Come With Me

Written by Ronald Malfi

Narrated by Joe Hempel

A masterful, heart-palpitating novel of small-town horror and psychological dread from a Bram Stoker nominee.



Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence—and her ghost—Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country. Piloted by grief and an increasing sense of curiosity, Aaron embarks on a journey to discover what Allison had been doing in the weeks prior to her death.



Yet Aaron is unprepared to discover the dark secrets Allison kept, the death and horror that make up the tapestry of her hidden life. And with each dark secret revealed, Aaron becomes more and more consumed by his obsession to learn the terrifying truth about the woman who had been his wife, even if it puts his own life at risk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781705295922

Ronald Malfi

Ronald Malfi is the award-winning author of several horror novels, including the bestseller Come with Me. He is the recipient of two Independent Publisher Book Awards, the Beverly Hills Book Award, the Vincent Preis Horror Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, and his novel Floating Staircase was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. He lives in Maryland, US.

[Abigail Lenz · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It was great. I loved the ending. My advice is to go into it with no expectations of twists. Just enjoy it. I think I was expecting a major one, thanks to TikTok making me not enjoy it as much as I should. But it is exceptionally well written and amazing story.

[Briana Riggs · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written and narrated. The story surprised and satisfied me, to an unexpected degree. One of my favorites of the year.

[Lena Ariza · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Just ok, not a horror, not scary, just a slow mystery.

[Michelle Howard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The protagonists grief is written very well. Engaging mystery. Haunting.

[Kim Saint · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Now….go now. Read or listen to this book! But hold on when you get started.

[RichardKevinWilson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As always.....Ronald Malfi can rip the emotions out of me as he his making me look over my shoulders!! I loved this story of Love Lost, and the ghosts that we all deal with one time or another in our lives......remember, that if you love someone; tell them!

[Myra Rucker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good storyline to follow. It pulls you in and holds you

[jamey oneal · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Audiobook. The narrator wasn't bad, but he had some strange phrasing and a speaking style that might have worked against the book. I kept waiting for him to be somehow evil, which I don't think was illustrated in the text, but the way it was read. It also made him unsympathetic to the very end. He wasn't bad, but his choices distracted me from the novel instead of being unobtrusive or enhancing.
As for the book, it was a little corny, the way they kept finding ways to repeat the "come with me" motif and the dialog was stilted, especially for the female characters. I liked the book best when the plot was being narrated because the dialog was downright offputting. but, again, perhaps that was partially the narrator. Even with that, every character was pretty chiche' which isn't terrible, but, for a novel that I think was supposed to be sympathetic to women came across as making most of them unlikeable, untrustworthy, or kind of stupid. That said, it wasn't a bad experience. Honestly, I think this would be a great screenplay. One of those upscale Lifetime movies, or a stream subscription produced movies with solid C level stars. You know what I mean? From the afterward, this was inspired by a dear friend of the author's, but it lacked that kind of heart, and that's a shame. Would I seek out another book by this author? Probably not, but if I found out this or another of his books was being made into a Netflix or Hulu movie, I'd get some popcorn and wine and plan a night around it.

[Shannon Lamb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really liked this story. The ending surprised me alot but the authors note at the end about how the tragedy that happens to the main character was inspired by true events really hit home for me. Good listen!

[Lisa Diy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just when i thought it has the usual storyline of a thriller, it changes gear and leaves me with the power of a high octane novel. This is indeed hard to forget. The first-person writing absorbs the reader toward the very soul of the protagonist. The descriptive writing is so effective that you can almost physically taste his condition. Truly a winner! Excellent narrator, too.

[Lori Ann Abbott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book had me on the end he of my seat for the entire book. What a fantastic story!

[Daniela Romero · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So well written from beginning to end. I loved how the narrator told the story, and the mystery along with the supernatural hints mixed with grief. I loved it.

[Rlynoyb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I would describe this book as a ghost love story. It was okay. I think it was supposed to be scary but it really wasn't. The ending was rather sad but not surprising. Overall a decent read with an interesting and likable main character.

[Jason Doerr · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The plot kept my attention throughout. I enjoyed its originality.

[Nina Quartuccio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was so well done. The suspense was constant and twists kept coming. Telling the story in the first person and with this particular narrator added such a chill when listening to this audiobook, it couldn't have been more perfect. I highly recommend this Malfi book, I'm a horror reader, this book doesn't have any gore but nor did it need it. Read on fellow horror readers, this book is different and worth your time.

