Horror World Book Reviews
December, 2005

BERSERK by Tim Lebbon
Reviewed by Ron Dickie

Ten years after his only son's death, Tom Robberts is still in mourning. He drops by the pub for a pint or two, or more, on the way home from work every Friday to drown his sorrows and to be alone in a crowd of people. He's always had his suspicions about his son's death. "Training accident" was the given cause from the military, but Tom could never accept that.

One day, at his usual pub, Tom's attention is caught when he overhears two men mention the place where his son died. Listening more closer, he then hears one of them say, "They kept monsters."

Finding one of them to be sympathetic, Tom is given directions to the real location of his son's death, the place where his body is supposedly buried. Like a man possessed, Tom digs in the earth to find his son's remains, to know the truth, but instead finds something else.

Something he did not expect. Something not truly alive or dead.

And unfortunately, one of the people who buried it there have found out what Tom has done, and he will stop at nothing to hide this secret.

With bits of the truth revealed, Tom sets out to discover what really happened to his son Steven, including whether or not Steven is actually dead after all.

I have to warn you right now, exercise caution when reading BERSERK. Otherwise, you will wind up setting the pages on fire from flipping through them too quickly. This is a one-sitting book, and you will be hard pressed to put it down once you begin. Make no mistake, this is not a short novel. This is a full-length, action-packed thrill ride that you'll want to devour in its entirety.Longtime fans may notice a slight style change from Lebbon's earlier work, but the quality of the writing and the wild imagination is still there. The main characters all shine through in this one, and you'll find yourself sympathizing with not only Tom Robberts, but with the antagonist, Cole, as well. Both men believe what they are doing is right and just, and we the readers are kept happily guessing throughout as well. The final solution will shock you.

Leisure Press

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BLOODSTONE by Nate Kenyon
Reviewed by Mark Justice

Nate Kenyon's debut novel is a dark thrill ride, layered in an atmosphere of dreamlike unease and disturbing imagery.

Billy Smith is a troubled young man. He has to live with the memory of the deaths he caused back when he still drank. Fresh from prison, he begins having visions that lead him to kidnap a hooker and travel to a small New England town.

Ah, that "small New England town" thing caught your attention, didn't it? Since Stephen King became a household name, we all know that all tiny New England communities are filled with badness.

White Falls is no exception.

Smith and his companion Angel -- who eventually adjusts to her captivity -- soon discover that White Falls is filled with enough weirdness to power several novels. Something old and evil has been asleep for a long time. But now it's awake and everyone in White Falls is in danger of succumbing to its seductive influence, especially Billy and Angel.

Kenyon's prose is a revelation. He effortlessly switches from the stilted and formal writings of one of White Falls' settlers to the tortured mind of Jeb Taylor, the son of a murderer. It wouldn't comes as a surprise if a first-time novelist resorted to a few of the familiar small town horror stereotypes, but Kenyon instead gives us characters that are so three-dimensional that they threaten to step off the page.

BLOODSTONE is a dark and disturbing debut that will live on in your nightmares long after you've finished it. Kenyon has proven himself to be a writer to watch.

Available through Shocklines

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SECOND SOUL By Thomas Sullivan
Reviewed by Nate Kenyon

Michael Carmichael is an avid outdoorsman, expert skier and otherwise normal guy-until he has a near-death experience on the slopes, crashing headlong into an icy-cold waterfall on the edge of a mountain road. After his body drops to a core temperature of 55 degrees, he is brought back to life-and known forever afterward as "Waterfall Man" by the media who latch onto his story.

What makes the story even stranger is that nineteen people died at the same time on that stretch of desolate road as their tour bus hit a bear and exploded into flames. In fact, Michael has some dim memory of witnessing the accident while encased in his watery tomb-even though the doctors who treat him insist that he couldn't have been conscious enough to see anything.

Now, Michael finds his own sense of self to be subtly altered. He is not the man he once was, and the voices and visions and blackouts that plague him are growing ever more insistent and dangerous. Mirrors twist and distort reality; potted plants turn into portals to other dimensions; notes appear in his journal written in a hand that is not his own. He is visited by strangers claiming to have business with him-strangers who then disappear without a trace. Food rots within minutes whenever he is nearby. The natural world seems to be rejecting him.

Soon, Michael must face a terrifying choice: is he going crazy, or is it something worse? Has he brought something back with him from beyond the grave?

