Horror World Book Reviews
May, 2008

THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE by Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
Review by Hank Wagner

In the annals of crime, the case of the “Monster of Florence” (the name Italian journalist Mario Spezi, one of the co-authors, and one of the key players in the case and this book, gave the killer) is truly one of the strangest. Starting in 1974, and continuing through 1985, seven couples were brutally murdered in the secluded lovers’ lanes located in the hills surrounding the city of Florence, Italy. Still unsolved to this day, the crimes captured the horrified attention and imagination of the Italian people, and consumed enormous resources—nearly one hundred thousand men were investigated and more than a dozen arrested during the course of various inquiries into the crimes. Per Douglas Preston’s introduction, the investigation “has been like a malignancy, spreading backward in time and outward in space, metastasizing into different cities and swelling into new investigations, with new judges, police, and prosecutors, more suspects, more arrests, and many more lives ruined.”

Not merely a recounting of those grisly crimes and endless investigations, The Monster of Florence (hereafter TMOF) is also an engrossing biographical piece, detailing the toll the case took on both its authors, who, in one of the stranger twists in a case replete with strange twists, become the focus of the ongoing police investigation. Thus, in a plot complication worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, the reporters became part of the very story they are covering—after his home is ransacked in a search, Spezi is subsequently arrested, and his collaborator, American crime novelist Preston, is harshly interrogated by the authorities. In a movie, the protagonists would have been able to clear their names by dramatically unmasking the real killer, unearthing a piece of key evidence at the last moment. Real life, however, proves to a bit more complicated, and certainly more bizarre.

The back cover copy of the advance reading copy of TMOF compares it to John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City. The comparison is apt, but only to a point, as both these non-fiction works feel more like novels. TMOF, on the other hand, feels more like the product of journalists than novelists (certainly not surprising, given the backgrounds of its respective creators), calling to mind books like Jimmy Breslin’s outstanding .44, or Vincent Bugliosi’s memorable Helter Skelter. That’s not to say it’s any less gripping because of that tendency; in fact, in might have made the book all the more immediate and enthralling, because, in this instance, the strange facts in this case alone are enough to capture and hold any reader’s attention.

Grand Central Publishing

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COFFIN COUNTY by Gary A. Braunbeck
Review by Mark Justice

For much of his career, Gary A. Braunbeck has been crafting spooky and heart-wrenching tales revolving around the Ohio community of Cedar Hill. This mythology has been expanded thanks to Braunbeck’s novels from Leisure, including his latest, Coffin County.

This time, more of the tragic and bloody history of Cedar Hill is revealed, including a mass murder early in the town’s existence which ties directly into a series of killings in the present.

While previous knowledge of Cedar Hill is not necessary to enjoy Coffin County, regular Braunbeck readers will be treated to several familiar and welcome characters, as well as an appearance by the demonic Hoopsticks.

Speaking of characters, more articulate reviewers than this one have noted that Braunbeck creates the most human cast in dark fantasy. These are people you might run into at the corner store or at a neighborhood cookout. Even the unsavory people are drawn with a depth that is so defined it qualifies as High Definition Horror.

Pick up Coffin County and lose yourself in Cedar Hill, a town so creepy it makes King’s Castle Rock look like Disney World.

Leisure Books

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THE NUMBER 121 TO PENNSYLVANIA AND OTHERS by Kealan Patrick Burke
Review by Joe Kroeger

Well deserving of his place of honor among the elite group of writers who have flawlessly grasped the art of the short story, Kealan Patrick Burke proves just how gifted he is with the release of his latest short story collection, The Number 121 to Pennsylvania and Others. Filled to capacity with 13 exceptional tales and a screenplay version of one of the selections, this collection pulls together all the phenomenal short stories that help Kealan Patrick Burke make a name for himself within the horror genre. Overflowing with fully fleshed-out human emotion, chills that are sure to settle deep within your bones and a health dose visceral imagery, The Number 121 to Pennsylvania and Others by Kealan Patrick Burke is every horror lovers dream.

Leading off this thick tome of stories is the richly imagined and haunting tale of loss and the ghosts of what could have been. The Grief Frequency is one of those stories that dig deep into your soul with the emotional impact and rich heart-wrenching imagery that Kealan seems to put on the page with exceptional ease. Like a one-two punch, Kealan follows up with one of the stories that I consider to be one of the best written and emotionally powerful stories of his I have ever read. The Number 121 to Pennsylvania is, in its simplest form, a story about the power that love can have and the lengths someone will go for another, but in Kealan’s hands it takes on a richer depth with the real characters and detailed imagery that pulls the reader deep into the story.

