In the small town of Deer Valley, Oregon, the legend of the murder of six-year-old Max Larsen looms large. Max disappeared into the dense woods while walking his dog, and his bones were eventually found miles from home. That tale and those dark and spooky woods don’t deter 10-year-old Stevie Clark and his 12-year-old cousin and best friend, Jude Brighton, from hanging out in the woods, building a fort and escaping from their troubled homes. Jude has grown increasingly angry in the two years since his father died, and Stevie, suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness that split up his parents, is the constant victim of his stepfather’s physical and emotional abuse. They are the only friend each has. So, of course, Stevie is devastated when Jude goes missing. Stevie is the compelling star of Ania Ahlborn’s creepy horror novel, THE DEVIL CREPT IN.

"Ahlborn wisely keeps readers in the dark about some aspects of her story, creating scary mysteries that will keep them up at night. THE DEVIL CREPT IN is an entertaining page-turner that has surprising heart."

When Jude disappears, it is unclear to most whether he ran away or was kidnapped. But Stevie knows Jude wouldn’t run away without telling him. He’s convinced that Jude’s abduction is connected to the scary dilapidated house they found off an old logging road in the woods. Stevie is even convinced he has seen some kind of monster lurking around. However, because Stevie has had hallucinations for years, his concerns are dismissed by the adults around him. He realizes that if anyone is going to find Jude and figure out what connects all the strangeness in Deer Valley, it’s going to be him. When Jude returns, claiming not to remember what had happened to him, the family is happy to have him back. But Stevie knows that something is terribly wrong with his cousin and that his search for answers must continue.

The returned Jude (or Not-Jude, as Stevie thinks of him) is quiet, sullen and swings wildly between moods. His skin is burned and peeling, and he compulsively scratches his arms. But the most frightening aspect of Jude’s return is that he seems to be trying to lure Stevie to the house off the logging road. Who or what lives in that house? What has it done to Jude? Could it be the monster Stevie has seen? Stevie is desperate to understand what has happened and save his cousin. But the terror escalates until the entire family is caught in a whirlwind of devastating violence.

With a focus on boys of a certain age and chilling italicized inner-dialogue, Ahlborn’s style is reminiscent of or perhaps influenced by that of Stephen King. Beyond just the creeping thrills, Ahlborn gives readers an interesting examination of family dynamics, especially mother-and-son relationships. The sons in the novel are all raised by harried and lonely women. The isolation the characters feel is exacerbated by a variety of mental illnesses, resulting in a collection of incredibly vulnerable figures. Ahlborn wisely keeps readers in the dark about some aspects of her story, creating scary mysteries that will keep them up at night. THE DEVIL CREPT IN is an entertaining page-turner that has surprising heart.