[rft183-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Dark, Moody Mystery

This is a difficult book to review. To say much would really give too much of the story away, and it really should be experienced without any light shed on it up front. It’s a fairly simple story, but Malfi’s writing really is top notch, and the book is all the better for it. Malfi keeps the mood dark throughout, but still somehow manages to keep it from being depressing. I’m pretty impressed, and will seek out more from him.

[bookofsecrets · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One-Sentence Summary: After his wife Allison is killed, Aaron Decker gradually uncovers her dark, hidden life with some otherworldly assistance.

My Thoughts: COME WITH ME was so well-written, with haunting (literally & figuratively) subject matter. Lots of creepy moments that gave me chills! Aaron’s wife is killed in a random act of violence, and as he’s mourning her loss, he finds clues to a dark past she was hiding. Was he married to a stranger?

The story is written in second person, with Aaron talking directly to deceased Allison (as the “you”) which made it so much more personal and tragic. I was just the tiniest bit disappointed with the twist at the end. I really thought the author was going in a different direction with whodunit. Overall — eerie & disturbing, a story that will stick with you for a long time.

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one twisted, emotional, fast paced, terrifying ride.... but would we expect anything less from Ronald Malfi? I sincerely hope not. Aaron Decker's life is shattered when his wife is murdered. He needs to investigate her murder like he needs air to breathe, so he dives head-first, no holds barred into his wife’s past and encounters twist after twist...some he could have done without knowing. This is not as simple as it would appear. What the author has done is what he absolutely excels at...he's written a complex and moving story centered around a husband’s grief, in a small town with numerous secrets, and then throws in a deep, dark mystery to be solved. There's been a mass shooting that provides us with some pretty horrific deaths...all young women. In the "Author’s Note" Ronald Malfi shares with us a true story from his past...the story of his friend who was shot and killed in a mass shooting, this story came from that horrific event...writing this story was how he dealt with it. He handled this very sensitive subject with the utmost respect and care. Be aware that this is not just a horror story but also an emotional read. Just hang on...there is horror aplenty in this story. You can feel the chill as you ride along with Aaron into the foggy, chilly, darkness. There is one particular abandoned refinery guaranteed to give you nightmares. Every time you think you know who the villain is, if you are like me...you'll be wrong. This author has the talent to spin a book so well that will absolutely keep you guessing. The ending is sad, but it was the only way for it to happen.

[spaceandsorcery · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Having discovered Ronald Malfi’s works through the very engrossing novel that was Black Mouth, I was eager to further explore this author’s production and choose this book which is quite different in tone and storytelling but is equally riveting.

Aaron Decker lives a very normal, very contented life with his wife Allison: he works as a translator of Japanese books, she is a journalist in the local paper, and for the last five years they have enjoyed each other’s company and mutual complicity, but as the story starts Aaron’s world crumbles into pieces as Allison is killed in one of the many freak shootings that happen in shopping malls. Stricken by grief and unable to make sense of what happened, Aaron stumbles on a motel’s receipt showing that Allison stopped there during one of her husband’s absences from home, and suspecting his wife of having been involved in a secret relationship he tries to retrace her steps in the months prior to her demise.

What Aaron finds, however, is quite different: for years - even before their meeting - Allison had been on the hunt for a serial killer, a man who certainly murdered Allison’s own sister and probably a number of other girls across the country. As he tries to unravel the string of clues Allison was following, Aaron discovers a side of his wife, and a part of her past, that was unknown to him and he decides to follow in her path, to bring the man to justice and accomplish what Allison was unable to do.

What Come With Me boils down to is an all-encompassing obsession, one transmitted from Allison to Aaron, both of them trying to come to terms with the grief of an unbearable loss and finding in the single-minded focus of the hunt a reason to live and - maybe - learn to process the death of a loved one. There is also a supernatural thread running throughout the novel, mostly centered on Aaron’s perception of a presence in the house, something he wants to believe is a remnant of Allison: lights blink on and off in the bedroom closet, the house’s virtual speakers come on playing Allison’s favorite songs, a shadow seems to linger in their shared study. But it’s unclear if these manifestations - if they are indeed messages from the Great Beyond - are real or if they are the product of Aaron’s grief and his desire to connect with Allison in some way.

Aaron could somehow be classified as an unreliable narrator: much of the clues he pieces together don’t seem to fit, and it’s easy to suspect that he might not be as objective as his search would require, and his relentless pursuit of the killer takes on the color of obsession more than anything else, as if Allison’s own obsession had taken hold of his mind. It’s also intriguing to observe that the narrative is almost a long letter to departed Allison, to whom Aaron addresses his feelings and the progression of his quest.

