Recap of In the Hills Above the Gristmill

Before the release of In the Grave Where the Bones Are Still Wet, the second book in the Paisley Mott series, I wanted to post a recap of the first book, In the Hills Above the Gristmill. 

If you haven’t read that first book I would NOT recommend continuing on with this post. Though it would give you enough information to understand certain aspects of the second book, you would lose the opportunity to collect certain clues for a much larger mystery. It would also rob you of getting introduced to the characters the way they were intended. Plus, if I do say so myself, the book is pretty fun. The second book continues Paisley’s story, but that story, and the version of Paisley, and the other characters in it that would carry over, are painted by the events of the first book. By reading that first book you are doing me the favor of allowing me to tell you the story the way it was intended. 

In the Hills Above the Gristmill is available in physical form from Barnes & Nobel and Amazon. You can get the ebook on Amazon as well, including being able to read it on Kindle Unlimited. If you want to listen to the Audio version it's up on Audbile now. If you’re a sucker for the personal touch, like I myself am, you can purchase signed copies of any of my books right here on my website. 

So, last chance to avoid me completely spoiling the first book of the Paisley Mott series, In the Hills Above the Gristmill. If you want to bail out so you can experience it the way it was intended, then jump out now. Otherwise, let’s begin. 

It takes eight pounds of pressure to rip off a human ear. That’s the first sentence of chapter one of In the Hills Above the Gristmill. It comes as we watch a woman trying to escape a large, hairy, remorseless monster and failing to do so. 

This event, and others very similar to it, are the catalyst for the Preacher of the local church in the small Appalachian mining town of Grey Water Ridge, to request the assistance of our hero and protagonist, a paranormal investigator and content creator, named Paisley Mott. Paisley is intrigued by the claims of the preacher that it is in fact a sasquatch, summoned by God to punish the wicked, that is killing women in the hills above the town. 

At the time we meet Paisley she is suffering her own trauma as she continues to process the murder of her mother just a year or two prior. She battles a type of severe anxiety that also causes her to hyper focus, which can be devastating in certain situations, but helpful in others. She is looking for ways to regain control in her life and her videos are her lifeline to do that. She feels calm in front of the camera because it allows her to mask and become someone stronger than herself. Another aspect of control for Paisley is her attraction for the off limits man of God who called her down there. 

While in Grey Water Ridge, the preacher, the charming and mysterious Hollis Grimm, has arranged for Paisley to stay with Hyacinth Bloom, the local heiress to the coal fortunes earned over the past century from the surrounding counties. Hyacinth is a brilliant and beautiful social media influencer, model, philanthropist, and entrepreneur who lives just outside of town in a magnificent gothic mansion they call Raven Bloom. Other than Hollis, Hyacinth seems to be the only person in the small mining town that is excited to see an outsider. Others are stand offish or just plain rude as Paisley tries to make introductions and learn about the town’s history as it seems that the sasquatch, which Paisley continues to mistake for Bigfoot, has been around for more than a hundred years. 

Paisley is given a little help and direction from Grover Northfield, the county’s Sheriff, who knows a little about being an outsider as he moved to the town and was elected as the first person of color to hold the position, much to the thanks of Hollis Grimm, who Paisley is discovering holds more power and influence over the town than a person of faith ever should. 

While following the leads given to her by Sheriff Grover, Paisley meets Boyd Gunnerson and his Irish Wolfhound, Pilot, who both spend their days looking over the Pitt County Public Library located right there in the heart of Grey Water Ridge. Boyd wants very much to help Paisley, but seems hamstrung in his ability to do so by a fear of Hollis and what he might do if anyone interrupts the narrative he is painting of the sasquatch being sent from God. No one seems to doubt the presence of the creature, and many, including Hollis, claim to have seen it countless times. The doubt seems to come from the beast being sent by God. 

While livestreaming a tour of the very impressive Raven Bloom mansion, Paisley is interrupted by a rude commentor who makes some inappropriate remarks and is identified by Hyacinth as KingCourt, one of the many jerks that she, as a social media personality with half a million followers, has had to deal with before. KingCourt is Courtney Teere, an incel who spends most of his time fantasizing about having power and control over those he deems less than himself.

KingCourt isn’t the only online interaction Paisley has. She befriends and is supported in her investigation by WhyItHurts, a person who commented on her videos offering help in deciphering clues.

Hyacinth loans Paisley a Canary Yellow Hummer H2 to assist her in getting around the county. During her investigation Paisley uncovers a dark history of the town that showed corruption on the part of the original founder of the town and its mining operations. The town was seemingly saved when Hyacinth’s great, great, great, great grandfather, Wilbur Bloom, stepped in to help balance things out after a tragedy where a number of minors were killed. During the uprising that led to the tragedy one of the mining supervisors, Herk Steiner, lost his wife in a fire that also cost his youngest son, Nathan his legs, an arm, and most of the skin on his body. The boy miraculously survives, but not for long, as after Herk pushes back on the same terrible labor practices that he believes caused someone to start the fire in his cabin in the first place, Nathan is taken and witnesses report that they saw a beast, nearly nine foot tall and covered in hair, running off with the boy, who was never seen again. Herk Stiener is then accused of planting the explosives that kill the minors and create the tragedy that will define the town, taking his own life shortly after. Wilbur Bloom appears as the savior once again to buy out the failing founder and taking over the mining operation and the future of the town.

