Horror World Book Reviews
July, 2008

HORROR ISN’T A 4-LETTER WORD by Matthew Warner
Review by David Simms

Another writer attempting a “How to write horror” guide? How many does the genre have? King, Monteleone, Laymon, Partridge, etc? Why should anyone read one written by a writer that hasn’t had a world breaking bestseller that redefines this corner of the dark literary world?

Easy. It’s DAMNED good. Really.

Why? Matt Warner talks to the writer in us not from above, from a place that most authors will never achieve, but right next to you. His style makes the reader feel as if this were a discussion over a beer in a casual bar, not a lecture hall. Not to put down any of the guides listed above, as ALL of them have greatly influenced many a writer (including the scribe of this review), but Matt “talks” to the writer, not to the crowd, which is what makes this book so special.

Did I mention he has a killer sense of humor and sarcasm sharp enough that can slice, dice, and puree a bad book into a million tiny errors? This one never gets boring.

From tackling stereotypes of the genre to tips on dialogue (he dissects snippets from Brian Keene, Douglas Preston, and J.K. Rowling to explaining why the Left Behind book actually works (?), all of it is relevant to the working writer seeking to hone his or her craft. He discusses the pitfalls of writing in the workplace (where many hack away at that diamond in the rough) to public speaking to a great chapter on book doctors, which is crucial reading for any new writer who would be foolish enough to pay for editing.

After all of that, Mr. Warner, intelligently discusses how Buffy the Vampire Slayer can help your writing! Funny, but it makes a hell of a lot of sense. He then has some fun discussing “10 Things I’ve Done As A Horror Geek,” “How Not To Decorate Your Home For The Holidays,” and “The Audition” (for his future mother-in-law). Again, all of these sneak in tasty tidbits on how to improve one’s writing.

To close the book, Warner gets serious (a good thing here) about a few topics. The history of fairy tales is engrossing and segues beautifully into pieces on obscenity in writing, horror and violence in the real world, and finally, the Chinese organ trade (the seed of his novel “The Organ Donor”). Between that and the piece on schizophrenia, it’s tough not to respect the man for how he handled both pieces; the organ trade piece is a testament to how researching can change one’s writing – and life.

Yeah, and he includes a cool, very disturbing short story which he examines afterwards.

This is a very welcome addition to any writer’s shelf.

Guide Dog Books

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GHOST WALK by Brian Keene
Review by Mark Justice

In Ghost Walk, Brian Keene takes the reader back to LeHorn’s Hollow, setting for Dark Hollow. There’s a lot going on in those dark woods, from folk magic to the return to our planet of an ancient and angry being that wants to destroy the world.

Once again, Keene populates a novel with a cast of believable characters, many of them hard-working blue collar folk. Leading this contingent is Ken Ripple, a widower who wants to pay tribute to his deceased wife by building the titular haunted attraction, never realizing that in doing so he’s creating a buffet line for the unholy thing that lives in the darkest part of the woods.

A handful of unique characters propel the story along, including a well-drawn female reporter and Adam Senft, the protagonist of Dark Hollow.

But, by far, Ghost Walk’s most interesting figure is Levi Stoltzfus, ex-Amish and an expert in rural pow wow folk magic. Together, Levi, Senft and the reporter must team up to stop an otherworldly creature from destroying all life on Earth.

As we’ve come to expect from a Keene novel, much blood and violence ensue. The narrative never slows down, and the reader is happily dragged along to the final battle.

Ghost Walk contains a plethora of references to the author’s earlier works, with a couple of them painfully shoehorned into the story. Small nitpicks aside, Ghost Walk is another solid horror novel that will please existing fans of Brian Keene and likely create new ones.

Leisure Books

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BRITISH INVASION edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon and James A. Moore
Review by Joe Kroeger

With any number of anthologies making an appearance throughout the year, all struggling to stand out from the crowd, it is an immense pleasure to find the one that rises above to rest as a shining example of how good an anthology can be. Showcasing the brilliant imaginations and beautifully atmospheric prose of twenty-one of the finest British horror authors working in the field today, British Invasion is sure to be this year’s standout anthology. Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon and James A. Moore brought together some of the finest short stories that made their way across the pond to create an anthology that will truly make any horror lover stand and take notice. With this many big name authors and expertly crafted stories in captured within these pages, British Invasion is well worth the price of admission.

