Jennifer McMahon has always been a more-than-reliable thriller writer. Lately, her novels have taken a more disturbing turn as she has delved into gothic horror, with THE CHILDREN ON THE HILL being perhaps the most frightening of her career. That is until her latest release, STAY BURIED, which provides a dual narrative.

The 1919 storyline finds us in Boone’s Ferry, Vermont, where Dr. Thomas Endicott and his androgynous niece, Francesca (“Frankie”), seem to be the only ones unaffected by a mysterious illness that began with horses before jumping to the human population --- with deadly results.

"McMahon allows the answers and plot twists to unfold with a creepy slowness that gets under your skin and remains there long after the final page is turned."

The whispered threat that appears to have been given physical form is that of the creature known as the knackerman, the body of a man wearing bones and a horse skull mask. This is based on an actual occupation at the time, where dead and dying farm animals not fit for human consumption were collected. In 2014, we witness a crude version of this figure long considered to be the subject of nothing more than local folklore and superstition returning to Boone’s Ferry. His equine mark left behind on your door portends doom and tragedy to come.

While we observe Endicott and Frankie dealing with the illness that could be a form of rabies, we quickly jump to 2016. Siblings Ashley and Malcolm have just inherited a house in Boone’s Ferry from their recently deceased grandmother. When they go through her personal effects, they find a letter that their mother had sent about uncovering the truth in their family’s past. They also come across a journal once belonging to Frankie that describes a pandemic that spread throughout the town, along with the supernatural presence that may have been responsible for it.

Endicott and Frankie are caught in the midst of a plague unlike anything they have ever seen. It seems to be turning innocent townsfolk into rabid beasts, and incidents of individuals attacking and biting each other is on the rise from every corner of their town.

Ashley and Malcolm want answers about the recent generations of their family that lived in Boone’s Ferry, but the people there seem highly suspicious and tight-lipped about it. Josephine, the elderly friend of their grandmother, still lives in the house. While they have every intention of allowing her to stay there, they are more than a little creeped out by her collection of clothespin figures that represent every resident killed by the superstition and the pandemic. Although the message is quite cryptic, they seem to get the most information from a small girl who appears to be terrified that the knackerman has returned to seek vengeance on them all.

The characters in STAY BURIED are complex and quite compelling, and I could not put the book down. McMahon allows the answers and plot twists to unfold with a creepy slowness that gets under your skin and remains there long after the final page is turned.