As Paisley grows closer to Hollis she decides to allow herself the pleasure of being intimate with the Preacher, in a pew in the back of his church. The pew is marked with the letters HCHR, letters Hollis tells Paisley that he carved into the pew starting when he was a kid and his little brother Cecil dared him to. Hollis says that he thought carving initials into the pew may provide some sort of protection for those he cared about when he was a boy and his father was the preacher at that very same church.

After Paisley shows doubt in Hollis’s story about the sasquatch being sent by God, and hearing that there may also be a human suspect, a deputy who is reported to be hiding out in the woods, Hollis gets upset and tells Paisley that she should talk to Hyacinth as the identity of the suspected killer is none other than Deputy Rowan Bloom, Hyacinth’s younger brother. 

Suspicion grows as Paisley begins to worry that the hiding of the identity of the deputy was no accident, as Hyacinth was not only protecting her brother, but her boyfriend, Sheriff Grover Northfield’s best friend. 

Before she can question Hyacinth about the situation Paisley is attacked in Raven Bloom by Courtney Teere, who was lying in wait to rape and murder Hyacinth Bloom. Paisley manages to escape into a panic room that serves as Hyacinth’s office where she discovers documents that show that H Bloom is listed as the owner of almost every single property in Grey Water Ridge. 

Law enforcement arrive and Courtney is gone, but Hyacinth is missing. Grover tells Paisley that he hasn’t seen her. He tells Paisley to stay put and begins searching for Hyacinth. Paisley ignores the request and sneaks out, going to visit Hollis for help. 

Hollis tells Paisley that he doesn’t trust anyone in town, so she is better off staying at his house while he also goes to look for Hyacinth. When Hollis returns he has two pieces of bad news. One, he found Hyacinth’s phone and there is evidence, a picture, of what appears to be Hyacinth being taken by the sasquatch. He also shares that Courtney Teere had carried out a shooting at the local diner and a number of people were killed, including her new friend Boyd Gunnerson.

Paisley is in shock. Hollis tells her the best thing for her is to stay in hiding, but she insists on going with him to his sermon so she can try to make sense out of what is happening. At the service Hollis seems to revel in the tragedy and uses it to fire up his dedicated congregation. After Hollis slaps a woman in the face for admitting to impure thoughts Paisley is disgusted and leaves. The wheels are turning and she livestreams her thoughts, putting together that there are only a few properties not owned by H. Bloom. One was Raven Bloom, one was Hollis’s Father’s cabin, and the other was a small piece of property belonging to Delano Bruss, a crotchety old miser if there ever was one.

Paisley visits Bruss who helps her put the final pieces into place. He tells Paisley that Hollis once cut his grandson’s face, destroying one of his eyes, just because the boy took from the collection plate. But the bigger piece of information comes when he tells Paisley that Hollis’s mom left his dad and married Craven Bloom. She then gave birth to two more children, Hyacinth and Rowan. After Hollis’s father passed, he and Cecil were adopted by Craven. The initials Hollis had carved were the first of each of he and his siblings. H for Hollis, C for Cecil, H for Hyacinth, and R for Rowan.

Paisley finally understands that Hollis is the H. Bloom that owns the town. Not because he wanted it, but because Craven, after the death of his wife, wanted to hang it like an albatross around Hollis’s neck. Hollis then created the story about God sending a sasquatch to punish the town, and murdered the woman, to try and get people to come to the town with morbid curiosity. His plan was to murder his famous sister while Paisley Mott was there to broadcast the whole thing to the world. Then when people came he could finally sell off the otherwise worthless property and finally leave the town once and for all. 

Paisley realizes that Hollis has Hyacinth at his father’s old cabin and tells Grover, who refuses to let Paisley come with him, but Paisley gives him Hyacinth’s cell phone and tells him to take it with him. 

Grover goes to the cabin and finds Hyacinth chained up and nearly dead, but his rescue is foiled when Hollis buries an ax into his chest. Thankfully Paisley had been using Hyacinth’s phone which had been tethered to her drone, to track them. Paisley interrupts Hollis as he attempts to take Hyacinth and they have a stand off at Hollis’s boyhood campsite, which he claimed was the first place he ever saw the Sasquatch. Hollis overpowers Paisley but before he can kill her she manages to stab him in the leg with a hotdog fork, buying her enough time to tell Hollis that she didn’t come up there alone. Her audience was with her. She points up to the drone that is tethered to the phone he is holding, and is live streaming the entire thing. Sirens can be heard racing up the mountain. Unfortunately it isn’t enough to stop Hollis as he strangles Paisley. But before she blacks out she sees a large figure, hidden in the trees behind Hollis, its gold eyes flickering in the setting sun. 

Paisley wakes in pain, laying on the forest floor, being treated by Deputy Rowan Bloom, who claimed he saw the video and rushed to help, but when he got there Hollis was gone. Paisley is taken to an awaiting ambulance where Hyacinth is also being treated. She is told that Grover is alive and may survive his serious injuries thanks to Paisley. 

During Paisley’s investigation she stumbled across a body hidden underneath the old grist mill that belongs to the Bloom family. The body was a skeleton missing both legs and one of his arms. It was Nathan Stiener, leading Paisley to believe that Wilbur Bloom was behind everything, including the tragedy of the minors and the kidnapping of the boy. 

That book ends there, and the other begins, as the devastation of two madmen rocks the worlds of a lot of people.

Will Grover survive? What will happen to Hyacinth after being nearly killed? Will Paisley return to her home in Jigsaw Bay, Oregon? Was there a Sasquatch? What happened to Hollis?

Check out In the Grave Where the Bones Are Still Wet if you want answers!