Gord Rollo gets this anthology off the starting block with the surreal quality of his deeply disturbing tale, Lost in a Field of Paper Flowers. Gord Rollo uses the imaginary landscape of a young boy’s comatose world to tell a heart-breaking story of revenge and the consequences of your actions. The poetic genius and beautiful writing of this story sets a pace that the rest of this anthology has no problem in living up to.

You are sure to have no trouble in finding a story that reaches every particular taste of the horror reader within the pages of this amazingly collected anthology. Farewell to the 21st Century Girl by Mark Chadbourn is an imaginatively written first-person narrative of a man’s obsession with a girl that will have you rethinking every expertly written word of the story by the time you finish the final sentence. Sarah Pinborough perfectly captures the lurking horror and rich “Twilight Zone” imagination with her touching story, The Nowhere Man. Expertly demonstrating the other end of the spectrum, Kealan Patrick Burke perfectly lightens the mood with Mutiny, a richly imaginative short story that shows what happens when one man’s body betrays him piece by piece. Whether it is the highly unique writing style of At One by James Lovegrove or the big screen horror movie atmosphere of The Crazy Helmets by Paul Finch, each story is an exceptional piece of fiction that you are sure to thoroughly enjoy until the final page is turned.

While reading through the pages of British Invasion, I came across some truly phenomenal stories that stood out from the rest with their brilliant writing and unique plotlines. Nicholas Royle perfectly captured the fear and desperation caused by cancer with the expertly written story, The Goldfinch, which tells the story of a man being stalked by a shadowy figure. Peter Crowther and Mark Morris both contributed stories that contained the deep symbolism of the degradation of the family contained within the richly told horror tale. Leaves, the simple story of a man’s life being overrun by the simple addition of an everyday object, comes to life with Peter Crowther’s energetic prose and ultimately disturbing imagery that stuck within my mind well after I finished. And, with Puppies For Sale, Mark Morris created a refreshing glimpse of the vampire mythos that left me in awe of his originality.

Even with the stories that seemed to fall short of the anthology’s brilliance, British Invasion, edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon and James A. Moore, is a great collection that is sure to have you loving every turn of the page. This anthology comes with my highest recommendation as one of the truly great reads of the summer.

Cemetery Dance

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THE JIGSAW MAN By Gord Rollo
Reviewed by Cesar Puch

After losing his family to a traffic accident, Michael Fox has been in a constant downslide, sleeping inside a dumpster, surviving on the streets and haunted by the memory of his lost wife and child. Tired of it all, he decides to put an end to everything but his plans are cut short when a stranger makes him an offer too good to be true. Thus, Michael is introduced to Dr. Marshall, a multimillionaire scientist who offers to pay two million dollars for his right arm. The offer of course does turn out to be too good to be true and Michael not only learns that he is not the only one who has been drafted, but by the time he learns the fate of his predecessors, it is too late for him. As it turns out, Dr. Marshall is obsessed with building something and unfortunately for Michael, spare parts are required.

When you start reading The Jigsaw Man you will no doubt identify a number of clichés: the victim who is in way over his head, the mad scientist with a fortune that can guarantee the performance of any experiment he can imagine, the sadistic henchman who is big as a house and becomes more twisted and repulsive with every page, the secluded, creepy laboratory. Actually, when it comes to characters the author does fall in his own trap and so the evil players turn more and more caricaturesque as he adds details which really have no relevance to the story and appear to be there for mere effect. However, and despite the latter, Rollo makes these clichés work with a light prose that is strong on suspense. The story never stops moving forward and the chapters are nicely strung together, maintaining the interest with small cliffhangers (the prologue is among some of the most effective I’ve read).

But then there’s more to The Jigsaw Man, because as things turn more and more sour for our hero, no one is there to save him from doom, and this is where the story really kicks off. Rollo takes the character beyond torture to a point where he is literally reduced to almost nothing. At this point you might wonder if Rollo has painted himself into a corner but as far-fetched as the story can turn at times, the author manages to create a nice turn in the events and the final resolution turns out to be a satisfying one, lending a degree of poignancy to a story that could have been just another shock-fest.

Speaking of the shocker value, it was interesting to see that as disturbing as some of these scenes can be, the blood-spatter and gut-tossing is actually kept to a minimum, despite there being certain scenes which will very likely make more than one reader gag.

It could be argued that ‘The Jigsaw Man’ is a version of the Frankenstein story told from the point of view of the donor. The story is certainly enjoyable provided you are willing to give the clichés a chance. Pick it up for a fast entertaining read.

