The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

Tor Nightmare, 352 pages, $27.99

A horror story set in the Pacific Northwest, normally the home of just vampires, ancient forests, mystical rites? Now something else is stirring in the forest? Sounds like a perfect winter’s read.  

Author Catriona Ward has many narrative voices in her chilling tale of murder (maybe), abuse (maybe), creepiness (definitely). One of those voices belongs to a cat, Olivia. Another is a young (maybe) girl, Lauren. The other two voices are Ted, Lauren’s father, and their new neighbor, Dee. As their stories move along, the dread grows.

What exactly is happening in Ted’s house, the last house on Needless Street? The windows are boarded up, there are three locks on each door. The backyard, once the scene of a bird massacre, is rimmed by a dark forest. As forbidding as Ted’s house is, new neighbor Dee still tries to make Ted’s acquaintance. She has an ulterior motive.

Long ago, one sunny summer day, Dee lost her younger sister at a lake not far from Needless Street. Ted was one of the people questioned by the police after Lulu’s disappearance, and he was exonerated. Nevertheless, Dee remains suspicious. Over the last eleven years, since the loss of her sister, Dee has become her own best detective, and it is Ted who has finally drawn her undivided attention.

It is clear Ted has issues. He is seeing a therapist for some of those issues — but mainly to get medication. He calls his therapist “the bug man,” mostly because he has a hard time remembering names. Ted drinks to excess, tries online dating, has difficulty making friends. There are gods in the forest, green something-or-others in the attic, and his mother is somewhere undefined. And where is the chihuahua lady who lives a few doors down? Ted sometimes appears at the bug doctor’s with scratches on his face or arms. The cat, he explains.

The book sounds crazier and crazier as it goes along. The dread increases and so does the puzzlement. What the heck is going on? If Dee gets into any trouble, she cannot call the police; she has burned that bridge. If Ted needs help who can he turn to; it’s clear the bug man is a terrible therapist. Lauren has many issues and no one seems lined up to help her. Olivia the cat is the only one with someone to rely on: God. She knocks over the Bible, reads whatever page opens, and follows the advice.

It’s a lot to swallow, but Ward slowly draws her reader into the craziness and unraveling of the tale and the characters. Even “Needless Street” has a transmogrification at the end.

The tale hangs on twists and whether you buy those twists. I liked it, when I wasn’t closing my eyes in case something bloody awful happened to Lauren.