18 Miles from Town

● PLEASE NOTE: Even though this is indicated as not being posted on goodreads (for some reason it would not send) I have typed this review separately on goodreads so members will be able to read. ●

'18 Miles from Town' by Jason Henderson was a super-charged roller coaster of a read for me. It is not only a thriller, but also has a vast amount of mystery and horror mixed in, which - for me - made this a hard read to put down.

The plot revolves around Mike Dotson, a middle-aged widower and father of two adult children who has just survived a workplace shooting. Having been a published author in his old life, he understandably decides to take the three weeks his job has given everybody off to recover and use it to return to his old, rundown family farm for some solace and to give writing another successful published book a go. Once there, Mike gets some solid writing done and even spontaneously goes and meets up with an old childhood girlfriend with whom he has a pleasant day visiting a dam they went to together as teens.

What ensues shortly thereafter is something Mike could not have imagined in his wildest dreams. He is held hostage by a group of people and is soon running for his life for reasons which are not at all what he thinks. He cannot trust anyone and has no way of getting help. It is not until almost the end when Mike finds out why he has been targeted that everything makes complete sense and provides a very satisfying and shocking conclusion.

I also appreciated Mike's childhood recollections and found them helpful in understanding the person he is today. They are exceptionally detailed and quite informative. Learning how book royalties work was especially interesting and educational for me personally.

The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because there are multiple editing errors all throughout. There is a sentence written twice in row, and often (because of typos and grammatical errors) I would have to read a paragraph twice just to make sense of what was being said. Hopefully this will be fixed before the book is released to the public. That being said, I do highly recommend '18 Miles from Town' for content alone. Author Jason Henderson did a fantastic job creating a highly original and exciting novel, and it is with great anticipation that I look forward to book two.

With much thanks to NetGalley and Castle Bridge Media for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. #NetGalley #18MilesfromTown