‘In Silent Graves’ – Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Fiction)

It’s just gone three in the morning and I cannot get to sleep. I don’t know what’s up with that so figured I’d have a little read of whatever was close to hand. ‘Whatever was close to hand’ ended up being my last stop (until I find more books) on my little trip through Gary Braunbeck’s Cedar Hill locale.
Without even realising, it turns out that I’d saved the best until last…

Robert Londrigan has it all; a news casting career that is on the up, a beautiful wife and a baby on the way. All this is turned on its head in the course of one catastrophic night but the worst is yet to come as a strange disfigured man steals Robert’s daughter’s body from the local morgue…
This heralds the onset of hallucinations, visitations and things that just cannot be. Is Robert losing his mind or is he about to learn some of the truths that lurk beneath the surface of the world? Either way, he may not survive with his sanity intact…

I hadn’t read a lot of horror until the last year or so, bookstores in the UK aren’t much good for horror once you’ve had your fill of Stephen King and the other best sellers! Brian Keene’s ‘The Rising’ changed all that though (it was about zombies, I had to buy it!) and I eventually found my way to Gary Braunbeck. I have to say that I’m glad I did, as I haven’t enjoyed horror fiction so much in a long time. ‘In Silent Graves’ is no exception.

As with his other works, Braunbeck delights in pointing the reader down one path only to switch the signposts around when no one is looking. Before you know it you’re completely lost and at the mercy of your guide… The story you finish is not the story you began and, looking back, you will wonder how you ever thought it could have been that story in the first place. There’s some masterful stuff going on here when you look at how everything fits together at the end… (Especially in a book that comes in at just under four hundred pages)
Braunbeck’s approach to horror isn’t specific to any one theme; he goes for as much as he can fit into one book and the result is a story that punches you in the gut at the same time as it’s smacking you round the back of the head. There’s the creeping fear of the dark nestled right next to all out ‘in your face’ violence. There’s the sense of things being horribly wrong for an ordinary man having to deal with stuff straight out of the ‘Twilight Zone’; there’s also the horror that is a part of everyday life and this is perhaps the most horrifying of all the things that happen in the book. All in all a really heady mixture of horror that sent shivers up my spine before ripping it out and feeding it to me.

‘In Silent Graves’ isn’t just a horror story though. Without giving too much away it’s also a love story that bounces off the horror elements (and vice versa) to resonate with poignancy and a sense of the bitter sweet. They weren’t tears in my eyes, I’m just really tired and my eyes are watering (ahem!).

It’s not all perfect though but I got the feeling that these issues would improve on a re-read. Not being of a particularly scientific nature I did find some of the talk about the nature of time confusing and this sometimes dragged on for a little too long, disrupting the otherwise smooth pace of the tale.

Those small niggles aside, ‘In Silent Graves’ is now officially my favourite book by Gary Braunbeck. Read it if you’re into intelligently written horror that makes you think as well as shiver.

Nine and a Half out of Ten

'Keepers' - Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Fiction)

I was after something short and sweet to read before I went off for the weekend, Gary Braunbeck's 'Keepers' was short and, for a piece of horror fiction, surprisingly sweet as well...

Gil Stewart is an ordinary man until one day his normal life is shattered after witnessing a bizarre death on the highway. All of a sudden animals are behaving weirdly around him and strange bowler hatted men keep appearing when he least expects it. If all this wasn't weird enough, his Downs-Syndrome nephew goes missing with a comic book that can tell the future...
All this is connected to an event in Gil's past that he has fought desperately to forget but now he must remember if he is to stand any chance of getting through the night with his sanity intact. The Keepers are coming...

This is going to be a fairly quick one, need to leave the house in half an hour, but I could sit here all day and go on about how much I enjoyed this book. We're back in Cedar Hill, the home of strange goings on that mask concepts that I don't normally come across in horror fiction. Without spoiling it for those who haven't read the book, Braunbeck comes up with a really original theme this time round that got me more interested the more I was told.

There's a real 'Twlight Zone' feel about 'Keepers' with everyday objects taking on sinister meanings and becoming even more horrifying when placed against things that are ordinary as ever. There's a hint of poignancy to the proceedings as well and this somehow makes the story even more horrifying; not just in terms of what is going on but also in terms of childhood past, the pain of a first love and the pain of people and animals who are mistreated and forgotten.

It's not all good though; throughout the story Gil fights to keep his memories for surfacing until the very end where he figures out what is going on. It felt to me that, while we got his life story, we didn't get the revelation (only that he knew what he had to do next) and this made for a confusing final few pages. The ending made up for though (and got me a little teary eyed).

It's not perfect by any means but 'Keepers' is a fine example of Gary Braunbeck doing what he does best. If you're a horror fan then I highly recommend you start reading his stuff.

Eight out of Ten

‘Jigsaw Man’ – Gord Rollo (Leisure Fiction)

