Book Review: Crone by Keith Rosson
I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.
Mogsy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Horror
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Random House (September 22, 2026)
Length: 352 pages
Author Information: Website
I’ve had several of Keith Rosson’s books sitting on my reading list over the past few years, but somehow, Crone is the first one I’ve actually picked up and read. And man, am I glad I finally took the plunge. Blending small-town crime, mystery, and supernatural horror, this was a great introduction to the author’s work. It’s the kind of story that starts pretty grounded, treading in gritty albeit familiar territories before gradually taking things up a notch in much stranger directions.
The story takes place in a small seaside town in the Pacific Northwest, where fifteen-year-old Hannah Lamp disappeared thirteen years ago after hitching a ride on a stormy night. The last person to see her was her best friend, Avery Bryant, who can only remember that the vehicle was a blue van and that she should have done more to stop Hannah from getting in. Years later, the guilt of that night still haunts her. Hannah’s father, Eli Lamp, a former detective, is just as unable to let go. Haunted by his own failings as a father and the time he neglected to give his daughter, Eli remains consumed by the need to find out what happened to her. His obsession, however, has left him indebted to a local drug gang, forcing him to work as their enforcer to pay off what he owes. Desperate to leave that life behind but unable to find a way out, Eli sees a possible escape when the gang’s leader offers to wipe his debt clean in exchange for finding out who killed his son.
Meanwhile, Avery returns to her hometown after many years, called to it by an unsettling dream of Hannah which brings unresolved questions back to the surface. A terrible discovery on the beach also catches the attention of Vicki Stubbs, a local fortune teller and self-professed witch who recognizes the bloody find as a sign of bad things to come. As these separate storylines begin to come together, the investigation points towards something far more sinister than the usual criminal activity in town.
One of the things I really liked about Crone was the mix of small-town crime and mystery with the larger, more insidious threat lurking beneath the surface. The drug trade and the organized crime rings, for example, are a menace that goes well beyond just a few criminals, reaching into the community and affecting the people in ways that aren’t always obvious. I thought this gave the story an unsettling vibe even before the supernatural elements came into play. Up until that point, I also liked how Rosson was leaving some room for doubt about what’s really happening. While there were hints that something unnatural might be at work, you’re never entirely sure until a major, genuinely shocking moment puts those doubts to rest once and for all. And speaking of shocking, there are a few twists here that I genuinely didn’t see coming.
Rosson also does a good job of showing how loss can leave people stuck in the past, unable to move forward even as the years pass them by. This is particularly evident in Eli and Avery, two of the novel’s strongest characters. Eli is a deeply flawed man whose grief over his missing daughter has shaped virtually every aspect of his life, but his determination to find out what happened to Hannah makes him an admirable figure all the same. Avery, too, is a tragic figure in her own right. Like Eli, she’s spent years weighed down by guilt, but there’s also a sense of wasted potential to her story that makes her situation all the more heartbreaking. Together, these characters give the novel an emotional depth that elevates it beyond what could otherwise have been a straightforward crime thriller with a supernatural twist.
As for the horror itself, I thought there was great balance between the grounded crime elements with the more disturbing, otherworldly aspects of the story. I enjoyed how the tensions gradually increased as the plot’s pieces gradually fell into place. A word of warning, there’s plenty of gruesome material here as well, including a few downright nasty scenes that get tough to read, though to be fair, it generally reads like a natural extension of the story rather than violence thrown in simply for shock value. If I’m forced to make just one complaint, I have to say my only disappointment was the ending. Given how well the mystery and atmosphere came together through most of the book, I was hoping for a conclusion that continued in that same vein. Instead, things became a little too untethered for my tastes. Fortunately, it did little to spoil the overall experience, but I did wish the end had felt more in keeping with the crime-driven horror that made the rest of the book work so well.
Overall, Crone was a very satisfying read, and I’m glad it was my introduction to Keith Rosson. I loved the combination of small-town mystery and creeping horror, but I also appreciated that beneath all the brutal crime and violence, there was also meaningful development with real emotion and sadness, especially after I read the author’s note and found out more about the book’s inspiration. I guess I know what this means: I’ll need to stop letting the author’s other books sit on my reading list for so long.
