The Hollow Ones (Blackwood Tapes #1)

I was pleasantly surprised to see the email from Amazon letting me know The Hollow Ones was available for download. I planned to reach a chapter or two and then save the rest for the weekend. Several hours later I finished the book and I needed to make other weekend plans. I have been a fan of Chuck Hogan for years. I have enjoyed his early work as well as his more recent Strain Trilogy also written with Guillermo Del Toro, one of my favorite directors. While this book does not fit my normal genre of a spy and detective novels ( think Brad Thor, Daniel Silva, Michael Connelly), it kept me interested and engaged. It was a fast paced thriller that was part occult, part detective and part historical fiction. Flashbacks to the 1500s and 1962 were used to provide necessary background. The main characters were well developed and likable. Without giving away the story, the novel centers around an FBI agent and a mysterious occult detective. The two team up to prevent potential world wide disaster. I definitely see this book and hopefully its sequel made into a movie or perhaps a Netflix type mini series. The flashback scenes would work great in that setting. If you are looking for faced paced Summer Read, you wont be disappointed with The Hollow Ones.

Wow! Just……. wow! I absolutely love to read when I have any free time (I read at least 2-3 books a week) and The Hollow Ones is THE BEST BOOK I\’ve read in a loooooooong time! The concept behind this book is original, beautiful, thrilling, sad, amazing & it intertwined 3 AWESOME stories into 1 spell bounding conclusion! If you thought The Strain books were good, THIS book will friggin blow your mind! It\’s like Criminal Minds meets the paranormal! My only sadness is that Guillermo del Toro is SUCH a master storyteller that I couldn\’t put this book down & now I\’m finished & I need more!!! The end begs for a sequel or even a series! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give me another Blackwood book!!! Until then, I will re-read this awesome gift of imaginative literature! 5 stars!!!

Oh boyone of those reviews I dont really want to do. Ill start by saying that its a fast, entertaining read. I finished it extremely quickly. But It was not epic. Having read and loved the authors before, I expected epic. I expected a book that would thrust me into a world so dark and compelling that I couldnt come up for air. What I got was Denzel Washington flashbacks. Dont get me wrong, I love Denzel. But this was Fallen starring Denzel Washington mashed up with a little Exorcist prequel. It wasnt original. Most of the characters fell flat. The only one I felt like we really got to know was an FBI agent who was one of the first African American agents. I loved him. I felt like I knew him. This is the first in a series. Theres certainly room for the series to grow into something more fully realized and I did enjoy the first book enough that I would happily read the second. It just wasnt quite what Id hoped for.

The Hollow Ones is a quick read. I read it in 2 sittings. There are 3 main characters: Odessa Hardwicke, Earl Soloman and Hugo Blackwood. Both Soloman and Hardwicke are FBI are tied together by a common thread. Blackwood is a wild enigma. He is a Sherlock Holmes of magic: arrogant, and controlling. The Hollow Ones is a good start to a series but felt way too short compared to what was done in the Strain. I would have liked 100 pages more of development. I also would have liked to have been scared.

These authors need a better editor. There were amateurish writing mistakes. And the book reminded me more than a little of the fun Agent Pendergast books. A fast read that wont stay with me. I was disappointed.

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