Every story contained within these pages is an exceptional work of fiction that is sure to make you wish it would never come to an end. With awe-inspiring stories like Empathy and Peekers gracing these pages, this book is sure to reach the legendary status of his previous collection, Ravenous Ghosts. Empathy takes the premise of a viewed online execution and takes the reader deep into the character’s mind as the disturbing images take over with a ferocity that only Kealan Patrick Burke could bring to the page. Kealan takes his personal stab at the “Twilight Zone” story successfully with the unique premise and disturbing chills of Peekers. With his trademark characters and haunting vision, this story left me disturbed in a way I could not really pinpoint afterwards.

With the addition of the previously unpublished High on the Vine, Kealan re-imagines the familiar territory of Jack and the Beanstalk when a worn-down man, tired of every aspect of his life, comes home to find a beanstalk in his yard stretching up into the clouds. This refreshing take on an old fairy tale leads the reader towards an ending that was one of most original ideas I have come across in a long time. Going from one of his newest stories to one of the earlier published works, Will You Tell Them I Died Quietly? shows that Kealan seems to have been born with the imagination and flat-out ability of a writer that has worked years to develop their craft. With some of his best examples of how to paint a picture for his reader through his writing, this disturbing story is packed with images that stuck with me long after I turned the final page.

Couple of the other special aspects that I felt stood out in the collection were the dual versions of Mr. Goodnight and the peek at Saturday Night At Eddie’s, an earlier version of a story that was destined to become one of Kealan’s most imaginative novels, Currency of Souls. After enjoying the dark and creepy story of two children that come across the true meaning of evil with Mr. Goodnight, Kealan treats the reader to a screenplay version of the story that truly show his diversity and talent in all aspects of the literary community. Expertly written story notes are also provided for each individual tale to give the reader that extra glimpse into Kealan’s creative process.

With Kealan’s rich imagination and magical writing ability, you are in for a solid short story collection that does not have an inadequate selection among the bunch. You are sure enjoy each descriptive word as you literally fly through this outstanding book only to mourn the turn of the final page. If you have been searching for a collection chock full of the best short stories that the horror genre has to offer, The Number 121 to Pennsylvania and Others by Kealan Patrick Burke is a must have for any lover of the short form.

Cemetery Dance Publications

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THE OTHER by Thomas Tryon
By Norm Rubenstein

Jerad Walter and his Millipede Press has just released another gem of a book in the late Thomas Tryon’s (1926-1995) masterpiece of Horror, The Other.

Thomas Tryon began his working career as a professional actor, having had a substantial career in both television and motion pictures. Tryon, in addition to appearing on many famous television series of the 1950’s and 1960’s in guest-starring roles, was also the lead in the Disney television series Texas John Slaughter that aired as part of the Wonderful World Of Disney from 1958-1961. Mr. Tryon’s motion picture roles were varied, though he was generally cast as a male lead and was the traditional “tall, dark, and handsome” that was certainly in vogue throughout the majority of the period from the 1950’s through the 1960’s. He appeared in such war films as The Longest Day (1962), and In Harm’s Way (1965), as well as the Westerns, Three Violent People (1956) and Winchester 73 (1967). Thomas Tryon also appeared in a number of Horror and Science Fiction films, from 1962’s Disney space comedy, Moon Pilot, in which he had the title lead role, to the arguably more frightening male lead in 1958’s I Married A Monster From Outer Space. However, as an actor, Thomas Tryon is perhaps best known for his Golden Globe nominated lead role in Director Otto Preminger’s 1962 film The Cardinal.

Thomas Tryon having become disillusioned, retired from acting in 1969 and determined to begin a new career as an author. The Other, initially published back in 1971 was author Tryon’s very first novel, and perhaps his most famous bit of writing. It was greeted with great critical and popular acclaim, and was subsequently made into a 1978 motion picture of the same name that starred Diana Muldaur, Uta Hagen, and a young John Ritter. Thomas Tyron, the author, went on to write a number of other novels, novellas, and short fiction – many based in the Horror and Suspense genres; and also a number of works based on his experiences in Hollywood. His 1973 horror-themed novel, Harvest Home was later filmed as a 1978 television mini-series starring Bette Davis.

The Other is arguably author Tryon’s seminal work. I actually remember the book’s original release well, as it scared the living hell out of me when I first read it, at age 16, when it initially appeared. For some inexplicable reason, the book had been allowed to go out-of-print and had remained so for nearly the last twenty years until Millipede Press resurrected it as part of its ongoing line of locating and reprinting “forgotten” modern classics of horror and suspense. I was thus more than a little curious to re-read the book after over a thirty-five year gap, to see if it could still have a memorable (or any) effect upon the far more well-read and experienced contemporary version of myself. The book does not disappoint, and has legitimate claim to being a true “Modern Classic” of the Horror/Suspense genre.

