The Toll

Today's post is on The Toll by Cherie Priest. It is 334 pages long and is published by Tor. The cover has a road that goes into darkness. There is mild foul language, no sex, and no violence in this novel. The intended reader is someone who likes horror, southern Gothic, and just a touch of Cthulhu. The story is told from third person close of the main characters. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- State Road 177 runs along the Suwannee River, between Fargo, Georgia, and the Okefenokee Swamp. Drive that route from east or west , and you'll cross six bridges. Take it from west to east, and you might find seven.
But you'd better hope not.
Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon, and have reservations in the Okeenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car.
Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell there i no such bridge on State Road 177...

Review- This is an excellent horror novel. Priest is a master storyteller and this novel is no different. We have several different plot threads that join into one monster. Titus is looking for his wife, Dave is looking for what happened to him, and everything leads back to the stone bridge that only appears every thirteen years. The mystery of what is going was less interesting to me than what is the monster in the swamp. Until about half way into the novel I was thinking it was just a ghost story until the monster in the back ground was shown to be real. The writing is great, the plot does take a little while to get going but once it does it is a downhill ride all the way. If you like slow burn horror novels then you should give this one a try.

I give this novel a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.