Trick or Treat
Twenty years ago, I fled Austin, Texas, desperate to escape a terrible mistake. Now, with my husband Jack and our mischievous six-year-old son Lucas, I’m back. This was meant to be a fresh start, a safe haven where my past could stay buried.
But secrets have a way of surfacing. It began with a scarecrow, a tacky decoration that somehow hitched a ride in our moving truck, an unwelcome reminder of the life I’d tried to forget. Then Lucas came home with a handful of straw, claiming a neighbor gave it to him for good luck – a neighbor I’d never seen.
The true horror arrived on my doorstep. A scarecrow stood there, silent and ominous. Until I opened the door, and the frozen scream wedged in my throat. It wasn't straw and burlap. It was a dead body.
Someone knows my secret. And they’re just getting started. This Halloween, the past isn’t just knocking; it’s unleashing a nightmare.
- Lauren - Jack’s wife, owner of Capitol Technologies
- Jack - Lauren’s husband
- Lucas - Lauren and Jack’s son, 6
- Maria - Lauren’s personal assistant at Capitol Technologies
- Faye - Lauren’s receptionist at Capitol Technologies
- Ryder - Lauren’s high school friend
- Gareth - Lauren’s high school friend
- Margo - Lauren’s high school friend
- Stanley - Lauren and Jack’s neighbor
- Kathy - Lauren’s nanny when she was younger
- Hernandez - Detective
- Gabriel Williams - Lauren’s lawyer
- Titus - Kathy’s son
- Lauren’s parents died a few months ago and left her their fortune.
- Lauren is upset when a scarecrow turns up in the moving van with their things.
- Lauren tells Jack she has been scared of scarecrows ever since someone told her at age eight that they come alive at night.
- In high school, Ryder used to use scarecrows to terrify Lauren.
- Someone breaks into Lauren’s new office.
- On Halloween, someone e-mails Lauren a card depicting a crow flying off with a bloody scarecrow head.
- Lauren’s company loses a potential large client when Summit Solutions offers an almost identical proposal for half the price.
- Lucas has straw in his backpack and says a neighbor with a grey coat and a limp gave it to him, but Lauren cannot find this neighbor.
- Lauren tells Jack that she was dating Ryder in high school when he was busted selling meth and sent to juvenile detention. Lauren promised to wait for him, but her family moved while Ryder was locked up, and now Lauren thinks Ryder is out for revenge.
- Summit Solutions is owned by Gareth.
- Maria uncovers that Gareth is deeply in debt and has a gambling addiction.
- Lauren finds Ryder’s phone number and calls to tell him to stop harassing her, but he says it’s not him and tells her not to contact him again.
- Lauren finds a row of headless scarecrows in her backyard.
- Lauren and Jack report the strange incidents to police.
- The next morning, Lauren finds Ryder’s dead body dressed as a scarecrow on their front porch.
- Stanley tells Lauren that he saw a man dump Ryder’s body on her porch.
- The autopsy shows that Ryder was killed by blunt force trauma and had been dead at least six hours before he was discovered.
- Gareth tells Lauren that Ryder and Margo have a child together.
- Gareth says someone e-mailed him a copy of Lauren’s proposal, allowing him to match and undercut it.
- Kathy comes to stay with Lauren and Jack and help out with Lucas.
- Someone sends Lauren a letter saying, ‘Kathy is not who you think she is.’
- Someone mails Jack a letter stating that Lauren went to a reform school for her senior year of high school.
- Stanley tells Lauren he saw the guy who dropped off Lucas’ body loitering outside her house.
- Maria leaves Lauren a note resigning.
- Lauren tries to call Maria but the number is disconnected.
- Hernandez does a welfare check on Maria and finds her front door smashed in, but Maria is not there.
- When Lauren and Ryder were younger, Ryder went to prison for setting a barn on fire in which two people died.
- Lauren and Ryder set a scarecrow on fire and the wind blew the fire onto the barn. The couple who owned the barn died in the fire trying to rescue their horse from the barn.
- Ryder took all the blame because he was only seventeen and Lauren was already eighteen.
- When Kathy and Lauren are home alone, Titus shows up. He is the son Kathy gave up for adoption when she was nineteen.
- Titus was cellmates with Lucas in prison, and Lucas told him all about Lauren and her rich family. Titus agreed to help Lucas get revenge on Lauren for leaving town while Ryder was in prison for the arson.
- Titus was behind all the recent incidents in Lauren’s life.
- Titus killed Ryder because Ryder wanted to back out after finding out Lauren had a child around the same age as his own son.
- Gareth and Maria were both working for Titus.
- Stanley notices the man with a limp enter Lauren’s house and calls the police, who arrive and arrest Titus.
- Titus is charged with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
- Jack thinks he can forgive Lauren for never telling him about the arson and her past with Ryder.
A title like Trick or Treat promises a specific kind of seasonal atmosphere, but the actual chills here are diluted by a circular narrative. The medium pacing and short chapters attempt to give the story a quick rhythm, yet I felt like the plot was frequently stuck in a loop. Lauren’s internal monologue drives much of this repetition as she rehashes the exact same thoughts. Worse, instead of briefly summarizing conversations, the text spells out the full retellings of past events. Reading Lauren retell a single sequence detailed three different times to different people caused my attention to drift.
When the reveals finally arrive, they land with mixed results. One half of the twist is easy to spot well in advance, while the other half swings so far out of left field that it feels disconnected from the groundwork laid in earlier chapters. The story doesn't lean into the holiday setting as heavily as the name suggests, though it still provides enough subtle atmosphere to work as an October read. If you like short chapters, and Halloween vibes, then you may enjoy this book.
- Ryder - Dead - Killed by Titus
- Maria - Alive - Facing charges for helping Titus
- Titus - Alive - Arrested on one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder
- Jack - Alive - Prepared to forgive Lauren for lying
- Lauren - Alive - Happy to have the past behind her
- Kathy - Alive - Still staying with Lauren and Jack and helping care for Lucas
- Drug use
- Stalking
- Murder
ISBN: 9781805735816
Publication Date: May 26, 2026
Note: Details are for the original edition. Other formats, editions, and audiobook versions may be available.