Basically, The Other, set in the pre World War Two mid-1930’s in the fictional rural town of Pequot Landing, Connecticut, introduces the reader to the Perry family who resides on a farm-state there. The two lead characters of the novel are the identical eleven-year-old twins, Holland and Niles Perry. Holland, who is the firstborn is more precocious than the slightly younger Niles, and is always drawing his twin brother into mischief. Niles is a sensitive, nice boy, and the apple of his elderly Russian émigré grandmother Ada’s heart. Grandmother Ada is herself a most interesting character. She appears to have certain “old-world” knowledge, and perhaps even powers, that would certainly have placed her in considerable danger of being considered a witch back in the “old country” – or in the New England of a few centuries ago. She dotes upon Niles, and finding him both amenable and receptive, plays a “game” with him that might just be teaching young Niles to tap into latent psychic ability, and travel outside his body. Then there are the twin’s parents. Their father has recently died in a horrible freak accident down in the estate’s creepy wine cellar. This has made a sickly recluse of their mother, who rarely comes out of her self-imposed exile in her bedroom. The twins also have an older sister who has just shown up with her new husband, and an unlikable male cousin in tow with their aunt and uncle. As can be said of many such stories, the reader eventually comes to realize that all is not as it appears. What makes The Other stand out is the brilliant use of language and mood utilized by the author throughout the novel. It is not only a truly riveting read, but is a showcase on how to properly build suspense and tension, and of subtle misdirection through language.

As with all Millipede titles, The Other is a truly beautiful book. It is of a type I consider to be “professional Library/Collection” quality, meaning that the materials used are all of substantially better than one normally would find for a cloth-bound hardcover, with a design and layout to match. The book is available in two editions. A numbered, limited edition hardcover of Two Hundred copies, which have been signed by famed author Ramsey Campbell, who provides a new Introduction, and by famed artist, Harry O. Morris, who provides stunning artwork both inlaid onto the front cover, which has no dust jacket to interfere with the beautiful and rich-looking cloth covers Millipede Press always utilizes, as well as a number of equally striking full color interior pieces of artwork throughout the novel. This edition also includes a new and interesting Afterword by author and former Tryon friend C. Robert Holloway, and is available for $95.00. There is also a Deluxe Leather-bound edition of the novel, which has a cloth traycase, limited to only Fifteen numbered copies for sale at $395.00. The Other is a truly compelling and frightening novel that should be a must read for all fans of the genre, as well as all potential authors seeking to write in the genre, and receives my highest recommendation.

Millipede Press

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SELDOM SEEN IN AUGUST by Kealan Patrick Burke
Review by Angela Bennett

It’s hard to classify Seldom Seen in August, it’s part horror, part sci-fi, part thriller. What it isn’t is dull. The story starts out with Wade Crawford running from the police. He hides out in an empty house hoping to wait out the police but what he finds there are ghosts from his past. Alternately chilling and horrifying, Burke weaves a futuristic scare-fest with a twisted ended that you’ll never see coming. Highly recommended.

White Noise Press

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OLD FLAMES by Jack Ketchum
Review by Hank Wagner

Old Flames contains two novellas, the title piece, and a reprinting of Ketchum’s harrowing “Right to Life.” Both feature strong women in central roles, but that’s where the similarities end, as each piece veers off in its own unique direction.

Ketchum’s heroines are a study in contrasts. Both are tough, and not to be trifled with, but each expresses that toughness in radically different ways. Dora, the focus of the novella “Old Flames,” is by the far the most fearsome of the two, a veritable force of nature, a woman you don’t want as an enemy—Dora knows what she wants and does whatever she needs to do to get it. Although her aggressive nature has served her well over the years, it leads her astray in “Old Flames,” as she discovers that what she desperately wants is to hook up with a former lover. There’s only one problem—he’s happily married. Deciding that her goal is worth any cost, Dora embarks on a dark path, one which leads to deception and murder.

Sara, the protagonist of the grueling second piece, displays a quieter strength, brought out by the trauma of being kidnapped as she is about to visit an abortion clinic. Imprisoned and subjected to physical and mental abuse, she endures, holding on by the slightest of threads as her captors seek to break her will, and, ultimately, take her baby for their own. Although she finds herself in an intolerable, oppressive environment, she never loses her dignity, and never gives up on herself. She marshals her anger and strength, waiting for one decisive, explosive moment to seek her freedom, surprising readers only a little more than she surprises herself.

In both novellas, Ketchum continues his tradition of focusing on people’s reactions to extreme situations, and of building to violent crescendos. In “Old Flames,” Dora initiates the action, and mesmerized readers can only watch as she and the supporting cast struggle to deal with the fallout. “Right to Life” provides a compelling, character study of a woman in jeopardy, leaving readers to ponder how they would cope in a similar situation. The first a tragedy, the second more uplifting, each novella provides ample evidence of precisely why Ketchum’s work is so highly prized by his peers and fans.

Leisure Books

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THE BITCHFIGHT by Michael A. Arnzen
Review by Ron Dickie

A veterinarian with a gambling problem is given a chance to clear his debt by performing some unspecified veterinary work after hours. Not too unreasonable, given the alternative of broken bones that awaits him otherwise. Fix up a mob Capo’s dog and he’s free and clear, not a bad deal at all, really.

