TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN by Fred Venturini – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

To Dust You Shall Return by Fred Venturini
Published by Keylight Books on June 22 2021
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 352
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Violent and disturbing, To Dust You Shall Return is a relentless but compelling mystery about a small town full of big secrets.

She thought of Kate, and finally understood her sister’s misery outside of Harlow. All the Jarvis girls had done was trade one brand of fear for another, and the fear’s beating heart was the town itself, and nothing would ever end, not ever, until a stake was driven through it. Kate had understood that, and the stake she sharpened was the janitor. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sharp enough. 

I thought I knew what to expect from To Dust You Shall Return, after loving Venturini’s The Heart Does Not Grow Back several years ago, but people, I was not prepared, not at all. This story is Violent with a capital V and rivals just about anything I’ve ever read before. And yes, there is a speculative element that comes into play late in the story, but humans are responsible for most of the horrific acts, which makes it even harder to stomach at times. The story revolves around an ex-mobster who seeks revenge for the brutal murder of the woman he loves, and the mysterious town where she used to live, a town whose residents are not allowed to leave. For those who like trigger warnings, I’m adding some at the end of this post, hidden because of spoilers.

Curtis Quinn is a retired Chicago mobster who pissed off his former boss and now he’s got a price on his head. He’s been trying to lay low, but all that changes when the woman he’s fallen in love with disappears. When Kristina’s body is found, horribly mutilated except for her face, Quinn knows he must try to solve the mystery of her murder. What he doesn’t realize is that by poking around in her past, he’s about to unleash hell on earth in the form of a mysterious figure called the Mayor. He soon uncovers the fact that Kristina had escaped from the small mining town of Harlow, Illinois, a town shrouded in secrets, where the residents are prisoners and the Mayor and his disciples rule with an iron fist.

Quinn decides to infiltrate Harlow disguised as a school janitor, hoping to learn the truth about Kristina’s murder and mete out his particular kind of justice, but things go spectacularly sideways when his ruse is discovered. At the same time, Beth Jarvis is fast approaching her eighteenth birthday, when she’ll be called to the annual Harvest Ceremony to finally learn all the secrets of Harlow. But Beth only wants one thing: to escape Harlow just like her sister Kate did. On the eve of Harvest, Beth and her best friend Trent decide to run, despite the dangers and the punishment that awaits them if they’re caught. When Quinn and Beth cross paths and realize they have something in common, they decide to help each other, even though the chances of either of them surviving are slim.

I love a good “small, creepy town with secrets” story, and Harlow fits that trope perfectly. Little by little, the author peels back the layers and exposes the rot and darkness at the heart of the town, and let me tell you, the tension was palpable. This was one of those breathless reads for me, where you’re almost afraid to turn the page, but nothing on earth can stop you.

Despite the (seemingly) non stop violence, this is actually a really good story, and the mystery of who the Mayor is and what exactly is going on in Harlow is what kept me reading. I’m fascinated with stories about cults and why anyone would join one or follow a leader who is clearly deranged and dangerous, and Venturini takes the idea of a small town cult to new levels of horror. In this case, the Mayor and his High Servants are so powerful that escape is nearly impossible, which is why most citizens keep their heads down and do what they’re told. 

The story is told from two main points of view: Quinn and Beth. I loved the way we get to see both sides of what’s going on: from Quinn, we see the shocking details from an outsider’s perspective, and we also get to see how far the Mayor’s reach extends, even past the borders of Harlow. And as an insider and a resident of Harlow—and someone who has grown up there—Beth’s perspective is one of survival, but also a weird combination of anger and acceptance. Beth has lost both her mother and sister, and her relationship with her father is strained, but her frustration with not knowing what happened to Kate and her mother drives all her actions and decisions, and she becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Quinn is a fantastic character as well, a man who has seen plenty of violence but isn’t quite prepared for the horrors of Harlow. The grim parts of his past are tempered by his relationship with Kristina and his attempts to live a normal life with her, but for a man like Curtis Quinn, true happiness is never going to be an option, so when Kristina is murdered, he’s prepared to die in order to learn the truth. Kristina is dead from the beginning, but her presence permeates the story anyway in the form of Beth’s and Quinn’s memories of her, as well as a secret journal that turns up later in the story. I also loved the myth of the Griffin, a tale told to the children of Harlow about a powerful creature who will someday return to destroy the Mayor and save the town, and I loved the way Kristina and Quinn are tangled up in this myth and how it ultimately plays out. I thought many of the side characters were well fleshed out as well, especially Beth’s father Marcus Jarvis, a man tormented by his past actions who does not want to lose his younger daughter, yet he knows it’s inevitable. Marcus’s story was probably the most heartbreaking for me, even more so than Quinn’s.

Venturini waits until almost the end of his tale to reveal the shocking source of the Mayor’s power, but what is even more interesting is how the characters deal with that knowledge and the decisions they make at the end. I was especially surprised by Quinn’s actions, and in fact I found him overall to be a very unpredictable character, which is one reason I loved this story so much.

This is a must read for horror fans who can handle extreme and relentless graphic violence, but who also appreciate a well written, well told tale full of complex characters.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

View Spoiler »Trigger warnings: murder, torture, extreme violence, cannibalism, filicide, (off page) rape « Hide Spoiler