Leisure Books

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TOWER HILL by Sarah Pinborough
Review by Nate Kenyon

Liz Clapton, eager to escape an oppressive religious family that has been slowly withdrawing from mainstream society for years, arrives at the small university at Tower Hill, Maine ready to expand her horizons. She is joined by two roommates, each quite different from each other. Steve has his own demons to escape in Detroit, while Angela, the most outgoing of the three, is beautiful and confident.

Together the three students settle in quickly to college life, attending parties and getting part-time jobs. But this quiet little New England town is not quite what it seems. The old church, around which the town was built, has explosive secrets buried deep within it, and the strange new priest, Father O’Brien, has already made some changes. Most of the townsfolk are intrigued, but Liz isn’t so sure. She doesn’t want organized religion in her life right now, and besides, something seems a little off about Father O’Brien.

Another new arrival in town, the charismatic and handsome professor Gray Kenyon, has the female students under his spell, and most of the male ones too. Angela is no different, and she joins his paranormal society more to spend her off hours staring at him than learn about the unknown. Still, an unexpected benefit comes to light as she finds the meetings both seductive and intriguing. The students who become members of the group don’t know exactly what’s going on with all the chanting and the strange candles and meditation, but they keep coming back.

It isn’t long before the townsfolk start changing. The church becomes more important and they begin to lose focus on their daily lives and jobs. A girl from the paranormal society kills herself in gruesome fashion, but rather than open an investigation, the police chief covers it up. Angela grows distant from her friends, and is plagued by strange waking nightmares.

Liz and Steve, along with a deputy named Lou Eccles and the town drunk, Al Shenko, are seemingly the only ones left unaffected by the changes. They begin to wonder who exactly this priest is, how he is connected to Professor Kenyon, and why the two of them have settled in Tower Hill. Has everyone in town suddenly gone crazy all at once? Or is something much more sinister at work?

Tower Hill is a quiet little read that builds slowly. Pinborough takes time to develop characters, giving more depth and backstory than usual for the two villains, Jack and Gray. The main characters are likeable, but it’s the two villains who steal the show here, one of them a heartless psychopath, the other a more thoughtful, but equally chilling killer. The story about who they are, and how they came to be at Tower Hill, is in some ways even more fascinating than the central story.

But Pinborough is a skilled writer who knows how to keep pulling the reader back in, and she keeps the pages turning. The ending contains a neat little twist of fate that works nicely. Overall, Tower Hill is a worthy addition to the shelves of a writer who is quickly becoming known as the next queen of horror. Here’s hoping Sarah Pinborough will be writing novels for many more years to come.

Leisure Books

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THE CONFESSIONS OF ST. ZACH by Gene O’Neill
By Norm Rubenstein

Bad Moon Books has just released another in their exquisite line of Limited Edition Novellas, this one a new Novella by Gene O’Neill titled The Confessions Of St. Zach. Author O’Neill has written a nice body of excellent short fiction and a number of well-received novels. However, he is perhaps best known for the brilliant post-apocalyptic Baja Express Mythos that he created in a series of short stories and expanded upon in his novel, The Burden Of Indigo, all of which were collected together by Delirium Books in their recent book Titled Collected Tales Of The Baja Express.

Author O’Neill’s latest Novella can certainly claim heritage to the same “Baja Express” mythos, and The Confessions Of St. Zach, constitutes a new tale in his growing fictional universe. The book, as is true of all the recent Bad Moon Books novella series, contains beautifully drawn and rendered cover and interior artwork, this time by artist Steve Gilberts, and further includes an Introduction by popular author Gord Rollo, an Afterword by another oh, semi-popular author, some guy named Brian Keene, and, as a special bonus, further includes two extra and terrific short stories by Gene O’Neill. The book is available both as a Limited Edition softcover chapbook of Two Hundred copies signed by all the contributing authors and the artist for Fifteen Dollars, and as a Deluxe Leather-bound hardcover Deluxe Lettered Edition of Twenty-Six copies for One Hundred and Three Dollars.

