Just Finished Reading The Hush by John Hart

Three years ago I read my first John Hart novel, The Last Child...here's a link to that review.  That story, set in rural North Carolina, was about a thirteen-year boy, Johnny Merrimon, and his undying search for his missing sister Alyssa as he encounters opposition from others and finds himself increasingly isolated, save for his best friend Jack Cross. And now I've just finished reading his 2018 sequel, The Hush, in the same general setting but with Johnny and Jack ten years older...and still best friends.  Johnny has retreated into isolation on his vast plot of land...much of it impassable swamp called "The Hush" with a powerful, mysterious and sinister presence going back to the time of slavery when the Merrimons were the local slaveholders and the ancestors of the blacks now living in the area were their "property".  A wealthy big game trophy hunter whose grandfather once killed an impossibly large-size deer in that swamp back in 1931 is determined to wrest ownership of the land from Johnny, who is already facing a legal challenge in that regard from a family of descendants of the slaves who lived there.  Jack, now a young attorney trying to fit in his new firm, is concerned about his friend's self-imposed isolation and dependence on the swamp...a place that seems to welcome very few.  All sorts of complications arise as the story progresses, and the ending...while comprehensive and conclusive...does force the reader to at least temporarily accept the presence of the supernatural, much in the way that Stephen King does with his many tales...

John Hart has done for rural North Carolina what King accomplished with his mini-universe of fictional localities in his own home state of Maine.  Both are very skilled storytellers who invest a great deal of effort in developing their characters, making them believable in the midst of often very unbelievable circumstances.  Hart has written other novels as well...guess I'll be taking a look at them, too...