Except, it’s not a dog. It’s the mobster’s daughter. She just happens to act like a dog. Or rather, she’s been trained all her life as one, and now fights in an underground circuit known as The Bitchfight. The doctor, it seems, has been called in to prepare her for her next fight, and to stay by her side and treat her wounds during said donnybrook.

Sound weird? It gets weirder. Over the top violence, depravity and humor all meld deliciously into Arnzen’s nasty little tail – err -- tale. Even while you are shocked that you are reading it, you will not be able to put this book down. Short and vicious like a rabid Shih Tzu, The Bitchfight quickly drags you in and goes for your throat. It will make you howl in terror and with laughter in the same breath.

If you’re looking for something different, something unexpected, pick up The Bitchfight. Not since Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door has a story been as equally repellent and captivating as this. Go buy a copy. Now. Goo-ood reader. You get a treat!

Bad Moon Books

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QUEEN OF BLOOD by Bryan Smith
Review by Hank Wagner

Queen of Blood is Smith's sequel to his 2004 novel House of Blood, featuring substantially the same cast, and striking substantially the same tone, displaying the same frenetic pacing, twists and turns, and copious bloodletting as its predecessor. More like a print version of a 90 minute exploitation movie than a novel, the multi track, surreal odyssey is notable for its sheer energy and riveting, workmanlike prose, and for its ability to confound a reader's expectations. What it lacks, however, is characters to identify and empathize with; although the book will certainly have an effect on you, leaving you spent and disturbed, it’s also just as likely to leave you feeling a bit empty and confused because of that lack.

With the exception of the characters Chad Robbins and the man known as Lazarus (his true identity is an odd but nice touch on Smith's part) most everyone else in this book is evil, repulsive, hateful, and, most of all, lethal; little explanation of their motivations is provided, so, after a few dozen pages of carnage, sudden death and debauchery, the killing and mayhem and forced eroticism start to feel a bit random, and strained, especially when the cycle starts up again, as it inevitably does. Unpredictable, true, outrageous, yes, but hard for the average person to relate to.

Another drawback is that not much actually transpires over the course of the book--although it starts as a novel of revenge, Smith constantly switches gears, which certainly keeps readers guessing, but ultimately seems to have no real point. Indeed, because of the occult and magical aspects of the novel, it seems as if Smith has circled back to the very beginning of House of Blood, basically reconstituting the cast of that novel by book's end. It's strange and thrilling if one powerful player is resurrected, buts it's boring and anticlimactic when almost everyone has the potential to return from the dead.

Your reaction to this novel (which is probably the middle installment of a trilogy, although that's never explicitly stated) can probably be predicted by which side you take on the old splatterpunk versus quiet horror debate--if you like lovingly rendered, non-stop, gory action, Queen of Blood is the book for you. If you prefer suggestive prose, that lets you fill in the blanks yourself, and a little more character development, you might want to avoid it. If you're somewhere in the middle, this book will alternately thrill and irk you. Ultimately, you keep flipping the pages to see what's coming next, so, overall, Smith has done his job.

Leisure Books

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INTO THE CRUEL SEA by Rich Ristow
Review by Mark Justice

This debut novelette by Rich Ristow is a memorable and disturbing coming of age tale set in tropical Bermuda.

Beth is a teenager who lives with her abusive father. Daddy turns out to be a sweetheart compared to Beth’s boyfriend, Wade, a disturbed young man who hears voices. He goes from being the odd kid to a murderer when he kills his parents, then disappears.

When Wade reappears, he has changed in a very profound and horrifying way. And when he asks Beth to join him in his new home (hint: read the title), Beth has to make the most crucial decision of her life.

Ristow has crafted an eerie tale that superbly balances gore with sold character moments. For all its horror trappings, INTO THE CRUEL SEA is really the story of a girl who must grow up fast to save any hope of a future away from the cruelty and oppression she has grown up with. Bermuda is an unusual setting for a horror story, but Ristow takes a place I’ve always thought of as warm and inviting, and manages to infuse it with a somber veil of darkness.

I’ve rarely been this impressed with any writer’s first effort. I’m looking forward to seeing him top INTO THE CRUEL SEA.

Skullvines Press

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THE LOST by Jack Ketchum
Review by JG Faherty

I seriously doubt that anyone reading this is unfamiliar with Jack Ketchum or at least some of his previous work. Seriously. I mean, this guy is one of the heavy hitters in the industry. He scares Stephen King, for god’s sake. He writes hard, fast, relentless stories that would give nightmares to the maniacs running around in movies like Saw or Hostel. He depicts brutal scenes with honesty; never going too far, but never afraid to go right to that edge. His books frequently deal with murderers, serial killers, and psychos, and he combines a nasty imagination with big dollops of factual information to create characters and situations that make us feel like the fly on the wall - or the victim in the cage - at a maniac’s house.

