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Monday, July 5, 2021

The Darkest Thread by Jen Blood

Rating: WARTY!

"A series starter!" Of course it is because god forbid we shouldn't milk something for all we can from the punters. This author is billed as a regular blogger for Maine Crime Writers but given that she blogged only five times in all of 2020, that fails to meet my definition of 'regular'. The plot (so-called) for this novel has it that "Jamie Flint and her dog, Phantom, join the FBI’s hunt for two missing girls - but something strange and unnatural is going on in Vermont’s mysterious Bennington Triangle." The so-called Bennington Triangle is bullshit. Five people disappeared in that general - and very wild - area between 1945 and 1950, and only one of them was found. Her body was too decayed to determine a cause of death, but my guess is wild animal predation. The victims were a variety of male and female, and generally older people, so a serial killer seems highly unlikely. The fact that the deaths stopped indicates that the animal died either of old age or through the actions of a hunter. None of these 'mystery' promoters will ever ask if a large carnvore was taken down in that area around 1950 and it may be really hard to determine, expecially this far on. The book blurb asks, "What really happened to the Redfield sisters?" and hints at a supernatural demise. If you want to play it that way as a writer, go ahead, but let's not pretend there's anything real to this nonsensical 'triangle' myth.