Theme Music

Today's post is on Theme Music by T. Marie Vandelly. It is 387 pages long and is published by Dutton. The cover is a picture of  house with ivy growing up to a window. The intended reader is someone who likes dark twisty thriller that walk the line of being horror. There is foul language talk of sex and sexuality, and violence in this novel. The story is told from first person close of the main character Dixie. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- She didn't run from her dark past. She moved in.
For the lucky among us, life is what you make of it, but for Dixie Wheeler, the theme music for her story was chosen by another long ago, on the day her father butchered her mother and brothers and then slashed a knife across his own throat. Only one-year-old Dixie was left alive, infamously known as Baby Blue for the song left playing in the aftermath of the slaughter.
Twenty-five years later, Dixie is still desperate for a connection to the family she can’t remember, so when her childhood home goes up for sale, Dixie sets aside all reason and moves in, re-creating a macabre decor with her family’s salvaged furniture. But as the ghosts of her family seemingly begin to take up residence in the home that was once theirs, Dixie starts to question her own sanity and wonders if the evil force menacing her is that of her father, or a demon of her own making.
In order to make sense of her present, Dixie becomes determined to unravel the truth of her past and seeks out the detective who originally investigated the murders. But the more she learns, the more she opens up the uncomfortable possibility that the sins of her father may belong to another, and, perhaps most tragically, to Dixie herself. As bodies begin to pile up around her, Dixie must find a way to expose the lunacy behind her family’s massacre in order to save her few loved ones who are still alive- and whatever scrap of sanity she has left.

Review- A twisty, intense, and very surprising horror thriller that had me gasping in shock and surprise more than once. This is one heck of story, that will make you questions how much is real how much is in Dixie's head, and who is the real killer. This is Vandelly's debut novel and I am very impressed. We have everything in this novel: unreliable narrator, horrific murders, ghosts, and a one really bad killer. Dixie is very damaged from what happened when she was a baby and how she was raised and that makes her a great main character. She is always likable but she is compelling and that means more to me than liking her. The real killer was a surprise to me but not the helper, I did guess that one. If you are looking for a very intense, dark thriller-horror story then I highly recommend this novel.

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