Author O’Neill’s Novella itself, is, as are all his “Baja Express” writings, a post apocalyptic tale set in contemporary California in the Bay area surrounding San Francisco. As the story begins, the Zachary family – father Jacob, the title character, and an Associate professor of English at the University of California Berkeley, his wife, Lauren, a Physician’s Assistant at a major Bay area Medical Center, and their 17 year old son, Lucas, a Senior in high school. They have been stranded and snowed-in for almost three weeks during their vacation at a cabin far up the summit of Mount George, after a huge freak snowstorm. When they are finally able to dig-out and proceed down the mountain, they begin to notice that the once pure-white snow encountered at the upper elevations has started turning a curious dirty-gray color as they proceed to lower elevations. They also begin to note the eerie silence and the lack of any other vehicles or people as they proceed down towards the nearest town. As they get ever closer to civilization they see further evidence of some sort of mass destruction, like massive numbers of abandoned vehicles, the lack of any operating radio channels or broadcasts, and eventually, also untold numbers of homes and buildings totally destroyed down to their foundations, and the remnants of multiple fierce fires. After finally locating other surviving humans, they find out that while they had been snowed-in, massive nuclear strikes rained down across the globe destroying much of humanity and human civilization. The rest of the Novella deals with the Zachary family’s attempts to survive what comes next, and details both the depths to which humans can succumb and fall, as well as the redemptive heights to which they are capable, as a species, of attaining.

What sets apart The Confessions Of St. Zach, as well as all of Gene O’Neill’s post-apocalyptic Baja Express stories, is the consummate skill with which author O’Neill is able to imagine and then describe and convey to readers the reality of the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. With Gene O’Neill as your guide, a reader doesn’t merely readabout what might happen, they Live the experience, as perhaps no other author has been able to as expertly and convincingly sustain. The Confessions Of St. Zach is one of the, if not the, finest example of post-apocalyptic short-fiction you are likely to encounter, and should make you eager to run out and obtain the author’s other tales of his Baja Express mythos. As a bonus, the two short stories also included within the book are exceptional examples of the author’s brilliant creativity and story-telling ability.

First is the story Balance which involves a US military veteran who is apparently off-his medications and has seemingly gone insane and sees visions of a Goddess, Lady Liberty, who instructs him in the vital secret of the Law Of Catastrophic Geo-Homeostasis, with cataclysmic consequences. The second story, Gunny Roy’s Rules Of Engagement, is a very chilling look at Humanity as viewed through a near-future new yearly holiday with a surprising special guest-star celebrant, reminiscent of Christmas and Santa Claus as it might occur on the Bizzaro World, but all too possible on our own world. Both of these short stories are of awards caliber and will haunt readers long after their initial reading.

The Confessions Of St. Zach is a truly exceptional book, and receives my strongest recommendation.

Bad Moon Books

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THE LAND AT THE END OF THE WORKING DAY by Peter Crowther
Review by Joe Kroeger

Anyone who is a true fan of Peter Crowther’s fiction is certainly familiar with his exceptional stories set within the two flight walk-down Manhattan bar, The Land at the End of the Working Day. Collected for the first in a single volume, The Land at the End of the Working Day features four novelettes that prove Peter Crowther is truly a writer who is performing at the top of his game. Even if you have had the pleasure of reading these before, this book is still a must have with special introductions to each novelette written by Elizabeth Hand, Joe Hill, Ian McDonald and Lucius Shepherd giving this book that extra special touch. The Land at the End of the Working Day by Peter Crowther is an amazingly written book that is well worth adding to your personal collection.

The first of the four novelettes, Gandalph Cohen and the Land at the End of the Working Day, perfectly serves as a memorable introduction to this magical place of Peter Crowther’s invention. Even though, on the surface, this story may seem simple in its plot, Crowther packs so much emotion and characterization within his prose you literally can feel the power of this tale radiating from the pages. His writing is so rich with imagery and true emotion that he succeeds in making the city of Manhattan feel like an actual character within his story. The opening passages of the story in which he describes the voices of the past floating through the breezes of Manhattan literally had me setting the book aside so I could bask in the pure genius of Crowther’s writing. Besides the life that seems to pour from his expertly flesh-out characters, this simple tale carries an immense feeling of sadness along side a glimpse of hope that leaves the readers with a slight different outlook of the world around them.

One of the main themes that stand out in all of these stories is the simple fact that magic exists within the ordinary if you just allow yourself to believe. The second novelette, Bernard Boyce Bennington and the American Dream, tells of two outsiders that venture into The Land at the End of the Working Day in search of a woman that has impacted both their lives. As the story progresses you begin to see the supernatural side slowly seeping to the surface which leads these men down a road of desperation and revenge that can only end in sadness.

