St Aymon by George Gordon

​Every so often, I peruse the kindle genre freebies, checking out what’s out there. The goal is to find books that feature intriguing premise, decent reviews, and short page count. A good cover helps too. I do judge the book by the cover. It works, believe me.
Anyway, St. Aymon checked enough boxes to merit checking out. And sure enough, this turned out to be one of the unicorns of self-publishing– a genuinely decent original story, well told and well edited to boot.
Echoing heavily of the granddaddy of all scary stories, Dracula, this is an epistolary tale of a slow descent into madness. No need to go anywhere as far as Eastern Europe, when the wilderness of Canada is available. And somewhere in it, a tiny village of St. Aymon, a place where you can check in but not necessarily check out.
Something that a young man who follows his beloved new wife from his safe but unexciting life in England to the snowy wilds of her native Canada finds out all too vividly.
And then the same, though not quite the same, dangers are discovered by a detective following his trail.
Madness lies that way. But just what kind of madness…well, you’d have to read to find out for yourself. A very short novella and well worth the 45 or so minutes it’ll take you to visit – and learn to stay away from – the not quite charming village of St. Aymon. Recommended.