5 Stars for Off the Grid by John Hunt! I didn't quite finish this one in time for Halloween but it's a great fall read, nonetheless! The first 5 pages were nauseatingly descriptive. So much so that I was hoping the gruesome details were only at the beginning and the rest of the book would be dedicated to resolution and justice. I was immediately hooked.

John Hunt chooses an unlikely hero in this book, a survivor. A lonely recluse who lost it all, lives "off the grid," until he can no longer sit back and pretend he wasn't forever changed the day his family died in a mall shooting. He hates all things human, all things noise, and has carved out a life for himself in the middle of nowhere. Until he steps in and saves a little girl.

Jodi knows there's something special about Graham. People in town turn away, cannot look him in the eye, and are disturbed by his physical scars and appearance. Graham realizes that Jodi is different too. They bond over coffee, wine, and books. When Jodi is called away in an emergency and her life may be in danger, Graham cannot sit by and wait to lose the only thing that has started to matter to him.

Three seemingly ordinary friends (two of them brothers) are caught in a string of lies, crime, and unthinkable pasts. When the truth starts to unfold, one victim at a time, Jodi and Graham get caught in the middle. And, they end up back at the mall, where Graham lost his family.

The last quarter of this book was a race. I flew through the end, ready to see what was going to happen to Graham, Jodi, and the malicious trio. John left me guessing, holding my breath, and begging for justice.

This book was provided to me for free, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you @blackrosewriting and @netgalley. #bookreviews #5stars #johnhunt #offthegrid #needtoread #bookblogger #5stars #suspensefulread #sendmemorebooks #readmorebooks #booknerd @oakcitybooks #oakcitybooks

*This book had more drug use and very descriptive criminal activity, a lot more than I typically like to read. I found parts of it very disturbing. However, I think that's the effect and impact that John was going for.

Unusual story. Good cast of well developed characters. Graham is an unusual person and has more reasons than are first evident to avoid people. Highly unexpected kidnapping. Well done story.

Police Detective Jodie is called in on a missing child case. All the clues point to the town hermit, a disfigured man who lives out in the woods far from town. Jodie doesn't think he's guilty, but he's certainly involved...

The summary of this fascinating book only covers the first about fifteen percent. Although it seems like it's going to be a solid police procedural, it takes a swerve into urban fantasy after a while. None of this is meant as a deterrent; I really enjoyed the read. I just want to make it clear.

The characterization was great, and the pace is perfect, rattling along at just the right speed. I loved all the little interludes from different points of view; it added real depth to the story and let us get to know the characters better.

This is a great adventure read. I really enjoyed it.

This book just grabbed my attention from the very beginning and didn’t let go. This is no slow burner - it’s a face paced thrill of a ride that will have you unable to tear yourself away from the pages. It’s gruesome and violent but it’s not gratuitous - it fits the story. The author’s attention to detail is just so good -and his writing flows very well. I love the interaction between Detective Jodie Reyes and Graham, a young father who survived a mall shooting in which his family was killed but he was left horribly disfigured. For this reason he has secluded himself in the backwoods where he’s trying to make himself self sufficient. But then a little girl goes missing in the local town and someone mentions the strange monstrous man in the woods and he knows that his life will never be calm again until the girl is found. The whole town, the police force, every able body has been looking for this girl. Miraculously, the next morning she shows up at her home with a note for Jodie. I highly recommend this book. This is my first book by John Hunt. I’ve heard good things about Doll House and The Tracker. I’ll be reading those very soon.
Thanks to NetGalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

After being severely injured in a mall shooting, Graham can no longer handle being a part of society. Instead he retreats to the woods to live a self sufficient life off the grid. However, when a little girl disappears Graham is the main suspect. All because he happened to buy some 'suspicious' items at the hardware store the day before. Jodie, a hardworking detective, isn't about to leave Graham alone and what happens next took me completely by surprise!!

This isn't the book I expected to read when I requested it from Netgalley. In fact it was even better. I expected a sad story about a lonely man trying to make a life for himself after a horrific tragedy instead I got a hard hitting, gripping detective novel. Be prepared, there are some real gruesome moments and you'll be screaming and shouting at the book. I found myself really rooting for some characters but there's not a happy ending for everyone. This is not that kind of book.

Most of the characters were well rounded and 3 dimensional, giving the impression of real people. Which meant that I became emotionally invested in some of them. There are also some great twists that I didn't see coming - one of which I actually gasped out loud at. As the story is so gripping and the the novel is quite short (253 pages) it was an easy and quick read - I flew through it but that was by no means a negative thing. I didn't want to put it down. I will definitely take a look at John Hunt's other novels.