The Lost was actually written back in 2001, but it’s been made into a movie, so the paperback has been re-released. In short, it’s about three teenagers who decide to commit a double murder, just to see what it’s like. As always, there’s one person who kind of gets the others involved, and he’s the one who the rest of the book focuses on, as we zip forward several years. Now a psychopath who’s gathering a small but dedicated group of followers around him, he’s suddenly playing a deadly game of ‘catch me if you can’ with the two detectives who investigated the original two murders.

The book, by both its very nature and the research Ketchum has obviously done on serial killers and cults, resonates with ‘ripped from the headlines’ kind of feel, as we tag along with the two detectives and also get inside killer Ray Pye’s demented mind. Violence, gore, and Ketchum’s trademark refusal to soften any blow for the readers make this book tough to handle at times, although it’s not nearly as brutal as some of Ketchum’s other novels, like The Girl Next Door or Off Season.

As a reader, I’ve always found Ketchum to be one of the Top Three short story writers of the past 30 years; his collections of short stories are among my prized possessions, and it’s fun when I tell people to read him, because I know what a punch to the stomach they’re in for.

But I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t always gotten the same thrill from his novels, and the fault for that is completely mine, not his. I’m not a fan of the serial killer/slasher/psychotic killer sub-genre. The reason for this is probably because when it’s done well - and Ketchum does it a helluva lot better than just well - it’s too close to real life for me, and I read to escape the horrible things we see on the news and in the papers. And when it’s done poorly - like the glut of teen slasher movies out there today - it’s just boredom interspersed with bloody splatter.

However, I recommend this book - and any others you can find from Ketchum - to other readers, be they fans of the genre or not. Because even if, like me, you’re not a genre fan, you’ll appreciate the skill of the writing, the characterization, and expert way Ketchum twists your emotions around until you have to put the book down and actually take a physical break from the words.

And if you’re a fan of the psychological terror - think Silence of the Lambs, only ten times nastier - then you’ll absolutely love The Lost.

Leisure Books

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CEMETERY THINGS by Keith Latch
Reviewed by Cesar Puch

For almost a century there has been a darkness surrounding Cotton Gin, Mississippi, a horror that leads to the abandoned Autumn Ridge Cemetery. Many have died within over the years, victims of indescribable torture. When young Blake Dodd and a friend become the latest victims found in the damned place, his brother Brent is forced to return to Cotton Gin in order to be with a mother now lost to grief. What they want is answers, something which not many are willing to give. For there was evil in Cotton Gin, and there was a preacher named Crenshaw Poe who suffered betrayal and torture until he had to make a choice at the moment where pain turned to madness. And now, in the “Devil’s Graveyard” something dark lurks and hungers.

“Cemetery Things” is a fast-paced ride through witchcraft, hauntings, torture and mayhem. Latch doesn’t hold the punches and no character is safe. The ordeal suffered by Crenshaw Poe –maybe one of the best sequences of the book– is narrated in gory detail, yet the author doesn’t get stuck and the pace keeps moving forward.

A problem I did found with “Cemetery Things” though, although only at times, was character treatment. Although we do learn about the characters through their actions and past experiences –Kameko’s memories of the horror she experienced as a child are a good example, as are some of Brent Dodd’s– there is a relationship in the book that is barely touched, the one between villain Ed Poe and his great-grandfather. As a matter of fact we know pretty little about Ed Poe, apart from his present appetite for destruction. Yet, this is one of the characters who could have benefited from more back-story. On the opposite end we have Carter Murphy whose love for horror literature is fleshed out in great detail (with plenty of names and titles) although the boy plays a very small part in the novel.

However, “Cemetery Things” is an enjoyable, fast read. Latch has no difficulty when it comes to sucking the reader into the page as he builds up the suspense. Do pick it up and keep an eye open for his next project.

Champagne Books

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FLESH WELDER by Ronald Kelly
Reviewed by William A. Veselik

At first blush, Flesh Welder appears to be little more than a chapbook of eighty-plus pages that features a reprinted story from 1990, an interview with the author, Ronald Kelly, and an excerpt from Kelly’s upcoming title, Undertaker’s Moon.

Unfortunately, after reading it, one’s initial assumption is proved to be the case.

The chapbook appears to be primarily a marketing tool intended to announce Kelly’s return to writing horror and to plug one of his soon-to-be-reprinted novels. For just a few dollars more than Flesh Welder’s $5 cover price, one would easily expect a full-length novel in addition to a tantalizing excerpt from the aforementioned upcoming book.

Of course, since the chapbook is a limited-edition publication signed by both the author and the artist, fans of Kelly’s probably won’t care that there are more bones than meat on this chapbook’s pages.

