ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, By Simon Wood, Reviewed by Marcy Italiano

Have you ever watched a little kid tell you about something they liked? Picture their hands on their hips, nodding as they blurt out, "I liked it!"

How many times have you thought that the insurance company was out to get you? Well, in ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN, that is exactly what is happening to Josh Michaels. It seems that he's worth more money dead than alive, and the insurance company has decided to cash in. The only hitch is that is has to look like an accident, and they had to hire the Professional to make sure that the job is done right. If you think that's bad, Josh has to deal with Bell, the mistress from hell. She knows about the kickbacks he took to pay for his daughter's medical bills, and she wants his all of his money, and soul to keep her mouth shut. Unfortunately for Josh, she's not very good at that.

The drawback for me was wondering if a woman would, or even could act like Bell, and I tried to convince myself that she isn't real. Thinking more about it, I'm not so sure some women are all that different from Bell. Wow.

Josh is a great character you want to hate, but just can't. The poor guy messed up, badly, but does he deserve to die? No evidence, no witnesses, and Josh finds himself up a creek and doesn't know how to swim. I really rooted for this guy, and had fun reading ACCIDENTS WAITING TO HAPPEN.

You will also find yourself laughing. Simon's wit and humour shine through. Without giving too much away, I'll just mention that running into Mickey Mouse when I did, was absolutely hilarious.

I'll be looking for more of Simon Wood's work in the future, because "I liked it!" And yes, my hands are on my hips. Go pick up this book.
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THE QUEEN OF SINISTER by Mark Chadbourn, Review by Andy Fairclough

THE QUEEN OF SINISTER is Mark Chadbourn's fifth dark fantasy novel and the second in "The Dark Age" series. It can easily be read as a stand alone novel and indeed unless you are a die-hard fan of the series, this may be the best option as the novel treads on a lot of familiar ground.

Mark Chadbourn is (was) a great horror fiction writer and market forces determined his move into Fantasy after his last mass-market horror novel, the exquisite SCISSORMAN. He penned an up and down dark fantasy trilogy "The Age Of Misrule" which outsold all his previous works and gained him a new legion of fans. A lot of Chadbourn's Horror fans (myself included) followed him into this series as it had enough dark content to be of interest, even if the theme made him sacrifice his usually strong characterisation.

His publisher commissioned him to write more Fantasy after the initial trilogy and "The Dark Age" came about. The first book THE DEVIL IN GREEN showed promise. Although based in the same world, the characters and settings were different enough to do a lot more than hold interest and this was possibly his best book since SCISSORMAN.

Unfortunately THE QUEEN OF SINISTER is a step backwards as a lot of the originality of the last novel seems lost and the plot and characterisation drifts back to the familiar ground covered in "The Age Of Misrule" books.

For those who've not read the books, the earth is going through a new 'dark age' where modern life has been turned on its head and magic and mythology very much come to the fore with Gods and mysterious beings causing humanity to revert to a simpler way of life.

Things start very strongly as humanity is being devastated by a plague which Doctor Caitlin Shephard struggles in vein to treat at the expense of having little time for her husband and son. She is devastated after her family succumb to the plague, but things beyond our world have other plans for her.

Caitlin bands together with some other humans on her personal quest for a cure for the plague and also to 'cross over' and look for her recently deceased husband and son.

Unfortunately a lot of the other characters are weak and perhaps a bit cartoonish and it's hard to generate any real feeling for their plight. The novel moves through all the expected mythological appearances and settings and even throws in an equally expected twist near the end.

I hate to say it but THE QUEEN OF SINISTER is a novel that doesn't add much to a concept or series and it smacks of an author being boxed into an ever tighter corner by an established audience that expect a certain type of book and storyline from him.
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ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE by David B. Silva, Review by Mark Justice

Silva has been a fixture on the horror scene for years as an author and editor. The Horror Show was an outstanding fiction magazine. And Hellnotes, though no longer under Silva's guidance, remains the premier newsletter of the field. His fiction appearances, particularly the longer pieces, are infrequent but quite welcomed by those who enjoy his carefully crafted tales. So the publication of All the Lonely People is a cause for celebration.

Nearly 200 pages long, this meaty novella follows Chase Sanford, a regular guy in a regular town, who has a wife and a sick daughter. He owns and manages a small bar called The Last Stop, where the lonely people of the title hang out.