Off the Grid begins like too many people's stories end these days....with an active shooter killing random, innocent people at an outlet mall. Just like that, Graham's life changes forever. Three years later he lives "Off the Grid" in the woods outside of a small town. He can't stand to be around people. They literally make his head hurt. One night a 6 year old girl is kidnapped and Graham meets Jodie, the Detective working on the kidnapping and thus, his life changes yet again when he allows a person into his life as he allows friendship to happen. Some time later and farther away burned bodies are found and a teenage girl is missing and, yet again, Graham's life takes a turn when Jodie asks him to help with the case.
This book grabbed me and did not let me go! I binge read it in two days. It's a real page turner. There's drama, mystery, a really great "oooooh noooo....what?????" moment" involving our missing teenage victim and a member of her immediate family. There's also a bit of psychic mysticism and wonder and the wounded taking back their life and soul. Wonderful book and a very timely subject matter.
#OfftheGrid #Netgalley

Graham, his wife and son decided to head out to the grand opening of the mall. Anything to keep his young son off of the TV playing video games. He didn't know a crazed killer having a bad day would change his life forever.
Jodie an up and coming detective is trying to find a missing child .the little girl, six years old had been taken at night out of her bedroom while she was sleeping. The next day the little girl is back home. She tells a story of the man who rescued her and made sure she got home safely.
What do these two events have in common? You'll have to read this awesome book.

Graham and his family were shopping at a mall when he got shot in the face and his family were killed. Remarkably Graham survived but his facial injuries were too horrific and people would stare at him, so he takes himself to live in a cabin in the woods. Fast forward... A girl has been snatched from her bed in the middle of night, the same day Graham was buying suspicious items from a store.

I absolutely loved this book!!! I have read Doll House and really enjoyed it, but this was much better in every way and had me gripped from the first page. Obviously, if you have never read anything by this author, the details are pretty gruesome, so not for the faint-hearted. Would definitely recommend and will tell all my friends.

Graham Richards is a recluse living off the land. He's gone "off the grid" after he was shot, and his family died when a man began shooting inside the mall where they were shopping. He wants nothing more than to be left alone, but then a little girl goes missing from her home....

A local teenager goes missing after a date with her boyfriend. When the police are called in to investigate, they find that some of the people they are interviewing are not behaving as most "typically" should or would in these circumstances. As the police dig deeper, suspicion, lies and secrets are revealed....

This is not a cozy mystery folks. John Hunt does not shy aware from showing the horrors of crime, the brutality of evil or the darkness in people. This is not for the faint of heart. He's descriptive and detailed when describing scenes in the book. He also does a great job showing how one man can change in an instant. Graham goes from being a social family man to a man who just wants to be left alone. But then he is pulled into an investigation and forms a friendship with a police officer and everything changes.

Graham is not the only character in the book, there are many others who help keep the action, intensity, and plot moving. I found this book to be a very fast read, and enjoyed the slight paranormal element, which I felt fit smoothly into the plot.

Riveting, gruesome and compelling - this is another great addiction to horror books to be read when it comes out this Halloween.

Thank you to Black Rose Writing and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own

A recluse in the Canadian woods

Graham Richards is living as a recluse in the woods of Ontario, Canada. He and his family had gone shopping at a small when a madman started shooting people. Graham made it out alive after being shot in the face and chest but his family was killed. He is horribly scarred and just wants to be left alone.

But Detective Jodie Reyes goes to question him after a little girl is snatched during the middle of the night and receives help and a friendship she wasn't expecting.

This is not the type of book I was expecting. There's more than one crime featured in this thriller and a paranormal aspect I really didn't expect.

I would love for this to be the first in a series featuring Graham and Jodie. Great characters and twisted story.

Highly recommended.

I received this book from Black Rose Writing Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Off The Grid by John Hunt is a psychological thriller/horror novel.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Black Rose Writing, and of course the author, for offering his book to me in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

My Synopsis: (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)
Graham Richards is a recluse. His wife and son lost their lives during a mall shooting. Graham survived a point-blank shot to the face and one to the chest, leaving major scarring and massive headaches. Between his guilt for not protecting his family, and his own pain, Graham has also developed an anger issue, which he struggles to control. Rather than worry about hurting anyone else, Graham moved to a cabin in the woods and is trying to be totally self-sustaining. His garden, his solar panels, and all the wood he can chop has almost made his visits to town non-existent. The fewer people he sees, the better.

When six-year old Francine is kidnapped, Graham finds himself saving the girl, if only to keep attention away from himself. No matter how much she wants to know, Detective Jodie Reyes stops asking Graham how he found Francine. Jodie becomes Graham's first friend in years.

When a teenager goes missing in Northern Ontario, Jodie finds herself in charge, and wondering if she should have asked Graham for help. Soon she herself is being targeted, and Graham will have to brave the world to try and save her, and himself.

My Opinions:
Another amazing book by John Hunt. The plot of this book could have been pulled from today's news, and that in itself adds to the horror. Hunt's characters are so real, his imagery so vivid, his writing so smooth, he sucks the reader right into the story....and doesn't let go.

The book is fast-paced, action-packed and just a touch gruesome. Be warned, John Hunt writes violence vividly. If you don't actually feel the blood splatter, you definitely see it in your mind...again, and again.
I must admit that living in Ontario definitely draws me to John Hunt's books, as he writes about cities and towns that I know, and if some of them are fiction, the topography is not.

Overall, although some of his descriptions are a little repetitive or long, it is a really good book. It just grabbed me and hung on, much like a dog with a bone (or maybe a thigh).

Highly recommended!

