Review: Salem’s Fall by Rektok Ross

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Every October, my sister and I do a spooky season buddy read and it has become one of my favorite fall traditions! In years past we have read books like Carrie, The Shining, and The Hacienda, but this year we decided we wanted something a little more fun and less serious.

My sister lives in Salem, Massachusetts, so naturally when we came across Salem’s Fall by Rektok Ross we thought this one would be PERFECT for our October read. A Halloween murder in Salem, a high-powered lawyer defending a hot billionaire, some romance, secret societies, and presumably plenty of spooky vibes? Yes please!

Well friends, this book was so dumb.

And yet somehow I read basically the entire thing in one sitting.

I don’t even know what that says about me.

Summary

A hotshot young attorney. An enigmatic billionaire accused of murder. To uncover the truth, she’ll have to play his game—and try not to fall in love with the devil.

James Woodsen is used to being underestimated. Top of her class at Harvard Law, she’s brilliant, beautiful, and now the youngest female associate at Boston’s most elite criminal defense firm. But after a devastating misstep on her first case, she has one last shot at redemption. Her assignment? Defend Damien Blackhollow—a dangerously charming billionaire accused of murdering his fiancée.

When James follows the trail to a small New England town with a dark history, she realizes this case is far more twisted than she ever imagined. Alone in Salem’s Fall with her trusted black cat, she uncovers Damien’s haunting family legacy with ties to a secret society and a pattern of ritualistic murders. James begins to wonder if she’s defending a monster… or worse, falling for one. As Halloween looms and the bodies pile up, James fears that losing this case doesn’t just mean her career—it means her life

The Silence of the Lambs meets Labyrinth in this dangerously addictive blend of twisty psychological thriller, legal suspense, and gothic dark romance—perfect for fans of Verity, Haunting Adeline, and The Housemaid. (Summary from Goodreads).

Review

Before I even get into the actual book, can we please talk about the comparisons being made in the summary for a second?

This book is described as The Silence of the Lambs meets Labyrinth, and is recommended for fans of books like Verity, Haunting Adeline, and The Housemaid.

Friends.

WHAT?!

Having now read this book, I cannot understand those comparisons at all. Not even a little bit. I went into Salem’s Fall expecting a fun, sexy, slightly ridiculous Halloween mystery, so I wasn’t exactly expecting the next great psychological thriller here. But when you’re throwing around comparisons to The Silence of the Lambs and Labyrinth, you’re setting some pretty specific expectations, and this book did not deliver anything remotely close to that experience for me.

The frustrating thing is that Salem’s Fall actually started off pretty promising!

The setup immediately had my attention. We have a high-powered lawyer defending a wealthy, sexy billionaire in connection with a Halloween murder, and there were enough suspicious things happening that I genuinely wanted to know where the story was going. There was video footage that appeared to show someone planting a murder weapon, questions about who could be trusted, and hints that something much darker was going on behind the scenes.

I was intrigued!

Unfortunately, the further I got into the book, the more everything started falling apart.

NOTE: Mild spoilers ahead!

There were SO MANY potentially interesting plot threads introduced that never felt fully developed or explained. The biggest one for me was the whole secret society/ritual sacrifice angle. I kept waiting for the book to really dig into this and explain how everything worked, why these people were doing what they were doing, and why any of it was important to the larger story.

But it just…didn’t.

That was basically my experience with most of this book. Something interesting would happen or some new piece of information would be revealed and I would think, “Oh okay, NOW we’re getting somewhere!” only to be left with even more questions.

And then there was the romance.

Listen, I was completely fine with this book leaning heavily into the romance. I knew what kind of book I was picking up and the main guy was sexy, so I was absolutely willing to go along for the ride.

Except I never really felt much chemistry between the characters.

The book also spent a lot of time telling me how dangerous this man was without actually showing me that he was particularly dangerous. Then suddenly we’re supposed to believe that maybe he actually IS dangerous?

What?!

I felt like I was constantly being told things about these characters that weren’t really supported by what I was seeing on the page.

The same thing happened with our heroine. I was repeatedly told how smart and capable she was, but then she would make choices that had me wondering how someone supposedly this intelligent could possibly think this was a good idea. Eventually I just couldn’t connect with her at all.

And after spending so much time building up the romance and sexual tension, we didn’t even really get the payoff I was expecting from it!

So…what was the point?

By the end, everything felt incredibly rushed. I still had questions about the murder, the secret societies, the ritual sacrifice stuff, the characters and their motivations. Nothing felt properly explained or developed and I was left feeling like the book had thrown a bunch of potentially fun ideas together without actually doing much with any of them.

Which brings me to the real mystery of Salem’s Fall:

Why in the hell did I read this book in basically one sitting?

I genuinely don’t know.

Part of me kept hoping it would get better because I really did think the beginning had potential. But if I’m being completely truthful, the writing was also so basic and easy to read that I just kept going.

There was no deep literary reason.

There was no “I absolutely HAVE to know what happens next!” moment.

I was bored and apparently decided I might as well see this nonsense through to the end.

Sometimes you devour a book because it’s incredible. Sometimes you can’t put a book down because you’re dying to know what happens next.

And sometimes you’ve somehow already read 70% of a dumb book and think, well, I guess we’re doing this now.

That was me with Salem’s Fall.

I really wanted this one to be a fun spooky season read, especially because my sister and I specifically picked it for our annual October buddy read. And honestly, it had all the ingredients for something I could have enjoyed: Halloween in Salem, a murder mystery, a sexy billionaire suspect, suspicious evidence, secret societies, ritual sacrifice, and romance.

There was potential here!

Unfortunately, it never came together for me. The mystery wasn’t developed enough, too many questions went unanswered, the romance lacked chemistry, and the more interesting elements of the story weren’t explored nearly enough.

But hey, I did read the whole stupid thing in basically one sitting, so make of that what you will.

Book Info and Rating

Title: Salem’s Fall
Author: Rektok Ross
Format: Kindle
Published: August 5, 2025 by Ic13 Books, ISBN9780988256897 
Source: Personal collection

Rating: 2/5 stars

It was easy to read and started with a lot of potential, but ultimately this one was a miss for me. Too many unanswered questions, too little character chemistry, and a whole lot of telling me things instead of actually showing me.

Would I recommend it? Probably not.

Did I read it basically in one sitting anyway?

Unfortunately, yes.

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