Murder, madness, magic and betrayal

In 2009 John Hart published “The Last Child,” a national bestseller that went on to win the Edgar Award. The book also introduced the setting — Raven County, N.C. — and many of the characters that populate his ambitious and surprising new novel “The Hush.”

At the center of the earlier novel was Johnny Merrimon, a 13-yearold boy whose life had recently come undone. Johnny’s twin sister had recently disappeared and Johnny’s relentless, methodical search for her formed the centerpiece of the complex narrative. Johnny explored some of Raven County’s darkest corners, eventually uncovering the answer to his sister’s disappearance, and to some larger, unrelated mysteries as well.

Johnny’s investigation took him into a desolate section of Raven County known as Hush Arbor, the eponymous “Hush” of the current novel. A wild tract spanning 6,000 acres, Hush Arbor was the site of the 19th century murders of a number of slaves once owned by a Merrimon ancestor. It’s a haunting and haunted place that exerted an immediate hold on Johnny. By the time the new novel begins, his fascination has reached obsessive levels, and the Hush has become both his physical and his spiritual home.

“The Hush” takes place 10 years after the events recounted in “The Last Child.” By this time, much has changed. The difficult events of the past have faded and become part of the town’s half-forgotten history. And Johnny (now known as John) has retreated to the haunted precincts of the Hush, where he sleeps in a tree, grows his own food and spends his days protecting his home from unwelcome visitors.

All of John’s human connections take second place to the one attachment that governs his life: his relationship with the Hush. As the narrative unfolds, John will be confronted with the competing claims of another family with equally deep connections to the land.

Hush Arbor truly is a haunted place, and the origins of that haunting go back to the days of the African slave trade. Hart skillfully weaves that history into the primary story. Set pieces recounting some of the region’s more horrific encounters are among the highlights of an engrossing, cumulatively disturbing narrative that encompasses murder, madness, magic, betrayal and obsessive, undying love.

With its supernatural overtones and blurring of genre boundaries, “The Hush” may well seem like an anomaly. Regardless, readers should happily follow along into its hypnotic world.

FICTION “The Hush” by John Hart St. Martin’s, 418 pages, $27.99