This book pulled me out of a reading slump. It was fast paced, interesting and unlike anything else I've read recently. I'd describe it as mystery/paranormal/romance but not in the way you think. There were moments I sat in awe of the author's use of detail. I felt like I could "see" the scenes unfolding in front of me. 5 stars!

The Good

Plot. Oh man, oh man, horror and thrillers are not my thing but I can definitely see this changing. Although it didn’t seem to be something I liked, I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone so I was like meh, let’s give this a try. Was I wrooooong????!!!! Yes I wassss!! The plot in this book is goalz. It is handled so well and the characters are so true to their identity you would believe this book was based on a true story. The way this plot twisted and turned and how the mystery, horror and thriller combined with some paranormal… it was amazing.

Characters. Like I said before, they stayed so true to their identity and the way they were portrayed was so realistic… Jodie, my favorite character, is a detective, woman, of color, with a position high enough to piss off many men. She however doesn’t build this shell of “nothing can touch this bad ass girl”… she breaks down crying alone in her room when something good happens in her investigation. Graham is not a monster. He didn’t go to the woods and became an animal. He stayed the educated, smart man he was from the beginning. His reasoning for hiding is a very credible one and not at all pushed to the extremes. Even the negative characters in this book, they have weaknesses, they worry about their alibis, some of which even fail tremendously… I should stop before writing a book about a book but yeah, in case you missed it, I liked the characters.

Atmosphere. From the very first page you know you can expect great things from Mr. Hunt. I haven’t read scenes about shootings. Luckily they are not something that happens in my country and I don’t have any special need to read about people getting killed for the most idiotic reasons the human mind can invent. However, the atmosphere and contextualization in this book are tops.

World building. It may seem strange to talk about world building in a book so focused on the plot but the action covers quite a bit of terrain and I loved the switching between outside/ inside, urban/natural context. It was a brave move and it was done real good. It added many more layers to the book and made it go beyond your typical commercial horror story.

Conflict. Although the focus is, as I said, on the plot, it’s not just the exterior conflict that matters. It’s not just a matter of the good guys catching the bad guys. It was also a matter of human conscience and interior conflict.

Paranormal. I didn’t really know how to feel about this. It was a make or break kind of situation. The author however handled it really well and it made the book. It wasn’t ridiculous, it wasn’t overpowering, it was just the right kind in the right amount.

The bad

One thing I have to complain about and that is really small. There were a few typos in this book and they were the kind a non-native speaker noticed. They didn’t deter me from reading this book, as you can see I clearly read and liked it. They were just there, nagging at me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. Very interesting premise with almost a science fiction overtone. Large segments of the book do not have the main characters in the story. The author could have tightened up his writing with more action and less mental ramblings. Many papragraphs are far too long, even to running over a full page in legnth.

Off the Grid has a great premise. There’s also a good story here, but it’s buried beneath a mountain of typos, punctuation errors, grammatical mistakes, odd shifts from past to present tense, etc. I don’t normally mention these things in ARC reviews. However, this book is going to need much more than the cursory edit that typically happens between the release of an ARC and the final product.

I started tracking mistakes at one point with the intention of sending them to the publisher. But then I found eight issues in just one chapter (5) and decided it would be way too much effort.

Readers and the author deserve a better effort than what’s presented in the ARC. I really hope the publisher takes the time to give this book a serious edit before releasing it. Fixing the main issues would help a lot, although there are also some rambling sentences and a lot of repetition that really needs to be trimmed too.

In its current state, I can’t recommend this book, nor did I enjoy reading it. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by a much more skillfully edited version on release day. I won’t be posting this review elsewhere unless the final version still has the same issues.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC.

This book was quite a quick read for me. The writing is easy and quick flowing. It's starts well and grabs your attention from the off. There was parts of the book I didn't enjoy but overall it was a good read.

Wow - great book - i literally could not put this book down.
The book starts with a bang - this book is relevant, really scary, and is right off the headlines.
A family is at the mall, Graham, a young father, with his wife and child are enjoying the day until they hear shots fired and they run and hide. Graham shields his famiy, but the shooter finds them and...Days later Graham wakes up and reality sets in - his family is gone. Graham has survived, but he will never be the same again. He was critically injured mentally and physically; his appearance has been altered forever because the killer shot him in the face. His life as he knew it will never be the same again.
Graham lives alone in solitude after he recovers. He lives in the wilderness and rarely interacts with people. But Graham's suffering and pain has taken on a life of it's own.
A young child has been kidnapped from her home and Jodie Reyes, a detective, is called in to find her. Reports come in that a man fitting Graham's description bought items that may be related to this crime, so Jodie meets with him to see if he is involved. Graham strikes Jodie as a man who is in pain but not involved in this case. She is struggling to find the clues to connect where the child is until the child turns up on her own doorstep talking about a man with a strange face who saved her.
Reyes knows Graham saved the child, but can't figure out how he did it. Jodie's wants to get to know this man. And soon she will because a teenager goes missing, and Jodie knows that her only hope in finding her is Graham.
Fast paced with great twists as the plot lines interconnect. Very good - 4 stars