Dead Light

This horror novel draws readers in with a likable hero, Sheriff Estin Booker, who is trying to solve a series of teen suicides in the town of Cumberton, Md. Booker is joined by Anna Tucci, a Baltimore homicide detective on a forced vacation whose tough attitude and smart remarks lead the sheriff to label her a "bitch." Naturally, they are romantically involved by the end of the book. While the two cops exchange forced and inappropriate banter and chase clumsily placed red herrings, frequent flashbacks to colonial Maryland inform the reader that the cause of the suicides is more supernatural in origin. Unfortunately, the book degenerates into increasingly gory deaths and a wildly unlikely plan to save the world. The climax is dragged out with multiple near-disasters and dramatic flashback revelations, diluting any fulfillment readers might derive from solving the contrived mystery.