One night a stranger comes in for a beer. The man is carrying an odd box, which elicits a lot of whispers from the other patrons. Finally, someone asks the stranger about the box. He's glad to open it up for them. But it's only later that Chase and the others realize that opening the box comes with a price.

No one remembers what happened after the box was opened. Chase's life begins to disappear. He sleeps most of the time and his memory is being erased. His daughter's illness grows worse, and Chase becomes a stranger to his family. He realizes that his only hope lies in finding the stranger with the box.

Silva manages to pack a lot of story into his novella, along with the notion that a life wasted is a life that doesn't deserve to be lived.

Let's just hope that All the Lonely People is followed by more frequent appearances by one of horror's finest stylists.
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STAINED by Lee Thomas, Review by Mark Justice

Ted Lewis left Marchand, Louisiana after school to become a successful restaurateur in Chicago. But after his wife's death, Ted decided to move back home. Marchand was a typical small-town with friendly neighbors, kids playing on the streets and quaint shops and restaurants. Marchand was just the way Ted remembered it.

Except for the serial killer.

The River Rat, as the local paper dubbed him, has been killing young boys like clockwork every two months.

The latest victim is one of his neighbors, and when Ted gets involved in the search, he accidentally captures the River Rat, who does a remarkable thing: he bites Ted on the chest, and then surrenders.

Drew Fontenot, Marchand's police chief and Ted's best friend, begins to notice a change in Ted. Lewis is prone to angry, violent outbursts. And Ted is having dreams and visions of raping and torturing boys, making them sing the bloody song he loves to hear.

The now-jailed River Rat passes a letter to Ted through Drew, a letter that tells of an old evil called The Jack, that--like a virus--is passed on from one carrier to another. Ted now carries The Jack, along with all of its memories. And its terrible hunger.

In Stained, Thomas has done a fine job in creating both a believable world and rich characters to populate it. Marchand is described in beautiful detail, And Ted, Drew and the rest are given all the quirks and foibles needed to bring them to life and to make the reader care about them.

Thomas also does a good job at cranking up the suspense, showing the reader just enough graphic terror to convey the immensity of the evil at work in his story without verging into an orgy of gross-out horror.

What Stained needed was a competent copy editor. The book has more than a few typos, mostly involving dropped commas. The red pencil should also have been applied to a small number of descriptive passages that slow down the story.

If you can get past those diversions, you'll find Stained to be the work of a strong writer who is just going to get better and better. He has Stephen King's deft touch when it comes to describing life in a small town and he expertly reveals the sadness and pain that lives in the heads of his characters. I'm looking forward to his next novel.
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SHIVERS: TERROR IN THE SOUTH by Kevin Bozard , Reviewed by Darkomik77

Okay, finally got this read, both the novel and thirteen stories in the bonus chapter. It's a very fun book. If you can overlook or forgive all the typos in this book, even the most glaring ones, it's not a bad read. It may not exactly be National Book Award material, but hell it's cheesy entertainment. And I do mean "cheesy" in a complimentary way.

It reads like a grade B movie. Think of the movie, "Monster On Campus", and you get the idea. At least the monster in this book is much more intelligent than the one in the movie.

The story pens with a lady jogger being stalked by something beastly skulking about in the shadow. When she sees a shadowy shape following her, she gets scared and runs into the train yard. Where in the end, she runs into the charging train. Not her intention of course. Why did that happened? Read the book and find out.

After the death of their friend, Megan, Lisa, and Mark decided to go look for the killer before he kills again. Before they endeavor to do so, Matt tags along and tells them the story of who the killer really is. So they search and almost find him. It isn't't until a tornado strikes and the whole town is in shambles.

Soon after, the killer strikes again. And once again, the Scooby doo gang (minus the dog), go out to an abandoned monkey farm to investigate the mysteries there.

That's about all I'll tell you at this point. As I said before, it's cheesy fun. It's fast paced. It's gory. It's too bad it's short. What the hell, it's still fun.

Next is the bonus chapter of thirteen tales this side of Twilight Zone and Tales From the Darkside. It's a mixed bag in my opinion. Some hits and near-hits. It will only stretch this review too long if I were to synopsize some of the stories in that batch. So I will list some of my personal faves: Fade to Black; Macabre Mile; Reflections; Snowbound; The Storm; The Beast; The Milkman; Time Warp; A Cry For Help; and Talking The Fire. These are written like walking through nightmares minus the Rod Serling.

Like the novel, there are hilarious and macabre moments. This book is definitely worth the price of admission of both the novel and the stories.