Oracle is a paranormal horror novel about a group of people affected by the discovery of a ghost ship stranded in the middle of a field in the Netherlands.

The character of Robert Grim is back after the devastation of the cursed town of Black Spring. Now something paranormal has occurred, and he’s pulled out of his life as a hermit in Atlantic City to investigate. An 18th-century ship has appeared overnight in a farmer’s field in the Netherlands, and every local who has gone inside to investigate has never reappeared. The ship becomes a political tool of various covert government and military groups, and Grim is quickly sidelined despite his expertise. In order to save young Luca (a teenager who lost both his best friend and father to the ship), Grim will have to stay one step ahead of the Dutch secret service and its villainous operative, Eleanor. But the ship is just part of a long unfulfilled desire of devastation by an ancient being, and Luca is the key to discovering what it wants.

I enjoyed the beginning of this book when it was limited to the terror of what the ship can do and the addition of Robert Grim (who could be an elderly Fox Mulder by this point), but then it goes off the rails, and I wasn’t sure what was happening. Whether it’s cultural or lost in translation, I just didn’t vibe with the last portion of the book or the overarching ancient evil and what it was asking.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎧 Audio notes: Oracle was narrated by Nathaniel Priestley, who does an excellent job with the story, but it seemed on the slow side, and I felt like it flowed better sped up to 1.25x.

* A free advanced copy of Oracle was provided by Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.