Next in line is the most powerful and ingeniously written story to grace these pages, Front-Page McGuffin and the Greatest Story Never Told. In its simplest form, this is a story of a man who cannot let go of the death of his wife and allows it to drain his life away. The magical aspect rears it’s head again in the fact that Front-Page McGuffin has passed away but is so stricken by the tragedy of his wife that he cannot find the power to move on. This story takes its readers through a roller-coaster ride that shows the all-consuming power that grief can have on a life but at the same time shows the saving grace that friendship can bring. Front-Page McGuffin and the Greatest Story Never Told is the novelette that is worth the price of admission.

Peter Crowther closes this collection with Cliff Rhodes and the Most Important Journey, a story that expertly grasps the concept that a rich sense of adventure is one of the most important aspects of even the most ordinary lives. Through the simple act of people exchanging barroom stories, Crowther shows how even the most mundane and ordinary lives can be opened up to magic and adventure that will raise up any individual into an extraordinary existence. Like the other stories within this collection, Crowther brings out the true magic hidden expertly within the prose of a simply told tale.

Peppered throughout these richly crafted stories are four of the most real and fleshed-out characters you will find within any fiction gracing the bookshelves today. He creates these flawed characters so perfectly that you will feel their pain and truly care about what has happened to them since the previous story. Crowther has also laced each of these stories an exceptional atmosphere that faithfully captures the bar setting of the stories with such authenticity that you will feel you are actually sitting within The Land at the End of the Working Day.

The Land at the End of the Working Day by Peter Crowther is one of those books that come along once in a great while that must be cherished for the literary magic that it truly is. I cannot recommend enough that you get your hands on a copy of this book and hold on it for dear life.

Humdrumming Press

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FOUND: THE MISSING: BOOK 1 by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Review by David Simms

Young adult books are tough to classify in most cases: are they horror, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, etc? Most of the successful ones (we’ll leave Potter out of the equation for now), combine genres, which is what the best adult fiction does. Think of The Golden Compass, Narnia, Goosebumps, and then modern series such as Pendleton & Petrucha’s great WICKED series and F. Paul Wilson’s new YA Repairman (now simply) JACK series. All have elements of horror but hit the reader with many levels.

Haddix’s new series is no different. Having not read her SHADOW CHILDREN series, her writing was new to me. This means FOUND was a pleasant surprise.

An airplane arrives at the gate with only 36 passengers aboard – ALL infants (that’s scary in itself!). Of course, it’s covered up but thirteen year-old Jonah, his buddy Chip, and sister find themselves peering into a mystery that’s deeper than any conspiracy theory. If you’re thinking X-files junior, you’re not far off from the plot. As both Jonah and Chip are both adopted, they find links to people who appear from empty space, disappearing into ???

When they begin to discover the truth, actual horror begins. Thinking from a teenager’s point of view, this attack on identity is truly scary. Scarier when none of the options seem to lead back to a “normal” life.

The toughest part about writing YA is getting the characters right – the dialogue, actions, thought process, etc (as in all good fiction). Haddix obviously knows teens, which is why this book feels so natural. Not just for kids. Recommended for anyone who loves conspiracy scares with a touch of the supernatural.

Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

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SHADOWS OVER NEW ENGLAND by David Goudsward and Scott T. Goudsward
Review by Nate Kenyon

There’s always been something creepy about New England. Writers return there, again and again, when they’re looking to mine the darkest parts of their own hearts. Stephen King made Maine famous for horror, but before him there was a very distinguished line of horror novelists and short story writers who based their work in the New England area. Charles Grant and his fictional Oxrun Station and H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham, Massachusetts, are two more well-known examples.

Perhaps it’s the change of seasons, or the long, cold winters, or the isolation of deep woods and long stretches of land with a house or two scattered among the empty fields. In Shadows Over New England, the Goudsward brothers have chronicled those fields and small towns, both real and fictional, and given us a fairly comprehensive look at the settings of horror novels, television shows and movies across New England, as well as the burial or birthplaces of authors. It’s all there, or at least it seems to be; for example, open to a random page and you might find a reference to Robert and Nathaniel Benchley’s (the grandfather and father of Jaws’s Peter Benchley) final resting place, Prospect Hill Cemetery in Nantucket. Did you know that Robert was also a character actor, and played the sidekick in I Married a Witch (1942)?

These are the kinds of fun details that make the book really unique. Shadows Over New England is the sort of work you crack open for a quick peek and, two hours later, realize you’re still reading. One little tidbit leads to the next, and you keep thinking I’ll just read one more until your eyes begin to blur and you realize it’s 3 am. In short, for any fan of horror it’s loads of fun.