Come With Me is a very atmospheric story imbued with a strong sense of impending doom, and at the same time it’s the exploration of two characters whose surface appearance at the start of the novel changes drastically as the narrative unfolds: on one side we have Aaron, a guy who looks level-headed and pragmatic and who sets himself on the hunt for a killer by taking risks and almost courting danger with what looks like reckless abandon, almost as if his loss had engendered a death wish; on the other we have Allison, a woman capable of leading a double life, keeping her darker pursuits from her husband - one of the most poignant facets of the story comes indeed from Aaron’s discovery of a side of his wife he was never able to perceive before.

I must confess that at some point in the novel I believed that it had become mired in Aaron’s grief-fueled search, as if his actions were leading him (and therefore the reader) in aimlessly repeating circles, and it also looked as if the mix of disparate clues, paranormal manifestations and weird findings (like the eerie collection of dolls he finds inside an abandoned factory) were taking me nowhere: I was ready to throw in the proverbial towel, moving forward only through sheer curiosity to see where this apparently ungainly mess was headed. Luckily for me, that curiosity made me persevere and arrive at the final resolution where all the little pieces of information the author had scattered throughout the book came to fruition, not only where the identity of the serial killer was concerned, but more importantly where the haunting phenomena Aaron experiences finally paid off. And they did so in the most shockingly unforeseeable way. I am not going to say any more because of spoilers, but I was pleasantly stunned by the way some sentences or some seemingly unrelated occurrences contributed to such an unexpected ending.

There is still a final consideration I need to share: the inciting incident for this novel comes from a very real and very personal event concerning the author, described in the Author’s Note at the end of the book. If you tend to skip these tidbits of information, don’t do it here, because these words will offer a further shade of meaning to the overall story. One that confirms Ronal Malfi as one of the writers I must keep on my radar…

[irenecole · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mired in grief, a man uncovers some startling revelations about his recently deceased wife that make him wonder if he ever really knew her at all. Small time reporter Allison had been doing a very different kind of investigation far out of the scope of her job. As Aaron becomes obsessed with following in her footsteps he discovers more than he may have wanted to know about his wife. Come With Me is a very dark and twisty tale of suspense that builds slowly at first until suddenly I got that awful sensation I have on elevators when my stomach drops and I feel like the floor fell out from under me. This was a brilliant mystery with supernatural overtones. Ronald Malfi has become one of my must read authors. I love the way he brings his characters to life. They are solid and their emotions are believable. The good guys are never the fake ultra perfect type and and the bad guys may be as foul as they come but they still feel genuine.

I received an advance copy for review

[gpangel_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Come With Me by Ronald Malfi is a 2021 Titan Books publication.

WOW- just… WOW!

After Aaron’s wife, Allison, is murdered, he discovered she had a secret life. No, it’s not what you think. He discovered Allison was investigating the deaths of young women- all of whom favor one another in appearance. As he’s making this shocking and grim discovery, he begins to experience some strange occurrences- all associated with Allison, such as her music suddenly playing on Alexa or lights coming on by themselves. It's as though she's trying to give him direction- to pick up the investigations where she left off-

Aaron initially follows Allison's trail because he thought she might be having an affair, but once he realizes what she was really doing, but soon feels compelled to find out why she was so interested in these murders- but it takes him much further than he ever imagined…

Down a deadly rabbit hole called obsession…

It has been a very long time since I read a book that made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, but this one had my skin prickling. The atmosphere is off the charts- the foreboding, the suspense, the very effective ghostly images all work in tandem to bring together a psychological exploration of duality, a tense serial killer thriller, and a ghost story of epic proportions.

The portal that opens this hornet’s nest of grief, and the pursuit of truth and justice, is the manner in which Allison died, which casts an uneasy pall over the story right from the start. Though my timing here was pure coincidence, the topic is timely, and the truth behind the author's words on this subject are still ringing in my ears.

The author incorporated a personal experience into this novel- admitting his writing was a form of therapy for him- but it was also like therapy for the reader as well, despite the dark, brooding intensity of the novel.

Overall, I got a lot more than I bargained for with this one. While the book is listed as a ‘horror’ novel- and that does fit- but it is also a top-notch mystery/thriller. I have two other books by this author on my kindle- I can’t wait to read them now!!

4.5 stars

*Content warnings- some swearing- one unnecessary objectionable word is overused by multiple characters. Violence is not over the top considering the genre.