Second Soul is a psychedelic trip to the dark side. Long passages of flashback and description blunt the novel's beginning, but once Michael leaves the hospital, the plot begins to hum. The dialogue, when it comes, is crisp and clever, and the supporting characters are refreshingly unique.

The fact that Second Soul is written in the first person (the second half done in journal-style entries) raises the possibility of an unreliable narrator, and keeps the book from ever quite finding steady ground. It's never entirely clear whether what Michael sees and experiences is real, all in his head, or a combination of the two. But this also gives the book some of its most effective surreal moments.

There are several scenes that are in turns stomach-churning and terrifying (arachnophobic readers should steer clear), and the ending serves to pull the loose ends together nicely. Second Soul is a haunting novel of suspense filled with surreal, dreamlike imagery, Lovecraftian creatures and alternate realities. It is a work of impressive imagination by a writer with considerable gifts for language and style.

Onyx Books

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MANITOU BLOOD by Graham Masterton
Reviewed By Patricia Snodgrass

There is no doubt in my mind that Graham Masterton is one of the best contemporary horror writers in the business. His work engages, intrigues, excites and scares the living hell out of me. I enjoy his work and look forward to every book he brings out. I suppose at some point in every writer's career, however, there must be at least one dud. Sadly, Manitou Blood just didn't do it for me. The tragedy is that starts out so well, but toward the end of the book, the plot sags underneath its own weight, and collapses.

Manitou Blood begins in New York City, where Doctor Frank Winter, a physician who works the Emergency Room at Sisters of Jerusalem Hospital comes in contact with a young woman by the name of Susan Fireman who is mysteriously vomiting blood and whispering an enigmatic phrase: tatal nostru.

Masterton's style is impeccable. Even when he makes tense shifts between Dr. Winter's third person account and conman turned psychic Harry Erskine's first person account, the transition is smooth and believable.

Manitou Blood does have some truly frightening moments. One eerie scene involves corpses wrapped in sheets flying up into an airshaft. Another scene presents the reader with an unforgettable visitation by the Slanting Man and his minions.

Masterton focuses on the Slanting Man, keeps the reader anxious, especially whenever the creature comes out of the mirror to terrorize the main characters. Then Masterton does something truly baffling. He offers the reader another character; one that is powerful enough to control an enemy that's already disturbing enough, thank you. It threw me out of the story, and I sat with a reader's version of coitus interruptus and wondering what just happened.

I wish Masterton had stayed with the original premise. It thoroughly creeped me out, but having a powerful vampire collector possessed by a cranky five hundred and fifty year old medicine man was just too much. The shroud of illusion was lifted and I saw the mechanics behind the scenery. I just couldn't get back into the story after that. And that's too bad. It took a great book and sent it into the realm of mediocrity. And Masterton is far too good a writer for that.

Leisure Books

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Eric Troy is a handsome, well-spoken and confident young actor, who just happens to look exactly like a sculpture Lu made years ago. Disfigured by an accident at an early age, and with little experience with men, she is shocked when Eric asks her to dinner. But she accepts, and is soon swept up in a whirlwind romance that seems too good to be true.

Things soon turn darker and more mysterious. Eric Troy is blessed with incredible success in his life and career. Women (and men) fall all over him, plum acting roles drop into his lap, and he seems to get everything he wants. What's more, anyone who even thinks about double-crossing him ends up out of commission-or dead. Determined to find out what's really going on, and who Eric Troy is, Lu begins to dig into his past, and discovers that everything he's ever told anyone is a lie.

Who is Eric Troy? What does he want from Lu, and what is he trying to accomplish? As Lu learns more about what Eric is after and who he really is, she pushes just a bit too far. Now she is no longer one of the chosen, and she must find a way to outsmart him before it's too late.

Paragon is somewhat of a guilty pleasure; there's nothing particularly remarkable or original in the writing itself, but it's a fast, easy read that keeps the pages turning quickly. Watkins uses clean, simple language, and the plot is seductive and interesting enough to hook most readers. It could certainly be classified as a paranormal romance, as a lot of the plot involves the relationship between the two main characters.

There are areas that stretch the limits of believability, particularly when main characters either come to accept paranormal events too easily, or don't accept them (or act on them) even when the evidence is, quite literally, staring them in the face. But the secrets and back history unveiled in the later pages provides a satisfying end. For those readers who enjoy a little romance with their horror, Paragon may be just the thing.

Amber Quill Press

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