By the way, whatever you do, don’t visit Hazelville, Vermont. Hikers and campers are turning up dead, you see, and apparently the “root” of all evil lives there. Go buy the book and check it out. You’ll see what I mean.

Bear Manor Media

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HALLOWEEN AND OTHER SEASONS by Al Sarrantonio
By Norm Rubenstein

Cemetery Dance Publications will shortly be releasing their third collection of short fiction by eminent and award winning author Al Sarrantonio, titled Halloween And Other Seasons. The Deluxe, signed and numbered hardcover edition of two hundred and eighty-eight pages contains eighteen stories, a great piece of cover art by the very talented artist Alan Clark, and will retail for forty dollars. The eighteen stories contained in the collection range from early in author Sarrantonio’s writing career in 1979 through recent works from 2007, an impressive range of twenty-eight years.

Author Sarrantonio is perhaps best known for his “Orangefield Mythos” – an ever growing body of writings ranging from short stories through novellas and into full-blown novels, all dealing with the prosaic rural small town or Orangefield, New York, the self-proclaimed pumpkin capital of the world, where strange, inexplicable things seem to happen, especially around the annual holiday of Halloween, and the town’s concurrent annual Pumpkin Days Festival. Orangefield is also the chosen part-time abode of a decidedly non-human resident; Samhain, the extremely dangerous and volatile supernatural entity – the Lord of Death. It is also the “residence” of the fabled Pumpkin Boy – a deadly creature with the roughly humanoid body of a teenage boy and the head of a living giant jack ‘o lantern.

Fans of Orangefield will be pleased to know that the new collection contains, as one of its longest works of nearly sixty pages, an “Orangefield” story titled “The Pumpkin Boy.” This is a typical high quality Sarrantonio tale involving the hard drinking life-long town resident, Orangefield Police Detective Bill Grant, as well as his recently emigrated from Milwaukee, WI., young ‘junior” Detective, Len Schneider. As another annual Pumpkin Days Festival nears, the detectives are faced with a rash of kidnappings of young children, as well as sightings of the mysterious and elusive “Pumpkin Boy.” Detective Schneider still has nightmares over the closed case file involving the evil child serial killer, “Carlton The Clown,” a deranged and homicidal Jerry Carlton who kidnapped, abused, and murdered at least five young boys in three states. When Detective Schneider begins to believe that the sudden plague of missing young boys in Orangefield has similarities to the supposedly deceased work of murderer Jerry Carlton, there are dangers and consequences for everyone in Orangefield, and a weary Bill Grant must try to discover and stop the culprit(s) before it is too late. For the true Sarrantonio and/or Orangefield fan, this novella-length story is worth the price of the entire collection, alone.

There are some other excellent short stories to be found within this collection, including a duo of Apocalyptic tales, “Summer” and “Dust,” that are heavy on chills, and in which the author successfully maintains high suspense and tension. Then there is Sarrantonio’s story titled “The Silly Stuff,” about a newspaper reporter who, while researching stories involving fish falling from the sky and other oddities, manages to locate the source of a bunch of these seemingly weird and possibly interconnected items – an extraterrestrial spaceship being piloted by an alien who claims that he was the famous Charles Fort. After the reporter gets the scoop of his life, he demands and eventually receives the alien’s agreement to drop him back off at his newspaper’s office. Sarrantonio’s sprightly, wry writing style and his ingenious twist ending make the story a true delight.

Of course, to an extent, enjoyment of short fiction can be somewhat subjective, and what floats your boat may not do anything special for me, and vice-versa. Thus, I found Sarrantonio’s relatively recently written story “The Man In The Other Car” to be somewhat flawed. The author presents a Husband and wife and their two young children all uncomfortably stuffed into a car in the midst of a seemingly interminable, tension-filled road trip. Increasingly uncomfortable and inexplicable events continue to occur, which lead to a quietly explosive “twist” ending. The author’s evident skill is such that he is able to effectively create and sustain the feeling of “uncomfortableness,” and the high tension that is continually exacerbated throughout the story. However, upon examination and reflection, comes the realization that the author hasn’t satisfactorily presented, explained, or justified these tensions. For example, there’s absolutely no rationale ever given for the wife’s belligerence towards both the road trip itself, or towards her husband. Therefore the reader is forced to intuit or assume certain (pardon the legal lingo, an occupational hazard), facts not in evidence. It would have been preferable, and arguably more effective, for the author to have expanded upon the story sufficiently to have better or more convincingly introduced such into the story. However, even as is, the story certainly is provoking and makes its point.