The short story, from which the book takes its name, has its strong points. Set in post-apocalyptic Houston, Texas, the Flesh Welder is a kindly physician who uses unorthodox surgical methods to treat the wounded people created by ongoing battles between warring factions. It’s very well-written in Kelly’s inimitable style. There are no real surprises at the end, but the somewhat one-dimensional character of General Payne does get his comeuppance before the good doctor moves on to greener pastures, which is satisfying for the reader.

The color cover of this chapbook is well executed, though its image of a gasmask-wearing warrior and bio-hazard symbol have more to do with the combatants who create work for the unique doctor rather than the Flesh Welder himself. Still, the Zach McCain artwork has a punk-apocalyptic vibe that is very appealing.

Flesh Welder was originally published in Noctulpa: Journal of Horror #4.

The 30-page interview with Ronald Kelly--which takes up the middle of the chapbook--was certainly interesting. But again, it smacked of wanton promotion that would best have been left for Croatoan Publishing’s website or as a press handout. Any readers who have been dying to find out what Kelly has been up to could just as conveniently visit the author’s website.

The three-chapter excerpt from Undertaker’s Moon (previously published as Moon of the Werewolf) that is included at the end of the chapbook is intriguing, though there is barely enough there to pique the reader’s curiosity. A new undertaker has purchased a funeral home in a rural Tennessee town and moves there with his family. Obviously, werewolves figure very prominently in the plot, but if you haven’t read Moon of the Werewolf in its previous incarnation, in this chapbook excerpt you’ll learn only that the Irish undertaker’s license plate reads “Howler” and he doesn’t care for the touch of silver on his skin. It is hardly a cliffhanger, folks.

Flesh Welder, according to the Croatoan Publishing website, has sold out, which means that if you didn’t get your copy early, you’ll have to scrounge to get one now. Chances are, though, the people who wanted one probably already have theirs.

If you already know Ronald Kelly from his 1990s works such as The Possession, Fear, and Blood Kin, you’ll be ecstatic that he’s back. If you have no idea who Ronald Kelly is and have never tasted his brand of “southern-fried horror,” be on the lookout for Undertaker’s Moon when the novel is published as a limited-edition, hardcover edition.

Croatoan Publishing

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YOU ARE THE FLY by James Cooper
Review by Cesar Puch

Gentle at times, brutal at others, Cooper’s collection of 16 stories touches emotions at their peak. Take the heartbreaking “The Constant Eye” where a man tells us about the weird, lonely boy he once became friends with. Their friendship needs to be kept a secret and takes place away from the others during recess. Away from scorn and violence, a violence which eventually gets to them. The odd boy’s need for love and affection is as touching as the plight of the man in “The Other Son” whose brother has an obsession with death and so lies as a corpse most of the time and believes he can smell his own decomposition. Now take the revolting character from “Earth Mother Grotesque”, a story that’s extremely hard to read as Cooper shows us a deranged mother who abuses of her baby.

Obsession is a key player in this collection. The best example is precisely the story that lends its title to the book. Here he meet a man who does something as mundane as catching a fly. Yet as the story unfolds, the man slowly becomes fascinated with the insect, up to the point where it feeds it his own feces. Eventually everything around him takes second place and it’s only the fly what matters. The final scene is haunting and won’t leave the reader’s head for a long time. This, however is not the only story where the obsession for insects is present. In “Shortly Comes the Harvest” a man witnesses as his best friend becomes obsessed with the ingestion of critters, complete with a cookbook and statistics.

“You Are the Fly” is nothing but eclectic. Stories of madness (“Old Dull Eyes”) and grief (“And So Departs”) share pages with the haunting (“What Dread Hand” which includes one of the scariest scenes I’ve read in a long time), the disturbing (“In Fetu”) and the absolutely bizarre (the cryptic “A Frailty of Moths”, a surreal tale which you’ll have to read more than once and will leave you thinking for hours to come).

This is not a traditional collection. The stories in this book are unique in their essence and that is thanks to Cooper’s style. Recommended for anyone who wants to try something different.

Humdrumming Books

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PLAGUE MONKEY SPAM by Steve Vernon

Review by Steven E. Wedel

I’m not really sure where to begin reviewing this short, bizarre little book. Steve Vernon, who has already given us zombie buffalo in a previous effort, really stretches the line of credibility in this one, but somehow manages to keep us hooked.

The book is about a writer named Bobby Kaye, a horror guy who hit the big time by writing about zombies. (Didn’t somebody else with those initials do that?) Bobby becomes obsessed with the amount of spam he gets in his e-mail inbox until finally he makes the fatal mistake of responding to one of the missives. That’s where the Reality Express jumps the tracks and takes us places we never expected.

A blue monkey escapes Bobby’s computer and perches on the shoulder of his wife, Maggie. The monkey kills Bobby, sticks its greedy little hands into Maggie’s throat, and the two of them go on a shopping spree that ends the lives of a couple more guys.

