Haven

Every 17 years, something goes terribly wrong in the small New England town of Haven. In 1978, 12-year-old Denny O’Brien worries about reconnecting with his emotionally closed-off mother, being targeted by town bullies, and facing the return of the Butcher, a local man convicted of a string of murders in 1961. When people start to go missing and die, the police chief wants to score again by pinning it all on the Butcher. Debut novelist Deady closely examines his setting, showing how the difficulties of facing down mob hysteria and starting over after a lifetime of failure can be as deadly as an escaped military bioweapon. But the lake monster that’s actually responsible for the deaths looms too large for its human opponents to hold on to center stage. Like the patchwork creature that hunts and haunts the residents of Haven, this tale of many disparate parts tries to catch its readers in tentacles of terror, but it lacks the brutal efficiency of its killer beast. (Dec.)