Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole
Raven’s Peak is a paranormal fiction story written by Lincoln Cole. It is part of the World on Fire series. Cole is an author from Columbus, Ohio, and he’s a huge Stephen King fan. His love for King’s work is reflected in his own work. There are enough thrills, mystery, and excitement in this book to keep anyone who is a fan of this genre reading it and wanting more. Demons – we’ve all seen the movies and read the books. Demons never cease to scare the daylights out of us. Cole does that well in Raven’s Peak, tapping into those fears. Much like Stephen King’s books, this story leaps off the pages and latches onto the fears that many of us have when it comes to the supernatural. This story focuses on a young man named Haatim, a college student, and a young woman named Abigail Dressler, a demon hunter who belongs to a group called Ordo Daemonium. Dressler fights demons on behalf of The Council of Chaldea, which protects the world from the supernatural. The two journey to a town called Raven’s Peak to investigate a demonic presence there. Despite Dressler having ulterior motives and Haatim coming along for the ride, at least for the moment, these two make a great team throughout the book. It’s easy to make a connection with each of their characters in one form or another.
The character development in this book is phenomenal. Each character is battling their own demons (literally and figuratively). Both Abigail and Haatim are struggling with loss in different ways. Haatim lost someone close to him, which in turn, causes him to struggle with his faith in a higher power. This aspect of his character is interesting since the main focus of the story is the existence of demons and what they can do to humans, emotionally and physically. This causes him to be further conflicted with his feelings concerning the supernatural and his beliefs in a higher power. Abigail’s loss makes her character stronger in a way, but in other ways there’s a weakness when it comes to the connection she once had with the person she lost. Cole’s descriptions throughout the book have the ability to shake a reader to the core. In one particular scene, Cole describes one of the characters underwater holding their breath. The scene was overwhelming and somewhat anxiety inducing. Such in-depth descriptions tell us a lot about an author and what other types of stories he or she would be capable of writing. According to Cole’s website, he has eleven other publications, which are definitely worth looking into.
This book would appeal to anyone who enjoys stories that focus on the supernatural and demonology. It’s packed with mystery and even horror. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is sensitive to blood and gore or someone who frightens easily. However, if you enjoy dark stories with a complex/meaningful plot and characters with an abundance of substance, then Raven’s Peak is for you. I give Raven’s Peak 5 out of 5 stars for excellent descriptions, complex characters, and a solid story. I’m looking forward to book two and three.
