• Author: D.A. Butcher
• Publisher: independently published
• Publishing year: 2020
• Number of pages: 287
• ISBN: 97-9856257151-9
• My rating: 4/5

Blurb (back cover of novel):

An ecological disaster. A missing child. A man who would kill for his family.

Louis Lockhart and family take shelter from the worst storm to ever hit Kansas – The Beast of Black Sunday. Jesse pleads with his father to not let the Sandman get him. That night, Jesse vanishes from their home.

A grief-stricken Bonnie believes the Sandman had taken Jesse to protect him from the end of the world. Louis searches tirelessly for their missing son, while insidious things creep back from his past and threaten to tear his family to pieces.

Louis must become the man he left behind to save his family, but Bonnie’s Sandman creeps ever closer…

My thoughts:

When an awfully big storm hits Kansas and leaves the Lockhart family in despair, after the vanishing of their son, Jesse, it sets a bunch of actions in motion that changes everything for Louis Lockhart and his family. All this pain and suffering is accompanied by a terrible draught and the dust blows into everyone’s faces, blinding them for what is in front of them. It is inhaled and destroys all on it’s path. But as Louis says to his daughter, Dorothy: ‘Every draught comes to an end!’ But will it be in time? And where does the Sandman come from and what’s his stake in the disappearance of Jesse? A family is destroyed, a man’s mind is shattered to pieces and lunacy is on the brink of breaking loose! and when Dorothy disappears as well, all hell breaks lose in Louis’ mind!

D.A. Butcher uses this book to pay a tribute to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ by placing it in Kansas and naming the daughter after the main character of that story. And this leaves us all wondering during the story if maybe all that’s happening is but a dream. But Louis cracks with the disappearing of his son (and later also his daughter) and he starts seeing the ghosts from his past and those memories are fuel for his lunatic behaviour. Kansas is going bye bye!

A man who has lost is all, has nothing left to loose!

It definitely is a story that will linger and one that leaves a bitter taste. From start to beginning, we are witnesses of Louis’s descent into madness! Another independently published novel that earns its place among the greats!

Dylan A. Butcher combines elements from The Wizard of Oz with Scott Smith’s A Simple Plan and adds his own flavour of twisted mind to a very destructive story!

4/5! Definitely a must-read!