Death doesn’t stop Bobby. Some of the blue monkey’s blue dung turns into Anansi, the spider god of African myth. Anansi takes Bobby on a near death quest of self discovery that ends with Bobby being re-birthed from his computer screen to do battle with the blue monkey and the African prince responsible for most of the electronic spam.

Did I mention the spider web vagina? No? You’ll just have to read about it.

Plague Monkey Spam is a book that is sure to make Mr. Vernon’s neighbors look at him a bit differently. It is surreal and compelling, bizarre to the point of almost kicking you out of the story, but gripping in a way that won’t let you go. It’s like snorting razor blades, I think. You know it’s gonna hurt, but the lure of a new experience is enough to make you do it anyway. You haven’t read anything like this before, and you won’t again … at least not until Steve Vernon’s next release.

Bad Moon Books

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INFECTED by Scott Sigler
Review by David Simms

Rarely does a book get under a reader’s skin anymore. Tired tropes, lame zombies, toothless vampires, pointless ghosts – these are more the rule than the exception these days in the big house publishers. To find something unique, readers usually have to fork out cash for the small press treasures where the brave print the unexpected, the truly frightening.

Infected falls under the category of the exception.

So does the author. Scott Sigler made waves as he released the world’s first “podcast-only” novel (Earthcore). Next, his “Ancestor” hit the airwaves on Sirius Satellite Radio, another first of its kind. In a couple of years, over 700,000 episodes had been downloaded by fans across the globe.

When “Infected” was announced, the industry wondered whether or not a “simple” hardcover could garner similar attention, and more importantly, would it be any good? The answer is simple but the book is not. Comparisons to King, Paluhniuk, Matheson, and Crichton flooded early reviews and while all fit to some degree, “Infected” carries Sigler’s unique voice.

Part science fiction, part horror, infused with elements of suspense and mystery, the story starts with a bang and doesn’t let up. The plot breaks little new ground but the way the characters tread it make the terrain feel fresh and exciting. The requisite CIA agent, Dew Philips, scrambles to track down one of the “infected,” victims who have blue triangles under their skin which ultimately cause murderous rages. Of course, theories of terrorism abound and remind the reader of fears that lurk just beneath the surface of paranoia. While reading, I often twitched and scratched, thinking of all the “superbugs” that have plagued the country this year – and got to thinking. CDC epidemiologist Margaret Montoya joins Philips as part of a presidential team to track down a living victim and isolate the virus. Her personality is anything but the dry stereotype of a scientist (fun, horny, quirky) and is accompanied by a wacky assistant and secret service agent. Finally, the piece of the puzzle that pushes this medical/scifi/horror/thriller past the clichéd is the plight of the victim, Perry Dawsey, an ex-football with rage issues before the infection. Sigler tracks this misfit through his “sickness” from the first itch to the final “outbreak,” the reader feels his pain – almost a little too much.

While the story doesn’t take a Rhodes Scholar to figure out what the virus is, that’s not the point of Infected. The experience of the read is what drives the novel. Sigler makes this a personal experience, something not found in a Crichton or Cook novel. Scary, humorous, thrilling, this has all the makings of a blockbuster movie, which hopefully will never be made. I doubt a filmmaker can capture the heart of this story, or the characters that push this past the hackneyed, well-worn, and boring predecessors into something a horror novel should be – an experience.

Highly recommended. Also, take the time to listen to Sigler’s other books. You won’t regret it.

Random House

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RAVENOUS By Ray Garton
Reviewed by Kelli Jones

Ray Garton’s Ravenous is a gory, action-packed werewolf novel that puts a new spin on the affliction while falling short of being a compelling read. Here, lycanthropy is a sexually transmitted disease infecting the population of the small town of Big Rock, California. The characters are either too dense or too quickly dispatched to engage a reader and make the action truly thrilling.

Two such characters stand in opposition to the savage beasts and the spread of the disease. The first is Daniel Fargo, a mysterious stranger scarred by his last confrontation with one of the beasts. His diagnosis of the werewolf problem seems to guarantee either a bloodbath that will result in the deaths of the growing number of infected townsfolk, or the spread of the infection to every citizen and possibly neighboring towns. Fargo’s warnings fall on the deaf ears of the town’s skeptical sheriff, Arlin Hurley, who already has the task of apprehending a local serial rapist. Hurley’s acceptance of Fargo’s claims is frustratingly slow. This flaw hinders him throughout his exchanges with the baffled M.E as they puzzle over the werewolves’ leftovers, as one minor character after another is raped, infected, and/or killed.