What would you do for a million dollars? Given the current exchange rate I wouldn’t do an awful lot but if we’re talking sterling then I would probably do a fair bit. I’m not sure that I’ve give up a limb though, not even if I could use some of the money to get a cheap replacement! Two million dollars for a limb is the premise for this short yet violent and shocking slice of horror fiction…
Mike Fox is at rock bottom and a matter of minutes away from throwing himself under a train. All of a sudden he is approached by a stranger who offers him two million dollars in cash, all he wants in return is Mike’s right arm… Mike figures that two million dollars can make up for an awful lot so agrees to go along with the deal. However, losing an arm is just the start and if losing limbs wasn’t bad enough Mike is about to find that their replacements are even worse…
I only got a couple of hours sleep last night, Nintendo Wii is partly to blame (it’s a great console to play on!) but ‘Jigsaw Man’ is the chief culprit. You see, once I started reading I couldn’t stop. Although I knew that Mike wasn’t going to do well from the deal I just couldn’t stop reading to find out just exactly what happened. Rollo did a great job of hooking me right from the start and then doling out little titbits to keep me turning the pages. His villains are a little vague for my liking, ‘Jigsaw Man’ is a short read (288 pages) and there wasn’t enough room for any real explanation about what made them tick. As a result, Drake’s perversity just seemed like an attempt to shock the audience while Doctor Marshall just appeared to be a typical mad scientist with so many scraps of information about him that it was impossible to tell what was the truth. In a sense though, the poor characterisation (in this instance) doesn’t really matter as the true horror is found in Mike’s environment and what he has to go through. Rollo is particularly adept at setting the reader up to expect one thing and then throwing something completely different in their face. I jumped more than once when Mike woke up from various operations to find that the results were not what he had been promised! What is interesting though, as a counterpoint, is that the body parts Mike loses are balanced out by his strength and determination to get through this experience. This can verge on the ridiculous (especially when he’s only left with his head and spine!) but really gives the reader a sense of character development and helps to make the final climactic scenes a little more plausible. Rollo also furnishes an intriguing premise with a chilling background for events to take place in. The home of Doctor Marshall is full of passages with dead ends where you least expect them. Certain rooms contain horrifying surprises as well, the ‘Bleeder Room’ is particularly chilling and the time that Mike spends in there is not for the squeamish (or at least, not for those as squeamish as me!).
While I can appreciate the ‘full circle’ effect behind the ending I thought that maybe the ending dragged out a tiny bit too long. There’s a point in the last few pages where I thought things would have been perfect if it had ended right there, if you read ‘Jigsaw Man’ then I reckon you’ll see it too.
Niggles aside, ‘Jigsaw Man’ is a visceral slice of horror that got in my face and left me gasping. If this and ‘Crimson’ (an excerpt of which is at the back of the book) is anything to go by then Gord Rollo is an author that any horror fan should be keeping an eye on. I will be.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

‘Ghost Walk’ – Brian Keene (Leisure Fiction)

I thought that ‘Dark Hollow’ was the best thing that Brian Keene has written, to date, so I was both really excited and a little apprehensive when ‘Ghost Walk’ (Brian’s latest book and sequel to ‘Dark Hollow’) came through the door. I’m a big of Brian’s work, so I’m always excited to see what he comes up with next, but could he improve on ‘Dark Hollow’? Well, kinda…
LeHorn’s Hollow has lain empty ever since the final cataclysmic events of ‘Dark Hollow’. Rumour and legend still abound however and the stories surrounding the Hollow make it the perfect place for entrepreneur Ken Ripple to set up his ‘Ghost Walk’ attraction. The thing about legend though is that it based on fact and the evil that waits in the woods is all too real. Unless a reporter, a former Amish man and Adam Senft (the author from ‘Dark Hollow’) can rise to the challenge hordes of tourists are about to get much more than they bargained for at midnight…
As a fan, I think that Brian Keene has delivered yet again both in terms of a scary tale and also as another strong piece of the overall ‘Labyrinth’ mythos that he is building. ‘Ghost Walk’ (the book) does exactly what a ghost walk would do in real life. It draws you in slowly with a feeling that anything could happen; it then draws out the tension until you start to think that nothing could possibly and you let that breath go that you were holding. That’s when Keene strikes with a vicious mix of horror, and the supernatural, which me jump and my stomach turn at the same time. What adds poignancy to these scenes is the way that he gets into the character’s heads and lays out their deepest fears for us to see. When they met their end I felt for them all the more as I had got to know them in a way that you don’t normally get with horror fiction ‘cannon fodder’. The flip side of this is that you can spot who will die next because they’re the people who are having their fears laid out for all to see. This veers towards making things a little predictable but at the same time adds a sense of inevitability that compliments the supernatural theme and the pure evil of what lurks in LeHorn’s Hollow.
For anyone who hasn’t spotted the ‘Labyrinth’ theme yet, ‘Ghost Walk’ will tell you all you need to know and, for the long time fan, it’s fun once again to spot the links to other books. The link to ‘Ghoul’ is one to look out for and I also really liked the way Keene pokes fun at what he’s doing when the reporter scoffs at the suggestion there may be an alternate world infested with zombies.
‘Ghost Walk’ follows on from the events of ‘Dark Hollow’ but you don’t have to read the first book to get an idea of what’s happened before. Keene takes time to fill in new readers, on past events, and the only thing I’d say here is that if you’ve already read ‘Dark Hollow’ you may feel that there’s a little too much exposition. At times I just wanted to get on with the story, I already knew what had happened before. Having said that though it’s pretty cool to see an author do this kind of thing, for the sake of a complete story, when he could have just said, “go out and buy ‘Dark Hollow’ if you want to fill in the gaps…”
While ‘Ghost Walk’ doesn’t quite surpass ‘Dark Hollow’ (in my opinion) it’s a worthy successor and a ghostly read that will have you yelling, “don’t go into the woods!” at various characters. As long as Brian keeps writing horror of this standard I’ll keep reading it. Talking of which, the book also contains a preview of his next novel ‘Castaway’, a reality show with an unexpected bite…

Eight and Three Quarters out of Ten

I interviewed Brian late last year, if you haven't seen it already then have a click over Here.

I've also been going on about how great 'Dark Hollow' is, here's my Review.

‘Covenant’ – John Everson (Leisure Fiction)

