamed and embarrassed, through the woods. She loses a diamond bracelet on the way, “borrowed” from Cordelia’s mother, but they don’t discover this until the next morning.

When they do, they head into the woods to search for it. They don’t find the bracelet on the trail. But what they do discover terrifies them and leads them further down a path that will bring them face to face with the dreaded Alvaretta Graves. The old woman (who some describe as a witch) meets them with a pitchfork and pronounces curses on them and their entire town…with immediate and horrifying effects. This is only the beginning of the adversities before them, their families, and the Crow Hollow townspeople. Although the teens don’t know it yet, there are hidden secrets and sins held close by the older generations. Alvaretta knows them and is ready to unleash evil on the town that has harmed her.

Billy Coffey, one of my favorite writers, is unlike any other author I can call to mind. In some ways, his prose reminds me of beautifully contrived origami art. You see its shape (the crane, the swan, the dragon) and decide to unfold it to discover what is at the center. It reveals itself section by section, but you would never expect at the beginning what you find at the end. Like those origami designs, Coffey’s stories are full of hidden mystery. You’re captivated by them and compelled to discover their secrets. The characters here aren’t always likable, but they’re very human. They are defined by their choices and appetites. Even as I despaired of some of those decisions, and I couldn’t see how on earth they were ever going to get out of the messes they had made, I couldn’t look away or put the book down. I HAD to read to the very end; the conclusion is absolutely right and completely unpredictable.

I won’t tell you more, even though I want to. All I can say is, if you love a suspenseful novel about fallen man and the hope of the gospel, read THE CURSE OF CROW HOLLOW. And then go and read all of Coffey’s other books. However, you might just want to do so with the light on!