The atmosphere is amazing: so creepy and strange, like the island jungle in one of the better episodes of Lost. Julia Greer is a great protagonist: mature, capable, and very damaged. Her manipulative bitch of a great-aunt is also a nice touch, and their scenes and conversations together are a highlight of the book's dialogue. Pretty much all the characters in this book are pretty great, actually.

The plot is a little too contrived, though, with the author sometimes straining to place the characters where they need to be in order for certain things to happen. Some details feel particularly forced, such as there be anything remaining on the island of Irene Greer's 80-year-old base camp for Julia to find, in a wet jungle like that. The behavior of various secondary characters, as they succumb to the effects of the island, does not always feel organic (hah!) to the story mechanics. And I personally didn't care for the reveals at the end. Some of it was just kind of silly instead of scary, which as a let down after all the build-up, and the cult religious bits. I think I'd have preferred to have an unresolved mystery, rather than an evil, sentient, shape-shifting plant!

A lot of promise here but just didn’t execute fully. Still kept me reading and the premise is interesting.

There’s a slow and sultry feel to The Nightmarchers that may, unfortunately, irritate people who like a quick, action-packed read. Instead, we have a slow build up of suspense, sadness, and ultimately, horror. a great read for lovers of horror and thrillers

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book.

After a devastating divorce, Julia is left flat broke and on the brink of losing everything. A call from a long lost great aunt presents her with the opportunity to get back on track, and even better, get her daughter back. Yet, this gift comes with life changing and even life threatening challenges.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Julia is an interesting character, and kept me involved in the narrative. The pace was fairly quick and engaging. I liked the mystery, and how it stayed one step ahead the entire time. However it was sometimes confusing what was going on, and at times that would draw me out of the narrative. It's one of those books I think you have to read a couple of times to really understand.

The Nightmarchers by J. Lincoln Fenn was a totally nerve-wracking tale. While reading, you won't be able to guess what happens next.

At the start of the book, we see a series of letters from Irene Greer, a botanical researcher that had traveled to a remote island in the Pacific. Things start out fine, but a bit tense. But soon we see Irene begin to act strange. Next we learn that Irene has fallen down a waterfall to her death. In her letters she had been convinced that the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the night marchers, which were the ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights and wander the island.

Then we jump to the present and meet Irene's descendant, Julia Greer, who is recovering from a nasty divorce. Her previous life and daughter had been suddenly taken away from her, and now she is barely able to make rent and she has no electricity because she hasn't paid that bill for awhile. When her elderly great-aunt (sister of Irene) offers Julia an outrageously large sum of money to travel to the remote island and collect samples of a flower and bring back Irene's remains, Julia can't turn it down. But while traveling to the island, she learns that there was a lot that her great-aunt had kept from her, and it only gets worse as her trip continues. Soon, Julia doesn't know who to trust and she begins to lose her grip on reality....

While reading, I really felt horrible for Julia when we first met her. Not just because she was going through the divorce and losing everything that she had once had, but because watching her try to keep up the façade of the rich when she met with her great-aunt was so heartbreaking. This was her family, and she felt that she needed to play the meeting like a game. This made me wish we could have gotten to know more about Julia before she met her ex-husband...

After the meeting with her great-aunt, I was so interested to see what was going to happen! While Julia was traveling, I started to feel super anxious and that feeling didn't let up until the last page. I was so intrigued by the overall mystery; I couldn't wait to start getting answers. Especially when things started to get really strange!

I really enjoyed the characters, even though, just like the main character, I could never really decide who to trust. Unfortunately, that's all I can say there without totally spoiling things!

There was one bit of the book that totally gave me The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon vibes! Julia went wandering into the jungle. Though she was warned not to touch many of the plants that she may encounter, one second of frustration put her in quite a scary situation! She had already been having trouble with keeping a grip on reality, and then she kicked a plant that snapped and oozed a sap that smelled funny and made Julia very lightheaded. Things suddenly weren't looking good; she was about to black out, couldn't stand up, her eyes were swollen, and she was having trouble breathing. And to make things worse, she had fallen into a bog that was full of twig-like leeches... I read this scene twice because it was so horrifying! I loved it!

I was SO into this book up until the very last few chapters. Unfortunately, it then took a turn that totally threw me... Perhaps I missed something...

The Nightmarchers starts with the diary entries from Irene Greer who is on a remote Pacific Island. She's convinced that her dead husband and daughter are haunting her by joining the Nightmarchers - ancient warriors that rise from the dead on moonless nights. She has befriended a young girl, Agnes, who seems to know more and more about the island and it's secrets. She also jumps to her death...or did she?

In modern day, Julia Greer is struggling. Divorced, living below bare necessities and drinking just to survive, she is contacted by her great aunt and offered a large sum of money to go to the island and retrieve Irene's bones and samples of a corpse flower that is only present on the island. Julia uses this as an opportunity to rebuild her life....but the island has other plans.