Fictional characters who are journalists; if there’s one thing you can count on it’s that these nosy types won’t stop ferreting around until they’ve dug up every single last scrap of information that they can get their hands on. If my boss told me not to do something my attitude would be, “Woohoo! Less work for me…” but if an editor tells a journalist to stay away from a story then all of a sudden it’s about freedom of speech and the public just have to know etc…
Sometimes this kind of attitude can backfire spectacularly as reporter Joe Kieran is about to find out in John Everson’s 2004 Bram Stoker award winning novel…
Joe Kieran was a top reporter in Chicago until a story he ran ended up sending his girlfriend to jail (talk about dumb luck). Now he’s covering stories for a local paper in the sleepy coastal town of Terrel’s Peak and his nose for a story is about to land him in more trouble than he bargained for… The cliffs on the coast have been the site of a number of deaths over the years, these have been brushed off as suicides and tragic accidents but the facts that these deaths occur on the same day each year suggest that something else is going on. Joe is about to find out the horrifying secret behind the deaths and what is waiting for him in the caves below the cliffs…
‘Covenant’ weighs in at only 296 pages long (making it an ideal ‘commuter book’!) but Everson seems to find plenty of room to spice things up with chills and horror. It’s basically a tale of what people will do to fulfil a deal with the devil and how they live with this afterwards. What this means for the reader is a mixture of some really nasty supernatural occurrences (demons work off their boredom in some sick ways!) and the dark side of humanity. Sometimes it’s hard to work out which is worse… There are also moments of genuine tension where you don’t know what is going to happen next, just that it could be anything (such as the events following Joe’s pot-holing expedition)…
For such a gripping read it’s somewhat unfortunate that it’s the prospect of a sequel that dampens the feel of ‘Covenant’. I loved the way the book finished, really open ended with a feeling that whatever happened next things were looking bleak for Joe Kiernan. When I realised the book included a taster of the sequel, ‘Sacrifice’, it felt that the whole point of ‘Covenant’s’ ending had been taken away. While I’m interested to see what happens next the deliciously creepy feeling I had, at the end of ‘Covenant’, was taken away and replaced with the standard ‘oh, so everything does work out in the end’ feeling. I wonder if the move into mass market paperback meant that a sequel had to be written. I also felt that, for a town where everyone was trying to dissuade Joe from his investigation, nothing was done to show why everyone else (apart from that one particular group whom the story is about) was trying to hide secrets. Where the police involved more than was let on? Why did the editor initially try to downplay James’ ‘suicide’? None of this is elaborated on which left me feeling like I hadn’t been told the whole story. Having said that though, I guess there’s only so much that you can fit into 296 pages!
While it’s plain to see why ‘Covenant’ took the Bram Stoker award it also felt like the story had been handled in such a way that the greater impact was lost. Still interested to see what happens next though…

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Tower Hill’ – Sarah Pinborough (Leisure Fiction)

I’ve read some horrifying stuff over the last week so it seemed strangely apt that I get back into the normal swing of things by reading some horror fiction and Sarah Pinborough’s ‘Tower Hill’ seemed like a good place to start.
There seems to be a rule of horror fiction stating that the quieter a locale is, the more likely it is that something truly evil and terrifying is going to take place. The small American town of Tower Hill seems to be the quietest and most easy going, town in horror fiction so it’s pretty clear right from the start that something big is going to happen! Two men arrive in Tower Hill, not normally something noteworthy but they killed a priest and blew up a Burger King on the way. Now the town has a new priest as well as a new professor at the college and students from the college are beginning to die… Artefacts of great power lie within Tower Hill and Godhood awaits those who are willing to take the risk. Or does it? The stakes are much higher than anyone seems to realise…
‘Tower Hill’ is a genuinely creepy novel of a town that gradually falls under supernatural control and the consequences of this. The tension builds up on each page as the situation grows worse and the few unaffected people find the odds are stacked more and more against them. Pinborough has a real knack for reeling the reader in with the promise of hope and then throwing a curveball that puts everything into doubt again. Even though the storyline could be quite predictable in this way (I came to expect it after a while) it was the character’s reactions, in the face of fear, that really drove things along. A real mixture of fear and heroism, especially in the case of Deputy Sheriff Eccles. This approach also throws up a real sense of inevitability that can make things predictable (as mentioned) but also really adds to the creeping sense of horror that pervades this book. There’s nothing here that will make you jump but there was plenty to give me that sick feeling you get when you know something bad is going to happen and there is nothing that you can do…
After all this horror goodness (a couple of scenes laid on the gore in a particularly nasty way!) it was a shame to see the book end in the way that it did. Without giving too much away there’s an emphasis placed on ‘random chance that is really fate’ that came across (to me at least) like a get out of jail free card. There’s also the fact that while our heroes were labouring in ignorance for most of the book they managed to find out what they needed to know just in time for the final confrontation… I can see how this could happen but maybe it would have been a more effective tactic to let the tension stretch out just a little bit further…
‘Tower Hill’ is let down by its ending but is still a gripping page turner full of creeping dread. Sarah Pinborough has done enough to make sure that I’ll be looking out for more her books in the future.

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

‘Old Flames’ – Jack Ketchum (Leisure Fiction)

When Stephen King supplies a cover quote saying that the author (Jack Ketchum) is probably ‘the scariest guy in America’ part of me thinks ‘ooh, sounds like a good book’ but another part wonders if I’m being set up for a fall. Apart from ‘Old Flames’ I haven’t read anything else by Jack Ketchum but on the basis of what I have read I’m pretty sure that I can find a horror author that scares me more. I could probably find more than one in fact.
‘Old Flames’ actually comprises two stories. The story sharing its name with the title of the book tells the tale of a woman who is unlucky in love and the lengths that she will go to in order to get her man and also to protect herself when things inevitably go wrong. ‘Right to Life’ is the story of a woman’s pregnancy while in the captivity of a couple who plan to steal her baby as soon as it is born.
I wouldn’t normally review two horror books in a row (I like to try and keep things fresh) but I thought it would be interesting to look at another style of horror compared to that which Gary Braunbeck employed in ‘Coffin County’. While there is a heavy supernatural element to Braunbeck’s work, Ketchum eschews this to concentrate solely on the horror that humanity is able to commit all by itself. There is plenty of that to be found in what is actually a very short book. Whilst ‘Old Flames’ concentrates on the inner workings of a damaged mind, ‘Right to Life’ shows the reader (in no uncertain terms) what a damaged mind is capable of doing. Be warned that ‘Right to Life’ contains some fairly explicit scenes of the torture of a pregnant woman…
I found both stories gripping and they kept me reading to the end. ‘Old Flames’ had a sense of inevitability about it where, even though I knew what was coming, I had to get to the end. In the same way, ‘Right to Life’ had an urgency about it where I found myself racing to the end to see what happened to our heroine. Here’s the thing though; neither story scared me at all. Sure, I winced a few times (I’ve found that I don’t really care for scenes of female torture!) and I was concerned for certain characters but I’m going to sleep easy tonight because there was nothing in either story that unsettled me. This is really just a matter of personal taste, on my part, regarding what I look for in horror fiction. I want to be scared; not just left feeling strangely repulsed by scenes of torture piled one on top of the other and coming across as ‘overkill’. This wasn’t really the case in ‘Old Flames’ but I found that this story was a little too short (only 130 pages) to adequately address some of the questions that I had of the main character. This meant that I had trouble getting a feel for why she behaved in certain ways and this left me unable to engage with the character (as the main character this was a bad thing!).
If you’re a Jack Ketchum fan already then you will know what to expect and will probably get a lot out of this book. On the strength of what I’ve read though, I’m not sure that I’ll be giving him another try.

