Dark Roots
Sheldon Higdon
JournalStone Publishing (November 14, 2025)
Reviewed by Andrew Byers
Sheldon Higdon’s Dark Roots is a gripping, atmospheric thriller that weaves 1980s small-town terror with present-day personal demons in a taut, page-turning narrative. Set against the rust-belt backdrop of Erie and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the novel opens on a chilling Halloween night in 1989 when young Travis Fletcher, dressed as Superman, and his mother are lured by a wolf-masked stranger in a red wagon. What follows is a brutal abduction and murder that shatters lives and plants seeds of darkness destined to bloom decades later.
In the present, journalism professor Benjamin Cole grapples with his strained relationship with girlfriend Aisha, who longs for marriage and children while he clings to emotional distance and his loyal English Mastiff, Hogarth. Parallel threads follow Detective Eddie Lane, a veteran cop navigating Oakmont’s quiet crimes and his own loneliness, as an old case resurfaces with haunting echoes. Higdon masterfully shifts between timelines, building suspense through vivid, lived-in details: the crack of a crowbar, the metallic tang of blood, the ache of unspoken regrets.
Higdon excels at flawed, deeply human characters—Travis’s lingering trauma, Benjamin’s fear of commitment, Eddie’s understated weariness—without ever sacrificing momentum. The prose is sharp and cinematic, capturing the grit of blue-collar Pennsylvania with lines that linger: the way autumn leaves crunch underfoot or the hollow echo of a child’s scream. Themes of inherited violence, the weight of “roots,” and the thin line between protection and control pulse beneath the surface, lending the story a psychological depth reminiscent of early Stephen King or Dennis Lehane.
Clocking in at over fifty brisk chapters, the novel moves with relentless energy while allowing room for quiet, character-driven moments. Higdon delivers white-knuckle tension and genuine heart. Fans of character-rich thrillers will devour it in one sitting. Dark Roots sinks its teeth in early and refuses to let go.
