Black Pine Creek

By: David Haynes

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Gold is all Scott Draper knows. Gold and darkness. A lifetime of mining has broken his life, estranged him from his daughter and left two dead men behind. One last opportunity might turn things around–an abandoned mine in the icy Alaskan wilderlands. If he can bring his old crew together to help, they could all end up rich. Draper knows that darkness always follows the gold. What he doesn’t know is that something even darker than his past, something nightmarish and ravenous, is waiting for them all in the shadows of Black Pine Creek.

©2016 David Haynes (P)2025 W.F. Howes Ltd.

good characters, weakest horror

Haynes has always had an eye for pacing and character. This might be his best lead character yet. And the themes here are strong as well. But he’s also never been great at writing women, and that issue shines particularly foul here. The one woman in the cast isn’t given enough to do to warrant how much they bring up her femininity.

The horror element is also by far the weakest across all his works i’ve read. In making the animal more lovecraftian & ethereal, haynes simply takes little time to develop the threat and leaves all the most intense moments for the final confrontation, but we know so little that carries no weight.

Very disappointing and predictable story

Story was very predictable and generic the subplots were unnecessary and dragged out for to long. Characters were written as complete idiots this author is usually good but this entry is one of their worst yet.