Five out of Ten

‘Coffin County’ – Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Fiction)

After reading Gary Braunbeck’s 'Mr Hands, last year, I was pleased to see his latest book come through the door the other day. Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places but, to me, bookshops in the UK always seem to stock ‘the usual suspects’ (King, Koontz etc) so it was good to see something from someone I hadn’t heard of before. ‘Coffin County’ is part of Braunbeck’s ongoing ‘Cedar Hill’ cycle and attempts to tie things together before the finale (in one or two book’s time, I can’t remember), I loved the story but am not too sure about how it ties some things up.
The town of Cedar Hill has always been home to small/large scale weirdness and terror but now things are starting to get worse. A spate of shocking murders grips the town but no-one is prepared for what lies behind these acts. The answers can be found in a similar set of killings, two hundred years ago, and an old abandoned grave yard…
‘Coffin County’ scared the life out of me, not just through the supernatural events but also through Braunbeck giving the reader a view into what goes on in people’s heads before they commit the kind of acts you will see in this book. There is some seriously bleak stuff going on in the background and the calm logical way that people come to their conclusions only adds to the horror of what they do. There are also other reminders that true horror lies in everyday life where grief over a loved one or domestic abuse can be more horrifying than the ‘monster in the shadows’. Talking of the ‘monster’, it was interesting to see who the protagonist finally turned out to be and their reasoning for doing what they did. However, while I could understand his motives, I couldn’t work out what it was about him that made other people suddenly decide to commit murder. I’m definitely going to re-read ‘Coffin County’ and see if things make a bit more sense! The background to all these happenings is stereotypical but very haunting at the same time. We’ve all seen scary stuff happen in a graveyard (or slum ridden back streets) but Braunbeck manages to make it worth the read anyway.
One thing that, slightly, spoilt it for me was that Braunbeck would sometimes ‘over explain’ what was happening on the police procedural side of things. I was far more interested in the horror aspect so found it a bit tiresome to have to plough through pages about the art of fingerprinting. Luckily, the rest of the book is good enough that this can be forgiven. I also wasn’t too sure about some attempts to link this book back with previous books in the cycle. I’m sure that things will make more sense when the cycle is done but having a page of ‘and this is how ‘Coffin County’ links to…’ felt a little contrived and like a concession to people who haven’t read all the books in the series. (And I’m still not sure if the link to ‘Mr Hands’ made any sense, I guess I’ll have to re-read that as well!)
In fairness though, the ‘good’ outweighs the ‘bad’ and ‘Coffin County’ makes for an entertaining and spooky read. There’s two more bonus tales as well; ‘I’ll play the blues for you’ is a solid tale of mankind’s right to music but it’s ‘Union Dues’ that really stands out and deserves to be a lot longer than it actually is.
I’d recommend ‘Coffin County’ to any fan of Gary Braunbeck and it’s well worth a go even if you’ve never read his stuff before.

Eight out of Ten

‘Bloodstone’ – Nate Kenyon (Leisure Fiction)

Over the last year I have discovered some great horror books through Leisure Fiction and Nate Kenyon’s ‘Bloodstone’ is set to join that list. You may have heard of this book already and this is because it was originally a 2006 limited edition release through Five Star Publishing, the book was also a Stoker Award finalist. If you haven’t already got one of the limited edition copies then I suggest you grab yourself a copy when it is released in May, it scared the … out of me!
White Falls is a sleepy little town, in Maine, that is about to be the stage in a confrontation between good and evil… No, don’t go! It may sound familiar, and it may sound like the work of a very well known horror author, but it’s very different and more than a little bit special. Two travellers have just arrived in White Falls, one of whom didn’t have any choice in the matter. They don’t know why they are there, only that they had to come. Something evil is stirring in White Falls and no one is safe…
You are probably thinking what I was thinking before I started reading ‘Bloodstone’, namely that the blurb doesn’t promise anything different to any other horror novel you will come across. Once I got reading though, ‘Bloodstone’ painted a very different picture. Kenyon does a very good job of building up preconceptions only to knock them down when you least expect it. Certain revelations came as a real shock to the system and it is really interesting (in retrospect) to look back and compare the story Kenyon has written to the one that you thought you were reading… The ‘Maine setting’ has blatantly been done to death elsewhere and, as such, ‘Bloodstone’ shoots itself in the foot (a little) by having the story take place in somewhere so familiar. Kenyon more than makes up for this with evocative descriptions of the town (and surrounding area) that really drew me into the story. He also has a great gift of dragging the tension to breaking point and then hitting the reader straight between the eyes with something horrifying. The climax of Angel’s visit to Annie really made me jump! Some strong characterisation, with ongoing themes of redemption and revenge, serve to give the plot a solid base to sit on as well as making the horror scenes all the more surreal and horrifying.
Perhaps the only other criticisms I would level is that, as the book is fairly short in length, it seems like Kenyon tries to fit too much in and perhaps not every question is answered satisfactorily. Also, one of the characters has something pretty horrible happen to her (right at the end) but it feels as if this was written in purely to deal with a particularly awkward plot development. It just felt that the problem was dealt far too easily…
These are relatively minor quibbles, however, if you’re like me and after a story that serves up supernatural chills and horror in equal measure. If you’re a horror fan then ‘Bloodstone’ is a book you should be checking out sooner rather than later!

