Flame Tree

Flame Tree

English

“Late in Marc Fitch’s book Boy in the Box, the protagonist says, “I don’t think we know what we’re dealing with here,” and so we head fearfully into the final 100 pages or so of a skillful exercise in horror one can’t help but compare to a masterpiece of the genre, Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows.” Fitch’s guilt-ridden trio marches into a wilderness possessing danger they don’t properly fear until, of course, it’s well too late. The novel begins with a tip-toeing dread and builds at a measured pace to a jog and then a run as the protagonists’ attempts to right a wrong from the past open the floodgates to mind-wrenching horror. Fitch’s prose is concise and glues the reader’s attention in a manner making it difficult to put the book down until it’s dismal conclusion. This is solid reading for fans of the genre and would certainly make for a nice introduction for those wandering into this particular forest for the very first time.”