J. Lincoln Fenn has created a horror story on a tropical island. Inner voices, "zombies", a cult like church, a strange little girl....it's everything I love. It was nerve-wracking to read...because you didn't know who or what to believe. This is the perfect book for this time of year (Halloween).

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

"From the award-winning author of Dead Souls and Poe comes an all-new bone-chilling novel where a mysterious island holds the terrifying answers to a woman's past and future.

In 1939, on a remote Pacific island, botanical researcher Irene Greer plunges off a waterfall to her death, convinced the spirits of her dead husband and daughter had joined the nightmarchers - ghosts of ancient warriors that rise from their burial sites on moonless nights. But was it suicide, or did a strange young missionary girl, Agnes, play a role in Irene's deteriorating state of mind?

It all seems like ancient family history to Julia Greer, who has enough problems of her own. A struggling journalist, she’s recovering from a divorce and is barely able to make rent, let alone appeal the court’s decision to give sole custody of their daughter to her ex-husband. When her elderly great-aunt offers her an outrageously large sum to travel to this remote island and collect samples of a very special flower, as well as find out what really happened to her sister Irene all those years ago, Julia thinks her life might finally be on an upward swing. She’s also tasked to connect with the island’s Church of Eternal Light, which her great-aunt suspects knows more about Irene’s tragic death than they’ve said.

But Julia finds this place isn’t so quick to give up its secrets. The Church is tight-lipped about the deaths that have contributed to its oddly large cemetery, as well as Irene’s final fate. The only person who seems to know more is a fellow traveler, Noah Cooper, who thinks that Julia's not the only one on a mission to find the rare flower...which, if the rumors are true, could have world-changing properties.

What Julia does know is that the longer she stays on the island, the more the thin line begins to blur between truth and lies, reality and the fantastical...until she finds herself face to face with the real reason why the island is taboo...."

Family secrets and a mysterious island? Yes please!

There’s a slow and sultry feel to The Nightmarchers that may, unfortunately, irritate people who like a quick, action-packed read. Instead, we have a slow build up of suspense, sadness, and ultimately, horror.

Although the story takes place in a more exotic location, the book has sort of the feel of a Southern Gothic – strange characters and that kind of hot, languid terror that smile politely as it destroys you.

Julia was very likable. Her aunt wasn’t very nice, but oh I liked her as well!

And the author draws her island so very well that I could smell and feel the humidity.

Simply an excellent read!

ARC Provided via Net Galley

'The jungle can do tricky things to the Western mind that lacks spiritual protection.'

Julia Greer’s life has crumbled, formerly living in an enormous Victorian in Palto Alto with her now ex-husband Ethan and their daughter Evie, she is now trapped in a bleak apartment off the freeway longing for her child, whom Ethan has fully custody of. Money is power, and Ethan has it all, why did she sign the prenuptial agreement? Why did she ever give up her work as an investigative journalist to be the sort of wife that reflected beautifully on the very man who has taken everything she loved from her? Is he really the great cold manipulator she tells us?

Then comes a letter from her estranged and very wealthy great-aunt , Dr. Lydia Greer. Julia’s memories aren’t fond ones of the old woman, whom surely must be ancient now. Too young at their last meeting, she hasn’t spent much time ruminating over why her mother left so abruptly, ending the visit. Certainly there hasn’t been any communication from her great aunt since, but if she’s learned anything lately, its that money is the only chance she has to tackle her mounting debts, and more importantly, have a chance at getting her daughter back. Money matters, her Aunt is asking her to tea, what could it hurt? This may well be the means to hire a good lawyer to help set things right for she and Evie.

What Julia learns is that her Aunt will give her a lot of money to travel to a remote island, her task simply to smuggle samples of a mysterious flower that her sister Irene had written about decades ago before her suspicious death. The leader of the Church of Eternal Light, according to her aunt, must be hiding not just the real reason for her sister’s demise, but the true properties of the plant. It is risky, but she will have tools to communicate, unlike the others that go for escape from the modern world. Lydia has the means to help her get Evie back. What choice does Julia have? Others would agree to more for far less, and she is desperate!

1939 Irene Greer has set up camp in Kapu and is forging ahead collecting specimens for her sister back home, while tolerating the occasional visits from the Reverend. She is nursing her wounds, after the horrible touch of tragedy. As time stretches, her ‘ignorant foreign ways’ wears off, and she befriends a young orphan Agnes, who shares her knowledge of Kapu with Irene. Letters home are filled with the thrill of discoveries until she writes of illness, and her musings turn dark, strange. Is it madness that led her to believe she saw a line of warriors marching with her dead husband Charles and daughter Lila? Are the locals supersitions eating into her common sense? Was it simply illness that caused her to jump to her death into the falls, following them into some other world? There couldn’t possible be truth in her mad writings, could there? After all this time, as much as then, Lydia isn’t convinced by the Reverend’s assurance that it was all just a tragedy, possibly a plant that caused delusions. Irene’s body was never returned home. It is the perfect cover for Julia’s visit, there only to solve the mystery with disinternment- while in truth she searches for the plant.

