Customer Reviews

The Shore (Leisure Fiction)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In literary circles, it's often said that "style is the verbal identity of the writer"; that an author can be identified by the nature of their craft. Iambic pentameter suggests Shakespeare, lyrical prose evokes Bradbury, pinpoint word economy reveals Carver. In this way, Robert Dunbar's vivid imagery continues to blaze a distinctive trail. As he did in "The Pines", Dunbar captures the aura of a dying town perfectly, painting an entirely different portrait this time, one of winter and ice. Also, he explores the Leeds Devil's legend deeper, posing the question: what separates natural impulse from true evil?

Life has ground to a halt in the small shore village of Edgeharbor. Many shops have closed and left town, and tourism has dwindled. An overwhelming malaise covers everything, and growth is as frozen as the winter ground. Every year, the waters encroach further upon the shore. Edgeharbor is fading, but for Officer Kit Lonigan, it's a last chance to reclaim her pride - however illusory that may be.

People are dying, their bodies torn apart by something feral, wild.... perhaps evil. Complicating matters is a stranger haunting Edgeharbor's streets. He knows too much. Is he tracking Edgeharbor's shadowy killer? Or is he part of the darkness himself? Slowly, Kit is exposed to a terrifying world through him. He has touched this darkness, so intimately that he himself wonders if Kit is right - that he's just as dangerous as the monster he hunts.

In "The Pines", Dunbar captured the sweltering heat of an oppressive summer perfectly. Here, his trademark, imaginative prose pulls the reader into a frigid, uncaring winter in an isolated shore town. His management of the craft is masterful. In his descriptions, he doesn't just use lots of words - he uses the right ones, precisely. Also, he advances the myth of the Leeds Devil, making the reader wonder which is more evil: this evolving species, or good old fashioned, basic human cruelty?

Edge Harbor is a small seaside town that gets its resources from the tourists during the summer; in winter the place is almost like Wall Street on a Sunday as it is practically deserted with only locals residing there. Barry Hobbs, a stranger arrives in town in the winter. He has been tracking for months a young man Perry and he intends to take him alive to a place where he can receive help. Although the town is empty, Barry finds it impossible to ascertain where Perry is hiding. The lad is holding Stella hostage or it seems as if he is.

A woman's body washes up on the shore with her back savagely torn to pieces and her car having claw marks ripped into the metal. Barry knows his prey is holed up in town, but he remains ignorant that someone else is hunting Perry and Stella; that predator has no problem with collateral damage even eradicating a town. Officer Kit Lonigan joins forces with Barry after he explains why he seeks Perry though she finds his tale implausible: thatis until the truth slaps her in the face. She wants to kill Perry, but Barry is on a mission to take Perry to a safe place; that if they survive a hurricane and the unknown apparently inhuman adversary.

Robert Dunbar knows how to scare his readers into leaving the lights on especially while we are sleeping. THE SHORE is gothic in many respects with a semi deserted town cut off by a surging hurricane. Barry is on a mission he believes strongly in as he risks his life to accomplish it. Kit`s needs are simpler as she just wants to save her town by killing the peril. Character driven yet filled with action, Mr. Dunbar provides a terrifying horror thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Less than four months ago, I was unfamiliar with Robert Dunbar. I came across "The Pines" on the Dorchester Publishing Company website. It sounded like a really great read. The story as well as the writer's style lived up to my expectations. Dunbar succeeded in his quest to craft an atmospheric, creepy yarn. It was almost as if The Pine Barrens region was another character. Dunbar accomplished the same thing in The Shore. His recent release was every bit as atmospheric and chilling as "The Pines. I hope he does not wait another 20 years to write part three. I believe Dunbar will be able to do that considering the way "The Shore" ended. I believe non-horror fans would like this one.

The Shore is Robert Dunbar's follow-up and semi-sequel to "The Pines". The Setting is the town of Edgeharbor, a tourist town on the New Jersey Shore. Edgeharbor is a town sliding into decay and lethargy due to the slowdown of tourism. It's the off-season and nearly the entire town is shuddered for the winter. As the remaining townspeople brace for a storm, the local sheriff Kit Lonigan is dealing with something far worse...a serious of gruesome, bloody murders.

This isn't something that she is used to dealing with in the small town and the arrival of a mysterious stranger only adds to her problems. Is this man responsible for the crimes? Is he there to help? Dunbar is an expert when it comes to deception and keeping the reader off guard. The Shore is part Lovecraft with its setting of an eroding coastal town harboring deep secrets and part Stephen King with its style of creating suspicion among the townspeople by adding the stranger into the mix.

Dunbar has a beautifully descriptive style of prose however that sometimes works against him. As with the Pines, The Shore is a slow-starter and doesn't have that quick hook like you want to see in a horror novel. Dunbar sacrifices potent chills for atmosphere although the pace quickens more as the book goes on. The Shore isn't terribly scary but does have moody, brooding ambiance that works well with setting. Not a homerun, but a solid horror offering.

Probably the worst crime of writing is not to be bad, but to be boring. My first Robert Dunbar novel, The Pines, was written reasonably well, but I never found it very interesting. His follow-up book, The Shore, is also written reasonably well and though it takes a while to get going, eventually it is a more entertaining book than its predecessor.

