There is virtually no piece of popular fiction that at least one person hasn’t used as inspiration for their own story, especially with the proliferation of self-published fan fiction on the internet. It is rarer however for an author or a work to reach a level of cultural saturation so large that these books are issued in large scale printings (at least not without significant alterations masking their origins). Jane Austen is one of, if not THE most often used in this instance, with her handful of classic novels having been expanded upon, parodied, and retold so often that it’s hard to keep up. It now looks like the world of Stephen King is finally beginning to make this leap, with last year’s The End of the World As We Know It collecting short stories by a host of major authors that revolve around The Stand, and now up-and-coming horror author CJ Leede has crafting her own tale that, while not directly related to the events of The Shining, clearly riffs on its ideas while paying homage to the original tale.

As a boy, Daniel Stansfield’s mother was a huge fan of King’s seminal haunted hotel tome and noticed her son exhibiting a talent similar to the character of Danny. She tended to take heed to any “bad feelings” Daniel noticed but after her death at the hands of his father, Daniel tried to ignore the things he sensed. Now an adult, having been raised by loving foster parents who ultimately died in a car accident, he is attempting to leave his career as a Special Agent for the FBI. But a case that he was unable to solve years earlier appears to have sprung back to life and his boss is able to convince him to work it, alongside the agent who is now married to his ex-wife.

A string of murders have been committed, each with the same grisly MO but each seemingly conducted by different people who all claim to have no memories of the events afterward, and the new batch seems to be aimed at reaching out to Daniel directly, orchestrated by someone who is somehow almost supernaturally able to determine his exact location at any given moment. When one of the victims survives and also seems to share Daniel’s gift, the mystery of just what is happening and who could be pulling the strings only grows increasingly strange. And dangerous.

Leede doesn’t shy away from shocking the reader, completely unafraid to present us with violent visions and disturbing story elements, though with each book she does seem to deploy less and less of each. While the crimes themselves are certainly graphic, they largely appear “off screen”, with the aftermath only presented in enough detail to make us understand the facts. There is really only one sequence here that I would qualify as “extreme”, but take note that it is very much so and take heed before diving in.

Daniel is an interesting character and the revelations about his backstory help propel the story forward, though his unwillingness to acknowledge his special skill begins to become frustrating, especially as it becomes clearer and clearer that using it could possibly help his situation. The characters around him are also compelling, even if only one of them is developed nearly as well.

Leede is a talented author who knows how to keep readers turning pages late into the night. Some of her attempts at the more “woo woo” spirituality that King sometimes ventures into don’t work quite as well as she intends, but they don’t detract from an otherwise engaging tale. While there are references to The Shining aplenty, the eerie, impossible murder mystery at the core of the story is more reminiscent of King’s The Outsider helping the novel appeal equally to fans of either book. The ending leaves open the possibility of a sequel and I for one would happily follow to see where this all might lead to next. ★★★★