Present day, deep into the challenge set forth by her aunt, Julia is beginning to think there is far more to the tale than her aunt let on. The religious cult is odd, it’s leader menacing, treating outsiders like her as if they are a disease. He is special, born of the island, a survivor. There are strange rules, dangerous insects and Noah. Noah, who seems to have his own motives for being on the island, can she trust him? Can she trust herself? The place begins to play with her mind, both she and her deceased aunt Irene had lost their child and spouse (to death or abandonment). Maybe with their family history, losing her grip on reality like Irene did all those years ago, is the product of stress, sadness? Who is this child now helping her? Why always a child?

The island itself is an important character, not just for the atmosphere. It is rooted in superstition, true, but nature itself is deadly, mysterious particularly to an outsider. It can be friend or foe. At every turn she is forced to face off with the elements, more alive than the visitors, more dangerous even. Still it remains the nature of human beings that are the real scary part of this novel. I enjoyed Irene’s letters, and Aunt Lydia is a tough bird, a perfect character for this story (though I won’t go into why), someone whose intelligence is still sharp and can pierce you even in her years of decline.

The motives of some are downright chilling. The advance of science can sometimes be monstrous too. We are all ‘hungry’, we want the answers, we want to play God. Sometimes Science can make convincing excuses for it’s horrors, but nature can be just as brutal.

I liked the beginning with Irene, I have a thing for the past. I didn’t necessarily feel invested in Julia’s plight, I began to think – maybe you just offer yourself to be a victim. The ending, I get it… I think… but it is weird. Will she take Kapu with her, or will Kapu take her? Maybe even her ‘clever’ aunt is out of her element too, doesn’t truly know just how powerful this thing is. Is the Reverend just a creepy cult leader, high on the mysteries of the island or is he on the verge of Eternal Light? I still don’t know for sure. I am not sure the ending resolved all my questions.

Publication Date: October 1, 2018

Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books

I’m not sure it’s a common lesson in the fiction I read or just fiction in genre, but I’ve noticed an awful lot of books that warn readers not to mess with things they discovered because there are always consequences. There’s Dr. Faustus, of course, and Jurassic Park. Actually, a lot of Michael Crichton fits here. There’s Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series. And now there’s J. Lincoln Fenn’s The Nightmarchers. In this incarnation of the “don’t play with that thing you found” genre-let, a botanist in the 1930s discovered something on a Pacific island somewhere near Hawai’i that has remarkable properties. Decades later, her great-niece Julia returns to the island to figure out what happened in return for a payout that will help her reclaim her daughter from her ex-husband.

Julia Greer is at the end of her rope when we meet her after a longish prologue that sets up the original discovery of a MacGuffin by Irene Greer. Julia is flat broke, unemployed, and suffering from terrible depression after her sudden, acrimonious divorce from her wealthy husband. Because she has no options left, she takes up a strange offer by her surviving great-aunt, a scientist who wants her to travel to Kapu, where Irene apparently went mad and died all those years ago. Julia will be rewarded with money beyond her wildest dreams if she can recover Irene’s body and take samples of the plants Irene was studying before her death. It’s odd, but Julia is desperate to get her child back. She says yes and is whisked away to Kapu.

In Irene’s day, Kapu was home to a small group of unidentified Polynesians; a pious, white Evangelical preacher; and an unsettling orphan named Agnes. In Julia’s day, Kapu is still home to the descendants of the Polynesians and the preacher—who have essentially become a cult—and the “spiritually healing” resort for the ultra-rich that the cult runs. The visitors are not allowed to take photos or souvenirs. They have to surrender their electronic devices on arrival. They are not allowed to talk to anyone except one member of the cult. It’s all very strange, but people put up with it because some of the guests have make impossible recoveries from cancers and such after a short stay on the island.

Most of The Nightmarchers is a speedy unravelling of historical and scientific mysteries. Julia and the other visitors to the island are only on Kapu for about a day before things start to go horribly wrong. There’s a vaguely plausible scientific explanation for it all, but this seems to function as a slight foundation for all kinds of running amok. The Nightmarchers didn’t gel for me; there was a little too much going on. I enjoyed the parts in which Irene and Julia connect to the island, but the parts about the cult were not fully realized and the villains might have made a stop or two on the way in from central casting before taking up their parts as single-minded, evil scientists.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 1 October 2018.