Nine out of Ten

‘Savage’ – Richard Laymon (Leisure Fiction)

Everyone likes an unsolved mystery and perhaps one of the most mysterious unsolved mysteries is the case of Jack the Ripper. Everyone knows what Jack got up to (so I’m not going to go into detail here) and the circumstances surrounding his activities have somehow struck a chord in the imagination of many people across the world. This killer is the subject of books, films and various conspiracy theories (he even appears in an episode of ‘Babylon 5’). Was Jack a psychotic member of royalty (hence his murders remaining unsolved)? Was he an alien trying, unsuccessfully, to make contact with humans? (Ok, I made that one up but I bet it had you thinking!) One of the theories as to why the murders suddenly stopped is that Jack left Britain for a new life in America. This is where Richard Laymon steps in and offers the reader a tale of what might have happened…
Fifteen year old Trevor Bentley really should have made his way home when he was told to. Instead, circumstance result in him cowering underneath Mary Kelly’s bed as the Ripper kills her. Instead of counting himself lucky not to have been noticed, Trevor sets out to stop the Ripper once and for all on a journey that will take him out of London and finish in a cave just outside Tombstone Arizona.
‘Savage’ initially began with a lot of promise. With foggy London streets, an evil killer and a plucky young hero the stage seemed set for a real atmospheric tale of horror. I was completely sucked in and ready for more. The journey to America was handled well with lots of tension about the outcome but when the action finally switched to America things started to go downhill rapidly. You see, Jack got such a head start on our hero (can’t really blame Trevor for this, he fell in love…) that it took most of the book to finally catch up with him. When we finally get to the showdown it’s over and done with within a few pages and that left me feeling kinda cheated. The greater part of the story then is a rite of passage tale as Trevor adapts to life in America. It makes for an interesting read although Laymon has a habit of killing anyone who looks like they might be holding back Trevor from his quest, sometimes people just go their separate ways you know…
As good a ‘western’ tale as this was (and it worked pretty well in this vein) I couldn’t escape the feeling that ‘Savage’ was meant to be a tale of horror and it just wasn’t working like this. Maybe this was just me judging the book on the author’s reputation and getting it wrong but I was still left feeling disappointed when I reached the end. A book that oozed potential but failed to deliver.

Four out of Ten

‘House Infernal’ – Edward Lee (Leisure Fiction)

I always have trouble remembering that the ‘author endorsements’, on other author’s books, are as subjective as what I’m writing here. So when the front cover of ‘House Infernal’ told me that Edward Lee was ‘The living legend of literary mayhem’ and that I should ‘read him if [I] dare’ I was really up for reading this book. After all, if Richard Laymon says Lee is a good author then he must be, surely?
Well, ‘House Infernal’ isn’t a thick book and I finished it over the course of a day, which says good things about the content. However, I was left feeling strangely let down by the end of it…
The old Priory was originally built as a retreat for clergymen but harbours some vile occult secrets in it’s past. Venetia Barlow is about to find all this out for herself over the course of one summer spent renovating the Priory. There are ghosts, there is depravity but there is a lot more going on and not all of it within the Priory. Venetia will gradually learn more from a long dead priest who has made contact with her from the very streets of Hell itself. He has his own part to play and the consequences of this will have a great bearing on the futures of both Hell and Earth…
Like I said, I flew through this book and enjoyed the time that I spent reading it. Lee lets events unfold at a pace slow enough not to give too much away but fast enough (at the same time) to keep the pages turning nicely. As the reader, it was good to see things, and events, click together gradually and the overall picture build up. Although I had a pretty good idea about how this was going to end, the specifics were hidden from me and I was surprised at how this one turned out.
All of the characters were drawn well and were people that I wanted to read more about, either because I liked them or because they were pivotal to the plot. Lee’s greatest achievement in ‘House Infernal’ however is the creation of an intricate and fully functioning society in Hell. The detail is minute and everything consistently works to a set of rules laid out right at the beginning. I was certainly impressed by the thought that had gone into this.
So what went wrong? It’s simple. I enjoyed the book but it didn’t scare me and it wasn’t particularly horrifying. For a work of ‘Horror Fiction’ this is a pretty awkward failing. For all the fact that it was well written I just didn’t feel any tension at all. This may just be me; my expectations may be different to yours and ‘House Infernal’ may give you nightmares. Hopefully it will as it’s not a bad book and I think horror fans will enjoy it, it just didn’t work for me.

Six out of Ten

'Monster Island' - David Wellington (Snow Books)

Every so often I get a hankering to sit down and scare myself stupid with a book about zombies… There's something about these walking corpses (and the bleak apocalyptic world that they inhabit) that works for me on a level those mere vampires and werewolves will never reach. I'd heard a lot of good things about 'Monster Island' but had been put off by the price on copies from the US. All that changed however when I saw a cheap copy in the charity shop round the corner from my work. It was paid for and in my bag faster than, er… one of those fast moving zombies from the new(er) 'Dawn of the Dead' remake! But then I kept picking it up, reading a few pages and then putting it down again. It wasn't quite working for me and there were loads more cool books that were. I picked it up again, a couple of days ago, and this time something changed. I really got into it this time and will be searching out the other two books in the series, ‘Monster Nation’ and ‘Monster Planet’.
As is usual in a book of this kind, the dead have risen and eaten their way through the larger part of the planet. Countries of the developed world have fallen quickly but it’s in the warzones of countries like Somalia where the daily fight for survival has equipped people to deal with the new threat. However, supplies are running low and an army of schoolgirls (yes, really) led by a former UN weapons inspector must travel by boat to New York to find the medicine they need. This does actually make sense when you read it. They’re about to throw themselves into a city teeming with the undead and there’s something far more dangerous that’s also waiting for them. One of the zombies can think…
‘Monster Island’ took a while to get going but when it did I found it was worth carrying on for. It was actually like a horror film where the viewer is lulled into a false sense of security and then hit with something big and scary. This tactic almost backfired though as I found (at first) that the book was easy to put down for other reads. What you eventually get though is an unrelenting attack on that little gland in your body that makes you want to look nervously over your shoulder. Noises downstairs actually made me jump. Come to think of it, what were those noises anyway…? I found the characters engaging as well and it’s clear that Wellington has spent a great deal of time thinking about the aftermath of a zombie infestation with the situations that he puts people through and how they feel about it. I really liked the introduction of the riot police zombies who were wearing bulletproof helmets and couldn’t be shot.
These days zombies are getting loads of ‘upgrades’ in order to be more interesting and ‘Monster Island’ is no exception. I liked the idea behind Gary retaining his faculties, even when he was dead, and I also liked the way that the origins of the epidemic borrowed heavily from the ‘Zombieworld’ series (Dark Horse Comics) without actually confirming that this was the reason certain things were happening. Without giving too much away, Wellington comes up with many ways of keeping things fresh and new throughout the whole book.
If you fancy reading a zombie book then ‘Monster Island’ is a pretty good place to start. However, be prepared to give the book a chance to warm up a little before it really gets going. It’s worth it.