Similarly, two of author Sarrantonoio’s attempts at satire and comedy in his short fiction, “The Return Of Mad Santa” and “Baby Boss And The Underground Hamsters: A Feature Length Cartoon” subjectively simply do not work for me all that well; I just didn’t find them particularly clever or funny – you very well may find them hilarious.

Indeed, none of the remaining stories in the collection are bad, or even mediocre – all are enjoyable and highly readable. The volume of eighteen stories is overall, well worth purchasing and reading and is recommended.

Cemetery Dance Publications

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THE WOLFMAN by Nicholas Pekearo
Review by Joe Kroeger

Sometimes it seems that certain aspects of the horror genre have been done to death by writers cranking out the same old stories haunted by the monsters we have seen a hundred times before. That is why it is always such a pleasure to come across a novel that looks at the standard scenario in such a refreshing way that it breathes new life into an overused idea. That being said, I must profess that the “Werewolf” stories are among my favorites of the genre, but I have not found anything to truly howl about lately. I ventured into the pages of The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo wearily expecting the usual “been there, done that” plotline only to be delightfully proven wrong. The Wolfman turns the typical werewolf stereotype on its head and wraps this chilling horror story within a stunning police procedural whodunit that will have you racing to the end.

The Wolfman tells the story of Marlowe Higgins, a Vietnam Vet who drifts from town to town, never wanting to lay down any permanent roots because every month, by the light of the full moon, he transform into a werewolf and kills somebody. It is when Higgins discovers that he can use his curse to hunt down people deserving of punishment and rid the world of evil that he settles in a small town a begins living a somewhat normal life. It is while sending his afflicted side after the “Rose Killer” during the next full moon that Higgins’ life is irrevocably turned upside down.

Nicholas Pekearo takes the classic aspects of the werewolf and peppers it with his own unique spin that makes you look at the werewolf mythos under a new light. He successfully creates a wholly original explanation of how the protagonist comes upon the curse and his view of Higgins as two separate beings takes this story to a new level. He fills his extraordinary prose with some richly visceral imagery that lets you witness the transformation in all its Technicolor glory. Combine all that with his exceptional characterization and you have a grand horror adventure that literally puts you in the mind and emotions of his ingeniously flawed hero.

Chock full of enough chilling scenes to placate even the most discerning horror fan, this novel also takes the reader on a thrilling mystery full of suspects that will keep you guessing until the final secret is revealed. Any lover of police procedural thrillers with surely enjoy the white-knuckled ride that Pekearo takes his readers on.

I must add a warning on to this review that any reader who falls in love with this book and cannot wait for the next Nicholas Pekearo masterpiece to hit the shelves will be sorry to hear that he was gunned down while on duty as a NYPD auxiliary police officer. While we do get to enjoy the genius of this posthumously published novel, you leave these pages with the knowledge that there will be no follow-ups.

The Wolfman by Nicholas Pekearo is a shining example of an incredibly original voice that will be sorely missed within the horror community.

Tor Books

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DEAD SOULS by Michael Laimo
Review by Patricia Snodgrass

Take one insane minister who mixes ancient Egyptian teachings with Christianity, a gypsy legend about the fifth nail that was stolen before it was driven into Christ’s heart, a mad man who hears dead ravens speaking to him, urging him to flee an insane asylum, money, a controlling mother, and a crucified family including the family pet and there you have it. A strange and twisted story of insanity and religious fervor run amok.

The story is broken in two; one tale explains the madness of the Conroy family who believe that Christ carried the secrets of resurrection because he was somehow in league with the Egyptian God Osirus. In order to become immortal, the Conroys crucify themselves, with the exception of the baby. The dog takes his place.

The second half of the story involves young Johnie Petrie, who lives with is zealous overbearing mother and alcoholic step father. Johnnie recently turned eighteen and has inherited the Conroy estate. He, of course, is told not to let his parents in on it, but to come to the estate right away. Which he does. And while there he discovers the gruesome and bizarre family secret.

Mr. Laimo writes very well, there is no doubt about that. And maybe it’s a personal failing, but I found I had trouble keeping track of all the story lines. I felt I needed a score card for all the intrigue (which was interesting but I just couldn’t keep up) and the ending was odd and jarred me somewhat, and I still can’t figure out what Jesus and Osirus had to do with each other.

