THE EXCURSION by T.O. Paine – Horror, Thriller, Suspense Action

The Excursion by T.O. Paine is a horror thriller with enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

Two people tell this story. Charly, a woman in her 30s, faces her emotionally damaged family. Randall, meanwhile, works as an agent of Zaroff Excursions, a hunting club for the uber-wealthy with an interest in an extreme form of hunting where the prey is much more intelligent than a deer or bear.

On a cold Thanksgiving weekend, Charly and a few other members of her family travel to an isolated cabin in the mountains above Denver. Her car gets stuck in a snowdrift, leaving her stranded, but that’s only the start of her trouble. She finds that the cabin has been rented by Randall’s company for that same weekend, forcing her family to share the lodge with strangers.

Charly is there for a complicated family reunion.

Along with her autistic brother Jacob, whom Charly has taken care of all her life, she deals with two cousins: Amanda, who must win everything in her life at any cost, and Cal, who Charly fears might be a psychopath.

Randall has come for his “excursion,” well paid for his work, and confident that this weekend will prove his superiority to his boss. A self-styled alpha male, a hunter-cum-master-of-the-universe, he is in control of every detail of what happens in this ultimate form of hunting. Joining Randall in the cabin are Barry, the wealthy hunter who has signed on for this excursion, and Barry’s gaggle-headed girlfriend Kennedy.

But Randall brought one more person. Tyler sits caged in the boathouse near the cabin, kidnapped to serve as the designated prey. Randall didn’t expect his perfectly planned hunt would include Charly and her family, or Barry’s girlfriend, but he sees an opportunity in them. He has delicious, final plans for everyone at the cabin.

What can go wrong for the hunter who has everything perfectly under control?

A hidden pleasure here is the literary “Easter eggs” the writer has planted. For example, Charly’s last name is Highsmith, certainly a reference to celebrated mystery writer Patricia Highsmith. And Randall may well be related to Steven King’s protagonist in his best-selling The Stand. Does the unusual spelling of “Charly” have its roots in the science-fiction novel, Flowers for Algernon?

The Excursion grips you from the first page. Its march through dense snowdrifts and mountains will leave you yearning for waterproof boots, or, better, a blanket to hide under as you dig further into this twisty, unrelenting story. If you’re a fan of satisfying horror novels, this is one not to miss.