Eight out of Ten

'Hell's Belles' - Jackie Kessler (Kensington Books)

There once was a time when I read nothing but 'epic fantasy' and didn't really care much for what else was out there. Running the blog (and seeing what books come through the door) has really opened my eyes to what else is on the bookshelves and what is popular right now. The success of a certain blonde vampire killer, on the TV, has set off a similar trend in the world of books and it seems like every publishing house has at least one author (usually more) who can churn out the latest instalment of some teenager who has anger management issues where the undead are concerned. Laurell K. Hamilton is the prime suspect and Kelley Armstrong has a neat line in werewolves and witches, Jennifer Rardin and Lilith Saintcrow are also making inroads into the genre. I've read about vampires and werewolves but what I hadn't seen (until now) was a book where the protagonist was a female demon. Enter Jackie Kessler with her tales of Jezebel, a succubi on the run from Hell and working in a lap-dancing club to make ends meet. In a neat twist from the usual fare; it's the demon that falls in love with a human this time round, a man with a few secrets of his own…
That's about as much as I can tell you though because I got halfway through the book and put it down, probably won't pick it up again. It wasn't that it was badly written or lacking in originality, the story flowed well and it was interesting to see Jezebel adapting to life in a human body. Yet again, the problem I had with a book of this nature is the overabundance of sex. You could turn around and say; “well what were you expecting? This is a book about a succubi!” You’d be absolutely right in that respect, a book about a sex demon is (by it’s very nature) going to contain a lot of sex. It’s just I think there are a lot more ways to spice up a story like this than simply covering it in sex. We’re talking about demons here; creatures with enormous strength and many other magical gifts, plenty of scope to write an entertaining story. I don’t have a problem with sex in books generally, just when I think it’s overdone.
What I will say in Kessler’s favour is that if you’re a fan of this sub-genre then you could do a lot worse than check her books out. I reckon you’d like them, they’re just not for me.
In fact, if you’re a fan of paranormal romance/urban fantasy and you’d like to try this book out (and the sequel ‘The Road to Hell’) drop me a line and I will send you the two signed copies that I received. I probably won’t read them and it would be good if they could go to someone who would enjoy them. First come, first served with this one!

‘Dark Hollow’ – Brian Keene (Leisure Fiction)

From the moment I finished reading ‘City of the Dead’ I knew that Brian Keene was going to join the list of authors for whom I will always stop whatever I’m reading when they release a new book. In every one of his books; Keene has pushed the fear and horror to new levels, left the reader in suspense and then racked things up another notch when least expected. It’s not often that I read a book so intense that I have to remember to breathe, Keene has written a handful already and shows no signs of slowing down (a good thing for anyone who’s a fan of horror). An Advance Review Copy of his latest book, ‘Dark Hollow’, came through the door a couple of days ago and it seemed like just the kind of thing to be reading on Halloween…
Something very strange is happening in the hometown of novelist Adam Senft. There is a hint of piping music on the wind and strange fires have been spotted deep in the forest at night. When morning comes, another woman has vanished. A chance encounter, whilst walking his dog, leads Adam into the forest and face to face with a nightmare from pre-history. Somehow, an ancient god has been summoned to the woods outside Adam’s town. And it’s hungry…
‘Dark Hollow’ won’t actually hit the bookshelves until next February so I have to try and be careful not to give too much away. This is a real shame as I am so excited about this book that I just want to tell everyone what happens! Suffice it to say that Keene manages to pack six hundred pages of suspense and terror into a book that’s only just over three hundred pages in length using language that is economic yet captivating at the same time.
There were moments in this book where I actually jumped when reading certain passages. All the old clichés applied, I kept nervously looking over one shoulder and I think the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at one point! As with his other works Keene does not pull any punches and leaves everything open to view in great detail. There are two big fights that left me gasping, by the end, because of the blunt visceral language that he uses (rather like Shaun Hutson but Keene actually shocks rather than ‘setting out to shock’). At the same time though, Keene displays a more gentle tone when showing the reader the camaraderie between friends and the love between a man and his dog. This highlights the supernatural element of the tale but by grounding the plot in real life Keene also shows the reader that the so-called ‘mundane realities’ we face every day can actually be more terrifying than the supernatural.
As a long-standing fan, I particularly enjoyed how Keene’s ‘Labyrinth mythos’ is beginning to take centre stage more and more. ‘Dark Hollow’ is a stand-alone book but it also ties in with everything else that Keene has written, I can’t wait to see where the next book (‘Ghost Walk’) takes us.
Brian Keene mixes humanity’s fear of the dark with it’s fear of what the real world can throw up and creates a heady brew of horror that will stay in my mind for a while to come. Give ‘Dark Hollow’ a go and see what I mean.

