Olde Heuvelt expertly contrasts Nick’s somber desperation and Sam’s desperate optimism to create a moving narrative that stops just short of going over the top. Sam, meanwhile, investigates what happened to Nick and to others who have strayed too close to Le Maudit-including the 32 people who died violently at the hospital where Nick recuperates and all those who’ve committed suicide since. A compulsive page-turner mixing supernatural survival horror and adventure. As Nick’s violent impulses slowly overtake him post-rescue, he worries that he may now embody Le Maudit’s “old and dangerous” soul. From international bestselling sensation Thomas Olde Heuvelt comes Echo, a thrilling descent into madness and obsession as one man confronts nature - and something even more ancient and evil answers back.

Sam Avery, Nick’s lover, struggles to cope with the suggestion that whatever happened on the mountain was no accident, while Nick wonders whether he’s becoming a monster as he tries to understand why he and Augustin felt compelled to climb the innocent-looking little peak of Le Maudit in the first place. Nick and Augustin, climbing buddies, are attracted. Echo follows his sensational debut English language novel, HEX. His work combines a unique blend of popular culture and fairy-tale myth that is utterly unique.

By the time Swiss rescuers reach stranded mountaineer Nick Grevers, his face has been horrifically mutilated and his climbing partner, Augustin, has gone missing. In Echo you follow Sam and Nick’s story of how they’re dealing with the aftermath of an accident that happened high up in the Swiss Alps. Dutch writer Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a Hugo Award Winner and has been hailed as the future of speculative fiction in Europe. Olde Heuvelt ( Hex) loads this smart tale of a young man’s dehumanization with extravagant horror tropes while expertly avoiding cliché.

Echo by Thomas Olde Heuvelt