Book Review of Inside The Devil's Nest by John Durgin
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 3 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
Nobody is safe in a John Durgin novel! Any character can be killed at any time - no matter what role the reader thinks they play in the story. The novel unfolds like a cosmic horror version of the Netflix series Ozark.
CONTENT WARNING
This audiobook and novel will NOT be for everyone. There is a bit of adult language and some themes or character actions that may trigger readers. Consider this your Content Warning.
The audiobook version of Inside the Devil’s Nest by John Durgin, available on Audible was narrated by Joe Hempel. The story is brought to life in audio through multiple unique character voices. Hempel has good pacing and the proper inflection to set a spooky tone or ramp up the action, as demanded by the plot of the story.
Real estate agent Anthony Graham has his family on the run after witnessing a murder at the hands of the powerful Costello crime family. They’re forced to hide at one of Anthony’s properties, a deserted campground with a sinister past. No one is safe from the men that hunt them, or the terrors that await them inside The Devil’s Nest.
The novel opens with a mass suicide by a religious cult - Jonestown on the waterfront. After the omniscient narrator establishes the scene through a great deal of exposition, the reader slips into Rebecca’s point of view. The action, dialogue, and timing at the start of the story roll out like a scene from a movie.
Enter Anthony, a family man making one bad decision after another. The author provides good point of view for the story to progress with this character. However, narrator exposition slips in as backstory construction takes place.
Fans of the Netflix series Ozark will rejoice in a return to the ‘mob in the backwoods’ storyline. In true John Durgin style, there are plenty of high-tension scares and a cosmic horror elements to entice fear flick fanatics as well.