The Homing

by Jeffrey Campbell

When George Kenner's daughter mysteriously lies about her former interest in ESP research among the residents of an small American town, he uncovers a rash of deaths from several years earlier, which no one cares to explain.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Pseudonym used by coauthors Jeffrey Caine and Campbell Black

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some reason, I have never gotten into the stories of Jeffrey Campbell, AKA Jeffrey Caine, AKA Campbell Black; this is my third novel of his and I struggled to finish it. Here, our main protagonist Kenner starts the novel driving to Upstate New York from the City to see his daughter; she is now married and living in Chilton, NY. Kenner is a city boy and really hates the small town of Chilton and cannot imagine why his daughter is attracted to it, or her relatively new husband.

Campbell presents Chilton as a quasi Stepford; everyone who lives there seems to love it and be content, polite and insipid. Kenner is something of a smartass, with lots of quips, mostly insulting, to the 'natives'. He has also been having nightmares about Chilton and his daughter, often associated with brutal headaches, and sometimes these dreams create either a strong sense of déjà vu or seem to foreshadow upcoming events. In any case, Kenner is very unsettled to say the least and really dislikes bucolic Chilton. His daughter was an aspiring grad student who went to follow up a study her academic mentor did in Chilton over a decade ago and then suddenly dropped out of school, burned her notes, and married a local. WTF? Kenner just wants his (formerly) outgoing and strong daughter back. Something seems very fishy about Chilton and Kenner is determined to sort it out; he is an investigator for an insurance company after all...

I felt Campbell tried way to hard here to create a sense of foreboding here and Kenner came off as some kind of asshole, making it pretty hard to root for as the mystery unfolded. Strained dialogue and uneven pacing; as the novel progressed, it became more and more a chore for me rather than exciting and spooky. YMMV however; it might just be that Campbell and myself do not click. 1.5 stars, rounding up as I finished it.

[David B · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man goes to the boring little one-horse town of Chilton to visit his daughter, who left a promising career track at grad school to become a housewife married to a pleasant but unremarkable nebbish. Only flashes remain of the brilliant young woman who once traded quips and private jokes with her father. Why did she choose this life, did she choose it of her own free will, and what’s going on with these premonitions that he appears to be experiencing? This is a well-written book with an interesting plot twist toward the end, but it just isn’t very thrilling or scary. There are other pleasures: the story is told in the first person and I found the narrator’s voice to be witty and entertaining. As a father confronting the fact that my son should be leaving home for college in a few years, I was touched by the narrator’s thoughts on the gap he sees growing between himself and the child he once felt very close to. But it just isn’t very scary.

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[Matthew Bielawa · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun read! I guess I was just in one of those moods for an old fashioned 1970's-early 80's style horror. It was especially delightful because I was expecting how spooky it built up to be!

Big city graduate student grads upstate to work on her thesis. But little by little, her father notices something's not quite right with her daughter's phone calls. So he heads upstate to check things out for himself. Yup, small town mysteries ensue (think Stepford Wives and Harvest Home, though not a copy, just for that feel). Just what is up with his daughter, is she really just maturing and changing? And what's up with most of the small town folk? And what about all of the father's dreams, are they premonitions? Intend case if deja vu? Enter the daughter's former thesis professor and you've got a great mystery, ever so slowly ramping up for good ol' horror fun!

[Jacquie · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Kenner decides to finally visit his daughter, Katherine, after she moved to a town named Chilton two years prior. When he arrives, Kenner sees how perfect Chilton is....a little too perfect. Through a rigorous investigation, Kenner uncovers all the secrets Chilton holds. And as the secrets are revealed, Kenner gets more and more in jeopardy.

The beginning of this book was a little slow for my taste. There wasn't a lot of action. Later on in the book, it gets interesting. There were parts where I couldn't put it down. The ending was absolutely chilling.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy! Wow color me totally surprised. You know when you pick up a random paperback by a random author you know nothing about. I mean look I'm not even attracted to this cover but wow I was in for a shocker. This book was great.

Consider this a little horror/sci-fi tale that frankly could hit to closely to home with all that is going on in the world. What starts as a little innocent story of a man trying to reconnect with his daughter gets blown up into a plot that could impact the future of the country.

I really don't want to give it away but I was completely sucked in with this book. I love the tales of a sweet innocent small town America being the front for something completely sinister and evil. A lightning fast read that has some great unexpected twists and turns. This would make a fantastic movie. Can't recommend it enough!

[Fishface · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderfully chilling story. And insurance claims investigator finds himself investigating why his psychology-grad-student daughter -- who used to be a witty maverick like himself -- has married a crewcut thud of a schoolteacher and started planning a family and attending church. The story gets creepier and creepier as it proceeds without ever descending to the level of the typical sex-and-violence fare I associate with the fiction writing of this era. Well-thought-out and effectively presented. Well worth seeking out.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish it. I have tried at least three times and I cannot get past the first hundred pages because the story is so dull. Like the characters in the town where The Homing is set, the spirit and drive of this book was drained quick from the story and also from me.

[Linda Branham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a chilling sci-fi type of book about a town where the people are somehow "changed"

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh..got half way through and just couldn't finish it

[August Grey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book that’s made me feel neutral the entire way through before. I don’t mean that in a bad way, just so we’re clear. It was rarely so interesting it pulled me to keep reading, but always just interesting enough that I still wanted to know where it was headed.
This book follows George Kenner on a trip to visit his daughter in the strange small town she abruptly moved to two years earlier. She’d been working on a research project and had begun to look into ESP when she suddenly stopped, discarded all of her notes, and married a local school teacher.
George hasn’t seen Katherine since she moved, and their conversations had grown distant, leading him to believe something was off. But when he goes to visit her, things prove to be far worse than he’d thought.
This book is filled with peculiar dreams, suspicious characters, unusual deaths and disappearances, coverups, and a recurring sense of deja vu.
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the twist in this one.

[Cuauhtemoc · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a a conspiracy story in a small little town Americana. The main character, George Kenner, is not very lovable, and the people in Chilton are way too much of a stereotype. However, as some other readers point out, the story line is JUST ENOUGH interesting to keep you going on. I think this book gets 2-1/2 stars (which I am rounding to three here). This is like some of the X-Files episodes that were "just blah" (...and you still watched because you like Mulder and Scully). The apparent distancing of father and daughter was interesting (What would I do if my children chose to put aside their careers and future to live in a small town in the middle of nowhere? -for example-)

[Reevrb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanted so much for it to have a different ending but other than that this books was a great mystery suspense novel!

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1981. Mainstream thriller deals with a town that has a deep dark secret.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is creepier the more you think about it, especially how rational it all sounds and how easily this 1970s scenario fits with our world today.

[Scott Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. A bit slow going but good ending

[Bryan Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10

[Lowspeedreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, at times a bit hard to follow, but overall entertaining. I enjoyed it.

[Joel Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perturbador. Inquietante. Destabilizador. Poderia continuar a atirar para aqui adjectivos, mas penso que já deu para perceber. "The Homing" é tudo isso, mas é também uma tremenda história de suspense, de drama, manipulação. É daquelas histórias que nos mantêm presos até ao fim, prometendo um final que só pode ser aquele, tem de ser aquele, ele tem de safar, ele é o herói, e depois...
Depois, têm de ler.

[Tuesday Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite books. Written with stark beauty, clarity, terrific, snarky dialog and a great sense of humor. They don't often write books like this. That's because, when they do, nobody ever recognizes how great they are.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times, this reminded me of "The Wicker Man."

[Donna Humble · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent, if predictable read.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shows its age. Kind of a snore.