Review of R.A. Evan’s “Asylum Lake”

Asylum Lake is the debut novel of author R.A. Evans, and tells the tale of Brady, an ex-reporter heading home to Michigan from Chicago after suffering through a personal tragedy. His parent’s old Lake House that he is returning to holds some dark memories for him, especially since both his parents have passed away since he was last there, but nothing prepares him for the strange and eerie occurrences that happen upon his arrival. There is an old abandoned mental institution on the opposite side of the lake that holds even darker memories for many people in the town he lives in, including the many patients who met their tragic end there years before.
Asylum Lake not only tells Brady’s tale, but another that takes place nearly forty years earlier along with yet another that dips even further into the past, all of them intertwined and revealed in bits and pieces as they tell of the hauntings and murders that have been a part of the town surrounding the lake’s fabric for years. This is not only a ghost story, but also a story that contains gruesome and dark elements of possession and revenge. The characters are easy to get comfortable with, and the plot is amply twisty, revealing things piecemeal so you can’t get too far ahead of yourself by presuming you know what is happening, especially as it goes backwards in time and then jumps back to the present repeatedly. It was a fun read, though my main complaint with it probably is that it felt like it should have been longer, and the ‘reveals’ could have been stretched out even more pages than they were. Don’t get me wrong. The author set the stage, created a wonderfully creepy setting, and gave it and those who inhabited it a righteously tragic saga. I just felt like the stage could have been used even more. The asylum itself wasn’t explored and the details about it not revealed enough for my tastes, though I realize the author will be coming out with a follow up book that explains more of the mysteries involved with the asylum and the people who met their tragic end there. In a way, my criticism is a compliment, because the author did a good job with what he’d created, and left me curious to find out more. So I think that means he will have a customer when the next book is released.

Asylum Lake can be found here:  http://www.amazon.com/Asylum-Lake-ebook/dp/B004DUN1TK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1304555104&sr=8-1