Nine out of Ten

‘Demon Eyes’ – L.H.Maynard & M.P.N.Sims (Leisure Fiction)

Have you ever read a book where you’re really not enjoying but you have a nagging feeling that it will get better? You keep reading, thinking it just has to get better, and before you know it you’re at the end of the book. It turns out that the nagging feeling wasn’t a nagging feeling at all, just a nasty part of your subconscious playing tricks on you again. ‘Demon Eyes’, for me, was one of those books. The blurb screamed potential and kept me reading to the end of a book that just didn’t deliver at all.
Emma Porter has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of Keltner Industries and is now starting her new job as personal assistant to Alex Keltner (the Managing Director). Her first duty is to help out at a party he’s throwing on his estate over the weekend. It’s not just any old party though, sex with the house staff is top of the agenda and video cameras in the rooms record everything. And why does Emma’s former boss keep trying to tell her to leave before it’s too late? Before the weekend is out, Emma will discover the awful secret of the guests and their host and the real reason why she was invited…
I looked at the blurb on the back and thought, “sounds like just the sort of book I want to read for Halloween; spooky, chilling with the promise of much gore by the end of the book.” As I worked my way however, everything that the blurb promised seemed to be missing between the covers. The authors seemed to want to tell the reader everything that was happening instead of showing them hints and leaving them to fill in the gaps themselves. How are anyone supposed to be frightened when they know exactly what is going on and can tell exactly what is going to happen next? For a story about ‘sex vampires’; the bits about sex seemed strangely detached from the book itself, almost as if they were just there for effect rather than serving any actual purpose in the story itself. Emma’s lesbian relationship comes across as being mentioned early on just to keep certain types of people reading. Without spoiling it too much, the ending of ‘Demon Eyes’ hints that maybe not enough attention was paid to what that particular relationship would entail… Other relationships, between characters, are mentioned but never developed unless it’s to get other characters out of a tricky situation. Certain characters also exhibit certain abilities just in time to manoeuvre past sticky plot points, the whole thing just seems contrived.
‘Demon Eyes’ has the potential to be so much more than it ended up. Things are set up for it to possibly be the start of a series, maybe future books will see an improvement. Personally, I’m not sure if I would stick around to see if this happens.

Four out of Ten

'The Jennifer Morgue' - Charles Stross (Orbit Books)

Fighting Cthulu just got sexy! Well, it would if you were a geeky demonology hacker working with a gorgeous blonde who's part mermaid and part succubus. And if you're forced to work under a geas that is modelled on the fictional stories of a certain super spy then there are certain rules that have to be followed… Welcome to the world of Bob Howard, harassed civil servant and occasional field agent for a top secret government agency that exists to make sure that the Earth is not swallowed whole by tentacle faced monsters. An insane billionaire trying to get hold of forbidden technology from under the sea is far from conducive to the fragile peace that exists between humans and, erm… slimy sea dwelling monsters. Cue Bob Howard along with explosions, high stakes baccarat, beautiful women, double crossing intrigue and a particularly damning (and accurate) view of the British Civil Service. It’s more of the same (not a bad thing!) if you’ve read ‘The Atrocity Archives’ but it’s also a good place to start if you’ve never read anything by Stross and want to give him a go.
Having spent a large part of my life working in various government/council departments, I fully sympathise with Bob’s efforts to negotiate his way around Human Resources, back stabbing colleagues and mountains of needless paperwork. Stross asks the reader ‘which battle would you rather fight?’ I have to say that at least you know where you are with a squid faced demon that wants to eat your soul! Without spoiling things, I will also say that I’ve long had my suspicions about PowerPoint presentations and I will be careful around these in the future…
Stross is full of ideas and views and wants nothing more than to share them with his readers. The end result is that ‘The Jennifer Morgue’ has a little something for everyone whether you’re a fan of thrillers, conspiracy theories or you just want something that will make you chuckle. A slight hitch to this approach is that if you blink (or get otherwise distracted) you will find yourself lost very quickly and have to go back and read several pages again! It’s a book that demands your attention but it’s worth the effort.
The use of the ‘James Bond Geas’ (a spell that forces everyone to obey certain conventions) could have easily turned ‘Jennifer Morgue’ into nothing more than a cheap pastiche. While the book is essentially a pastiche, Stross avoids the obvious pitfalls by introducing a plot twist (right at the end) that forces the reader to re-evaluate everything that they have been told. I never saw it coming but it made so much sense.
Stross also pokes fun at the ‘James Bond theme’ by giving his own little twist to certain scenes that you would expect to see in any of the films. My favourites were the ‘evil megalomaniac explains the plan to his captives’ and ‘our agent is kitted out for the field’ (some of the gadgets are pure genius)
Where ‘Jennifer Morgue’ fell down for me was Stross’ insistence on showing the reader on how much he knows about the ins and outs of computer technology. I know nothing about this kind of thing and really struggled with some of the more ‘information dense’ paragraphs. On the whole though, Stross does this sort of thing very well and it has really whetted my appetite for ‘Halting State’. A fast paced read for the beach that will make you think at the same time.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

Shaun Hutson Omnibus Part Two - 'Nemesis' (Orbit Books)

The journey into work was a nightmare today so I ended up finishing this one quicker than I thought. It was a quick read for other reasons as well but more on that later...
What could possibly be worse than your four year old daughter being murdered? The knowledge that you were having an affair the night she was killed... That one night left Sue and David Hackett's marriage in ruins. They move to the small town of Hinkston in an attempt to salvage their relationship but their past will catch up with them and the town holds a dark secret of it's own...
Hutson injects this 'Midwich Cuckoos'/'The Omen' style tale with a creeping sense of fear and dread that will make you tense up and half close your eyes every time you turn the page. David's quest for redemption will initially make you feel disgust but I challenge you not to feel a little sorry for him by the end. The ending is a shocker in more ways than one. Again, you will be left gasping as this book is not for the even faintly sqeamish...
Hutson's penchant for 'full on, in your face detail' ultimately hobbles a story with potential. I've got a pretty strong stomach but to my mind there was no need for such a graphic explanation of how David's daughter died and what was done to her. We know she died and certain inferences were made at the time. Returning to it just smacked of cheap sensationalism.
A good book that was undone by something that was needless.

Three out of Ten

‘Shaun Hutson Omnibus’ Part One – ‘Shadows’ (Orbit Books)

I’ve never reviewed an omnibus before so wasn’t quite sure how to approach this one. In the end I figured I’d review one of the books today and the other one tomorrow. So without further ado, come with me gentle reader and dip into the nightmarish world of ‘Shadows’…
The human mind is a wonderful thing but there is so much that we don’t know about it. While Jonathan Mathias uses the power of his mind to heal the sick, psychic investigators are probing areas of the human that are best left well alone. What they discover will bring death and misery to thousands…
Shaun Hutson’s cautionary tale of astral projection shows the reader that, as in all the best horror, true evil lies within the hearts of men. It’s a shame then that he chooses to smother some genuinely tense moments (and a superb twist in the tale) with bucket loads of visceral gore. If you’re at all squeamish then there are several points where you may want to skip a few pages, that’s all I’m saying… Like I said though, Hutson provides several particularly tense moments where you can almost feel the hair on the back of your neck stand up and you end up shouting at the characters to… (sorry, don’t want to spoil it) You will not see the twist in the tale until it hits you between the eyes, I guarantee you’ll be left gasping in astonishment and thinking “what the…”
‘Shadows’ grabs you by the throat and drags you to a shattering climax. You may stop and think, “hang on, how did that work?” My advice here is not to think about it too hard; this book isn’t meant to be a deep read, just enjoy the ride.
‘Shadows’ is a great opening book to this omnibus. If anything, it’s a slight shame that Hutson felt the need to overdo it with the gore (I never thought I’d hear myself say that, must be getting old…)

Seven and a Half out of Ten

‘The Walking Dead’ (Robert Kirkman) – Volumes 2-4

'Miles Behind Us' (Volume 2)
What’s the first thing you do after escaping a city filled with zombies and watching your little boy gun down the man who was sleeping with your wife? You pack everyone in your group into a camper van and set about trying to find somewhere (zombie free!) where you can settle down and wait things out. You pick up more travellers on the way and the unwritten laws of the horror genre start to come into play; the woman with the largest mouth will always be one of the first to die and teenagers will always be having sex when zombies attack!
Kirkman moves the action out into the countryside, builds up our hopes (for our band of travellers) and then takes them all away again. In this frightening new world a walled housing estate isn’t as safe as it seems and there is more to an isolated farm than at first meets the eye. Kirkman shows the reader, in no uncertain terms, that the problem is now widespread and will not be going away. Human reactions ranging from numb denial to grudging acceptance are shown along with their consequences. Can our survivors find safety anywhere? The answer may be just over the next hilltop… (Eight out of Ten)

'Safety Behind Bars' (Volume 3)
Prisons used to keep the dangerous people locked up but now the chain link fences of a prison may be the group’s only chance at living in safety. Or are they? Kirkman stays true to one of the zombie genre’s oldest tenets, ‘a zombie is only a mindless hungry corpse, it is humans that have the true capacity for evil’. Once the zombies have been cleared out of the jail, Kirkman finally has time to show us more of the motivations of each character. There is poignancy, frustration and rage. There are also misunderstandings that will have ramifications far into future episodes. We also learn that you don’t have to be bitten to become a zombie…
This is perhaps my favourite volume so far. The counterpoint of human drama, within the prison, and the ever increasing number of zombies outside makes for some tense moments which make you wonder if there is ultimately any point to what they are doing. Only time will tell… (Ten out of Ten)

'The Heart's Desire' (Volume 4)
The cliff-hanger from Volume 3 comes to a bloody conclusion that leaves the reader in no doubt as to what you must do to survive in this post apocalyptic world. Unfortunately, others are not so quick to catch on and this results in a falling out between friends that is almost apocalyptic in itself. Kirkman shakes things up by introducing an enigmatic new character who almost immediately sends established characters spiralling off in new directions. A radical approach to saving someone from zombie infection is hard hitting, graphic and will leave the reader gasping. Kirkman also has the knack of not letting things stagnate and always seems to be able to throw in a tricky situation to keep the impetus fresh. Rick’s speech, right at the end, is a real classic moment in the series and I’m looking forward to catching up and seeing what this means for everyone else… (Nine out of Ten)

In a genre that, at first sight, seems to overcrowded with superheroes (and moneymaking exercises… sorry, I meant superhero crossovers), the ‘Walking Dead’ is a little treasure chest hidden amongst the morass. A sometimes harrowing read that is ultimately rewarding.

‘The Last Days’ – Scott Westerfeld (Atom Books)

I am officially the least musical person I know; in fact the only thing I can play is my stereo (Get it? No? Oh well…). So when I’m sent a book about five teenagers and their band I automatically find myself at a disadvantage right from the start. I’ve got no idea about chord changes, melody or drum rhythms and these all take up a large part of the book. It’s a good thing that the rest of the story is something that can really be enjoyed whether you’re into music or not…
Scott Westerfeld set the scene for all of this in ‘Parasite Positive’, a tale of New York teetering on the edge of a supernatural apocalypse. As the reader ventures into ‘The Last Days’ it becomes clear that the problem has only worsened and is looking like it could soon be a global issue. Pearl, Moz and Zahler don’t really care though; all they are worried about is making their new band a success. But with a vampire singer and a drummer suffering from strange hallucinations, our band find that their music may have more of a part to play than they thought…
I’ve already mentioned that the parts of the book concerning the music really didn’t do anything for me. I skimmed them but I can imagine certain teenagers (learning to play the guitar for the first time) are going to get a lot out of it. What I personally enjoyed was the sense of creeping fear and paranoia that Westerfeld created over the course of the book. He handled the breakdown of society so convincingly that I’m half wondering if he was a vampire, in a post-apocalyptic New York, in a previous life. The band member’s almost blithe dismissal of what was happening in the background (preferring instead to concentrate on the music) somehow threw events in New York into sharp relief, leaving the reader in no doubt of the significance of various portents.
We meet a couple of familiar faces from ‘Parasite Positive’ which really established some continuity but I felt that although it was a short book, some characters could have done with more development. I’m thinking of the drummer Alana Ray, a lot was made of her in the blurb but you don’t really get to find out much about her visions in the book itself.
The ending suggests that there won’t be any more of these books and I’m glad I got a chance to read them. ‘The Last Days’ is a fun read that is brimming with atmosphere, it’s just a shame that I’m not the sort of person to fully appreciate the ‘music bits’.

Seven out of Ten