A sequel of sorts to The Pines, The Shore takes place in the coastal New Jersey town of Edgeharbor. Just as in The Pines, The Shore opens with a woman being savagely murdered by a mysterious monster. The story then shifts to the principal characters: a fourteen-year-old kid named Perry who is keeping a girl locked up for unknown reasons; a stranger in town who is stalking Perry and Edgeharbor's seemingly sole cop, Kit, who is beginning to suspect that the stranger is behind the murders.

The truth is more complicated and involves a long-time Edgeharbor family with its share of dark secrets, including a son who killed his mother, was locked in an insane asylum and has just escaped. There are also links to the Pine Barrens and the Jersey Devil that were the focus of The Pines.

The Shore starts slowly, which is not often a good thing in a horror novel and definitely hurts this story. It does pick up, however, redeeming its early flaws. And though it is not a perfect book, Dunbar is a good writer, in particular in his descriptive abilities of the frigid atmosphere of Edgeharbor. Though not top-of-the-line horror, The Shore will probably please most fans of the genre.

Strange, moody book, hypnotic almost -- frozen resort town makes for a creepy setting. Sort of a polar opposite to The Pines. (This one is a sequel.) Not your typical horror novel. I'd probably only recommend it to people who like a more cerebral approach to genre fiction.

I saw elsewhere here where someone wrote that this story was poorly written, and I feel so differently that I felt compelled to add my thoughts. All I can say is that if a reader desires flowery prose while reading horror they should be reading novels by Anne River Siddons or Deborah Leblanc (both fine writers by the way). But if you want your horror written with deliberation, with impact, and to provoke intellectual stimulation, you can't do any better than reading Rob Dunbar's work.

Dunbar prefers to entertain his readers with horror that nestles uncomfortably in the wrinkles of our grey matter. He makes us think about what lies beneath the surface of our terror, and as a result, the horrors become personal. Dunbar does this to great effect in The Shore, a more than worthy follow up to his earlier novel The Pines. The author takes great care in building characterization and plot execution in the first half of The Shore, to the point where we feel as if these characters were part of our own lives. And in the second half of the novel, Dunbar's story explodes with action and vivid scenes of terror. The hurricane that hits near the end of the second half is written so realistically, that you will find yourself readings these scenes all over again just to experience a second hit of adrenaline.

Though I understand that opinions are neither right nor wrong, I would ask that if you are thinking of picking up The Shore, go with the majority of the reviews here and purchase it, I think you will enjoy it immensely.

I didn't like the pines and I have given the reasons why in the review for that book. This one however, is very readable, very chilling, and very good. From the prologue all the way through the epilogue it was a consistently great read.

Water, water everywhere in Robert Dunbar's fiction, and in his newest novel, THE SHORE, a surging winter hurricane is bearing down upon the dilapidated coastal community of Edgeharbor, New Jersey, where an economic depression has brought about a profound malaise and unease. Businesses have failed and tourists have moved on, leaving behind a crumbling shell of a town where a thriving seaside community once boomed. As the winds begin to howl across the nearly deserted town, a woman's mutilated body washes ashore and her car is discovered ripped by what appear to be huge talon-slashes. Edgeharbor is surrounded by the Jersey Pine Barrens, a dark tangle of forest where a predatory creature is rumored to stalk and kill unlucky campers and travelers. During her investigation and routine queries regarding the murdered woman, Officer Kit Lonigan questions a stranger who has recently come to town. Barry Hobbes claims to be an Atlantic City developer who has arrived in Edgeharbor for an on-site inspection, but he seems suspiciously nervous to Kit, and well he should be. Barry has secrets, and he's something of a predator himself. But he's not the only one. Someone...or something...is stalking Barry, too. As the body count and terror quotient escalates, the hurricane intensifies. Everyone is suspect and no one is safe. "The wildness creeps in", as the author astutely observes. Robert Dunbar serves up a howling slab of the dark stuff with this grand sequel to his celebrated first novel, THE PINES, which featured the legendary Pine Barrens monster, the Jersey Devil.

With his latest novel, The Shore, dark suspense master Robert Dunbar transports us from the sweltering New Jersey Pine Barrens, setting of his horror classic, The Pines, to the frigid oceanfront village of Edgeharbor, a dying tourist town caught in the grip of terror. A series of brutal unsolved murders bring a mysterious stranger into town in search of a boy who may be a monster or whose kind may be the hope of the future.

As a devastating storm breaks its wrath upon this isolated community, the elements themselves become an opponent as the stranger and a lone policewoman struggle to find a hostage girl who may well become the next victim.

Dunbar, a noted authority on folklore and legend, creates an intense and all too believable canvas on which to paint this tale of mounting terror and desperation. Here nothing is what it seems, and as revelations link the evil taking hold of Edgeharbor to murders from the past, the chilling connection to the Pine Barrens' murders becomes apparent. While not a sequel in the truest sense of the word, The Shore enriches the story introduced in Dunbar's previous novel, and sheds new light on the centuries old legend of the infamous Jersey Devil.

Impeccably crafted, with precise and elegant prose, meticulous attention to detail and pacing, this intense and wholly original novel is one of the best to come out of the genre in years. The Shore sets a new standard in literary horror.

A masterpiece!