Ghost Road Blues

The Pine Deep Trilogy, Book 1

By: Jonathan Maberry

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel

From a master of horror comes an apocalyptic showdown between the residents of a secluded, rural town and the deadly evil that confronts them wherever they turn.

Evil doesn’t die.

The cozy little town of Pine Deep buried the horrors of its past a long time ago. Thirty years have gone by since the darkness descended and the Black Harvest began, a time when a serial killer sheared a bloody swath through the quiet Pennsylvania village. The evil that once coursed through Pine Deep has been replaced by cheerful tourists getting ready to enjoy the country’s largest Halloween celebration in what is now called “The Spookiest Town in America.”

It just grows stronger.

But then—a month before Halloween—it begins. Unspeakably desecrated bodies. Inexplicable insanity. An ancient evil walks the streets, drawing in those who would fall to their own demons and seeking to shred the very soul of this rapidly fracturing community. Yes, the residents of Pine Deep have drawn together and faced a killer before. But this time, evil has many faces—and the lust and will to rule the earth. This struggle will be epic.

Keep chilled: listen to more in the Pine Deep trilogy.

©2006 Jonathan Maberry (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Maberry supplies plenty of chills, both earthbound and otherworldly, in this atmospheric horror novel…This is horror on a grand scale, reminiscent of Stephen King’s heftier works.” ( Publishers Weekly)

That was intense! Need more

I read other reviews and thought I would give this a listen. Totally worth it. Yea it could be a little wordy but overall it was very full of characters profiling without question you know who is good and who is evil. I’m going to look for the next one in the story since this doesn’t finish off the whole story, but it will be worth it to see how everyone ends up. Especially since I’m reading this right close to Halloween 🎃 I recommend it, stick out the lengthy parts it is worth it.

Good story, not what I expected.

I was hesitant to download this book, I thought it was another zombie novel. I was glad I was wrong. The narrator was good, the story excellent when I thought I had it figured out. when I thought I had it figured out the author threw another curve ball.

Great listen!

Loved this book. Author and narrator were on point. it's based in 2006 which I forget is actually a longer time ago than I'd like to believe. This is a nice jump back in time. I recommend it for everyone who loves horror.

Scary!

Perfect read for the season! Scary twisted thriller set in a cornfield. Expertly read and written!

Ghost Road Blues

I’m flabbergasted by all the negative reviews for this book.
This is simply great writing.
The descriptions of people, their inner thoughts, the metaphors and similes, dialogue- none of it is repetitive or unnecessary (like a few books I’ve encountered).

The story is about a serial killer in a small town with a dash of supernatural goings on. Every chapter builds upon the story and the action is nearly non stop. Each character holds a purpose and is well thought out.

Johnathan Maberry is a great writer, pure and simple. One I would love to be compared to one day.

Add to that the brilliant narration by Tom Weiner. He seems to be a man of a thousand voices; lots of characters and all distinct without being clichéd.

I’ll gladly pick up another story by Maberry one day, especially if I want a spooky and gory and violent story with plenty of fun for gore hounds.

My only complaint is the over abundance of pop culture references. They are non stop and as of 2022, there are very few readers who would understand all of them. I’m about 10 years, this would need a wiki article just to explain the references to readers.

Ghost Road Awesome Read

Where does Ghost Road Blues rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This audiobook ranks in the higher middle. I still have some audiobook to listen to but when I get finished with my other audiobooks, the ranking GRB might change.

What other book might you compare Ghost Road Blues to and why?

I might compared it to some of Stephen King's supernatural works.

Have you listened to any of Tom Weiner’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, I haven't listened to any of his other works.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Val attacks Carl for revenge for her father.

Any additional comments?

I'm going to get the second and third book now!!

I keep runing into books that are series.

I wasn't trying to follow a series but I just might Finish these one. When I first got this book it didn't say Book 1 or part of a series, and that happens many times. Anyhow, this story was scary and had scary voices. The narrator was very awesome and gave me goosebumps.

Maberry Delivers, Weiner performs

I have never enjoyed this genre much but Maberry has made a concert of me. And Tom Weiners performance was spectacular. I can't wait to get to the next book. (I hope there is one)!

Mixed bag

My introduction to Jonathan Maberry and Pine Deep actually started with Darkness at the Edge of Town - a collection of short stories that follow up this trilogy (of which this book is the first). I enjoyed it immensely despite being unfamiliar with the events of the series, so was excited to listen to this book afterwards.

I think there is a fair chance I wouldn’t have finished this book had I not listened to Darkness on the Edge of Town first. I gather this was his first novel, and it really shows. Generally I liked a lot about the story, but found the dialogue extremely clunky, as it tried to really force the portrayal of the protagonist (Crow) as this relentlessly up beat, “happy go lucky”
guy. It just didn’t work for me.

Having said that, I intend to listen to the next in the series to see if the writing starts to improve as it did by the time he got to the short story collection.

Note on the narrator- he was pretty good. He’s no Ray Porter (who narrated the later work I mentioned) but overall i found him enjoyable.

I’m glad I stuck with it!

The beginning of the book was very confusing, but as the story goes on, things started making more and more sense. By the end, I was hooked! Definitely worth a try! Plus it was a free book, so you can’t ask for anything better than that! (: