A Reckoning Up Black Cat Hollow

By Matthew F Jones
** Publication Date 27 January 2026 **
​3.5 stars


Sometimes you read a novel and you aren’t quite sure how you feel about it at the end. This novel had my head spinning, and I really don’t know how much I liked it. I suppose the fact that I hung on until the very end means something. 


Spinks is a former Marine, current insurance salesman with a side gig selling marijuana. One night after a visit to a client’s property off Black Cat Hollow Road, he comes across a young girl. The young girl stumbles out of the forest and up to his truck. When another vehicle approaches, Spinks grabs the girl and hauls her into the truck.


From there, everything becomes kind of a blur. The story hops back and forth between Spinks time in Afghanistan, his current place and time, and before, the time with his wife and daughter. It becomes a confusing mix of reality and fantasy and not knowing what’s real. I think what keeps the reader going through all this is to try to sort the reality from fiction or the hallucinations of a madman. Because there were times while reading this that I had to reread a sentence or paragraph several times just to understand it. 


We know Spinks suffered greatly in Afghanistan. We know that his current situation whether real or imagined sucks. Perhaps you will have a better understanding when you reach the end.


Not quite a mystery. Not quite horror. Not sure what I truly think.