Official Review: Curse of the Whiskey House by Marc Lacy

[debo9967]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Curse of the Whiskey House" by Marc Lacy.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Curse of the Whiskey House: When Life is the Principle and Death is the Practice by Marc Lacy is a book in the thriller genre with a hint of supernatural. It is the first installment in the Whiskey House trilogy.

The story is based in Hawthorne County, Alabama and the centerpiece of this story is the Hawthorne County Whiskey House. Its counterpart, the Hawthorne County Whiskey Stop is a popular tourist attraction and sees plenty of customers throughout the year owing to the popularity of the town’s whiskey. However, it also owes some of its popularity to the Whiskey House whose shady reputation has puzzled tourists for long. The Whiskey House is reputed to be the haunt of illegal and immoral activities, despite the fact that is owned by the pastor of the Central Baptist Church, Reverend Jackson Jones. However, no one has the courage to lift the veil off the Whiskey House, except Detective Brock Taylor who makes it his mission to put an end to the mystery and the ‘curse’ of the Whiskey House. Will he succeed or will he become the next victim of this curse?

“What started out as a scuffle between a current and an ex-boyfriend in the supermarket, turned into a week of betrayal, murder, blood, torture, and of course, burning”.This one sentence in the book sums up the whole story. After one-third of the book is completed, it seems that suddenly the story goes into an overdrive and a new event erupts with every turn of a page. While this seems good enough to ensure an action packed novel, the side effect is the resultant confusion that ensues with every unexpected twist of events. Almost two thirds into the book, I felt that most of the characters had just lost their minds and there were random shootouts and explosions.

The book focuses on some serious issues like sexual harassment, corruption, political conspiracy, etc, which is thankfully not lost between all the murders. The book is written from multiple perspectives, though there is a recurrent narrator, Rufus, who gives his opinion after any major event has occurred. His opinions are entertaining and lend humor to the story. The paranormal activity sets in towards the end of the book and makes the run-up to the climax more interesting. I was expecting the horror element to come in much earlier; however, I was not disappointed by its timing.

I am not a huge fan of stories where characters suddenly start behaving unlike their usual selves but I have to admit that the author has packaged a novel which is replete with loads of action, political drama, religious overtones, controversies and supernatural activity. For readers who enjoy fast paced political thrillers spiced with mystery and horror, they should give this one a try. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars.

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Curse of the Whiskey House
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Like debo9967's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Ramona]

Although not a genre that I would read, it sounds like you've done a great job reviewing the book. You've identified what worked for you in it and what didn't. I like that you also identified some of the issues that the book focused on. Good job!

[Levi]

@debo9967 this sounds like something I could get into thanks to your review. I feel I may have the same concerns as you, but with you aptly pointing out Rufus and his narration I feel that would be the glue holding it all together, and that kept me interested. Congrats to the author!