Up the Creek

I received a free electronic copy of this novel on December 9, 2020, from Netgalley, Alissa Grosso, and Glitter Pigeon Press. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Alissa Grosso writes a tight, compelling story that grabs hold early and doesn't let go. I am pleased to recommend this author to friends and family. In her youth Caitlin was traumatized again and again by nightmares of horrific murders, making her fearful to go to sleep to the point that she would do anything to avoid it. Her mother, a tired, depressed, and bored woman chooses, once it is obvious that these are precognitions of actual murders, of exploiting her daughter's curse for attention and coin. Once grown, Caitlin works her way through sleeping aids, both prescription and over-the-counter, until she finds one that will give her 8 hours of guaranteed dreamless sleep. And nine years later, that company has gone out of business, encasing Caitlin in anxiety and a never-ending search for outdated pills from any source, measuring her life in the nights of a peaceful sleep she can count on in the future. She has never talked of that time in her youth with her husband Lance - until their son, Adam begins having horrific nightmares, waking Lance almost nightly with screams and crying. Not aware of Caitlin's history, Lance is of the opinion that these episodes should be ignored. Lance has his own problems that take his focus off of the family, and the sleeping pills usually put Caitlin too deeply asleep to respond to Adam's cries. While talking Adam through the trauma of another nightmare over breakfast, Caitlin is stunned to realize that some of his dreams are an echo of ones she suffered in her own youth, a series of murders that were never solved despite her assistance to the police. She cannot let her son Adam go through the same torture she suffered in her youth. It becomes obvious that Lance is not going to be able to help them. He has too many problems of his own to work through. But what can she do? Who can she turn to for help?

Up the Creek by Alyssa C. Grosso Up the Creek by Alyssa C. Grosso, is the first book in a new series based in and around the small town of Culver Creek. The story introduces Caitlin Walker who hasn't had a dream for nine years, but her son Adam suffers from terrifying nightmares which awaken buried memories in Caitlin and a deep secret. Her husband, Lance, also has a secret and Adam's nightmares are threatening to reveal that secret. At the same time, Sage Dorian, the newly hired detective at the police department, starts work on the town's cold case - the grisly murder of a young girl. How all this hangs together is bound up in a pretty decent, suspenseful murder mystery. I enjoyed it and would definitely read another book in this series as and when further titles become available. Recommended.

Well worth reading, by an author who thinks outside the box. Good editing makes it even more of a pleasure to read. 10.08.2021