I do recommend this story because on the whole it is quite good.
Leisure Books

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BENEATH THE SURFACE by Simon Strantzas
Review by Joe Kroeger

There are a few select authors within the horror community who can perfectly capture the true essence of great Lovecraftian fiction while bringing it to a new level of surreal excellence. When you are lucky enough to come across one of these great writers, you are assured to be in for an exceptional horror fiction experience. Filled to the rim with the rich surreal fiction in the style of William P. Simmons and Thomas Ligotti, Beneath the Surface is a stunning new collection by the horror fiction brilliance of Simon Strantzas. Dragging the reader deeper down to shadowy levels of darkness and despair with each incredible story, there is no doubt that Simon Strantzas knows what it takes to create vivid and visceral horror that reaches deep within the subconscious and doesn’t let go.

Truly haunting imagery of the surreal darkness that lives beneath the thin surface of everyday life runs expertly through each of the twelve stories contained within these pages. Simon Strantzas’ mastery at flipping the “nightmare” switch within a seemingly normal situation is what makes this collection a flawlessly brilliant example of how great horror fiction can really be. If you are looking for one of the best new voices in horror fiction, you need to look no further than Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas.

The story, A Shadow in God’s Eye, opens this collection with a disturbing vision of a man, casually looking for anything to give his life meaning, being granted the horrific ability to see the true meaning of life. With barely a moment to catch your breath, Strantzas propels you into a paranoid vision of a man whose monotonously normal life seems to be slowly transforming around him with the story, It Runs Beneath the Surface. His ability to twist the everyday world into a nightmare of his making is what makes these short stories more of an experience than just something to be read.

With many more stories that test the limits of horror with an elegant yet unsettling brilliance, Beneath the Surface is any horror aficionados dream. The short tale, In the Air, shows you the darkest side that grief can take as the protagonist goes on an unreal journey to the site of her husband’s tragic death. The Constant Encroaching of a Tumultuous Sea pulls the reader into a claustrophobic vision of someone’s overpowering fear of the big city. For me, the story, You Are Here, contained within its brilliantly written prose some surprisingly horrible images that set my nerves on edge.

One of stories that stood out for me was the exceptional writing and Lovecraftian atmosphere of Behind Glass. Telling the story of a curious man who transfers to a new company following a takeover, Strantzas sets up a horror story that lurks to an intense ending that could not have been written better by H.P. Lovecraft himself.

Flawless in execution and alive with disturbingly vivid writing, Simon Strantzas has successfully done his part in assuring the future of the horror genre. Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas is a collection that more than deserves its place of honor among the bookshelves of any short horror fiction lover.

Humdrumming Press

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DARK WISDOM by Gary Myers
Review by Steve Middaugh

It's been a long time coming from a writer that gave us one book from Arkham House back in the 1970s, only to disappear from radar for a very long time until 2007. The writer in question is Gary Myers, and the first book is The House Of the Worm, printed in 1975.

Now we have the second collection, Dark Wisdom, from Gary Myers along with his own hauntingly atmospheric illustrations done specifically for this book. The two books couldn't be more different. The House Of the Worm is more of tales of the ancient fabled past familiar to the works of Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith. Whereas Dark Wisdom is Cthulhu Mythos set mostly in contemporary times.

Myers' writings are crisp, clear, and straight to the point. The prose hardly needs any additional adjectives to create atmosphere. It's already there throughout twelve stories. The characters are three dimensional; the cosmic horror is very palpable when peeking through certain intervals as the plots progressed to its conclusion. What he lacked in originality, he made up for in dry wit and humor.

"The Web" opens with two computer teenaged geeks who come upon a website that promises to conjure forth strange gods in their very own bedroom.

"Fast Food". Who wouldn't be suspicious of the fast food joint with a moniker like "Belial's Burger", with fat people lining up for more of that tasty burgers? This one's fun. Really.

"Understudy" is a clever send-up of a studio shooting a film of something similar to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. One of the special effects guys can't help but wonder who's really playing the Fish Man.

"The Big Picture" is a strange tale of a man obsessed with stereogrammitic pictures where, if you stare at it in a certain way, you'd get a picture. His obsession causes him to lose his job and wife and everything. At a certain point, he starts to wonder just what was he looking at?

"Horror Show" was shown at an out-of-the-way place where Lisa started having second thoughts as the show progressed on stage towards the bizarre and the sadomasochistic.

I thought this book was well edited by Robert Price, who wrote a short intro to the twelve stories. Gary Myers does an admirable job and I recommend giving this book a look.

Mythos Books, LLC

 

 

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