John Saul (born 1942) is one of my favorite horror authors. His books are numerous and a bit similar to Stephen King works but with one big difference. There are many Saul’s novels that have no happy ending and are pretty bleak and depressive. Also, many of his novels deal with families, children and, how should I put it, ordinary people in ordinary situations that become horror due to some curse or other reason. This time story takes us to little Californian town by the ocean where lives family Conger who were once the richest and most influential family of that time. But, there is a curse on that family which involves suicide, accidental death, eerie family portrait and two daughters who roam at night through the woods and in the ancient cave. Then children start to disappear and something evil lurks around.

Book is divided into three parts, kind of intro, past and present represented in last two or three chapters. This is a slow one, with couple of gory scenes and kind of sad ending, not to spoil it right now. This is not Saul’s best work in my opinion from what I read until now, but it is a decent horror novel. No nudity, a little gore and mainly suspense and mistery. Okay one.