Garton offers some background on several of the minor characters, but they’re quickly put out of commission, and at least one graphic description of the rape, the killing blow, and/or the corpse is included for each case. Two teenage girls and their dates are irritatingly flat throwaways, the spotlight on them and their boyfriends just long enough to cause Hurley to reconsider Fargo’s claims. This makes the action less thrilling than mind-numbing. Nearly all of the beautiful female characters are victimized emotionally and physically before succumbing to the disease, which reduces them to the urges that dominated those who caused them harm. Diehard gore hounds might appreciate the detailed renderings of the attacks and images of bodies torn apart by the beasts, but this gets tiresome by the third go-round. The female victims shut down as a result of their trauma during the course of the horrific rapes and this reader’s interest shuts down as well. This isn’t to say the brutality is restricted to the female characters of this novel. Male characters are slaughtered and infected, too, but right up until their unfortunate ends, I wanted to throttle these hapless dolts.

Garton’s werewolves are governed entirely by their urges for sex and food, urges that drive the major decisions of the novel’s less favorable characters.  Maybe this pattern is a stab (or thrust?) at a social commentary. For example, the fact that the serial rapist Hurley is after might be a human might cause a reader to wonder if he is a mirror for the savage tendencies of the werewolves, reminding readers that sex and hunger are not exclusively animal urges. What separates the infected from the uninfected in this story is not only a disease, but an ability to control basic urges. Two characters who are introduced close to the beginning of the novel illustrate these abilities. The first is an overweight female character who controls her urge to eat and the second is a male character who has discreet sex. Both are equally vulnerable to a disease that works like any other STD: no matter if they are flawed or malicious or terribly good to their loved ones, they are at risk if they are involved in unprotected sex with an infected partner, and in some cases, the infected show no symptoms. The consenting adults of the novel could stand for another round of cucumber-and-condom demonstrations from Sex Ed 101. As an innovation, this is successful. Usually, werewolves are the “other” penetrating a xenophobic population, but Garton’s lycanthropy virus uses the same monster to create a different metaphor, and xenophobes and non-xenophobes alike meet with brutal ends.

Xenophobes or not, they’re all dense, so it’s not terribly surprising when they end up dead or infected. There’s action in the novel, but it’s not a page-turner. As for the depictions of the rape scenes, one was enough; it’s not as if they change up their methods. Fargo remains inactive for too long a stretch in the novel, and Hurley remains tragically unwilling to heed the man’s warnings. There’s far too much overkill in all the wrong areas, and the result is a shrug of the shoulders from this reader.

Leisure Books

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THE ABDUCTION by Mark Gimenez
Review by Joe Kroeger

I have always been a sucker for a good thriller and usually make a valiant effort to get my hands on any number of novels that make their way to the bookstore. In doing this I am usually bombarded with the same old story rehashed and repackaged until you can see the ending coming while you push aside the cardboard cutout characters that inhabit those wasted pages. So, as I sat with fingers and toes crossed, I dove into The Abduction by Mark Gimenez and did not surface until I had finished with every single exciting page. This novel surpassed even my highest hopes for an exceptional read as I delved through the many layers of the plot and meeting fully flesh-out characters along the way. With the thrilling story that kept the pages moving and smooth flowing prose alive with some of the most real characters I have come across in a long time, Mark Gimenez succeeds with flying colors where a great number of writers have failed.

The plot starts out simply enough with the abduction of 10-year-old Gracie from the soccer game in which her billionaire father is too busy with work to pay close attention and her successful mother fails to show up until after she has been taken. Gracie’s grandfather, a man haunted by his past in Vietnam who spends his days drowning in an alcoholic haze, joins with his estranged son to find her before it is to late. If you are thinking “been there, done that” then you have seriously misjudged this book, because from that simple starting point Gimenez takes his readers on a thrill-ride that twists and turns until the plot has been transformed into a completely original and refreshing story that will hold you until the thrilling end.

Besides the page-turning pace that the suspenseful story dictates, The thing that makes this novel stand out from the rest is the ability that Mark Gimenez has in creating beautifully written characters that literally leap off the page. From the demons of Vietnam that haunt Ben Brice and sink his world into a self-induced alcoholic state to the power hungry parents that fail to realize the importance of the world around them, these characters have as much fleshed-out humanity as the pages are able to contain. With the expertly written prose that flows smoothly throughout the book, this story flawlessly pulls the readers deep into the world that Gimenez creates until the final secret is revealed.

Since this is a thriller, I have to say that the plot successfully takes off like a shot and moves at a rapid pace leaving you to flip through the pages desperate to reach the nerve-shattering conclusion. I noticed my heart rate ratcheting up as each new twist was thrown my way and I truly cared for these characters as they struggle with their own inner-secrets as they work through the hardship. The true sign of his expert writing ability was that the characters became real to me and I held on through the pages more for them than the story that they were entwined within.

If you are looking to lose yourself with a fast paced thriller that is going to keep you guessing until the very end, you cannot go wrong with the exciting plot and wholly realized characterization of The Abduction by Mark Gimenez. This is one of those novels to come along that is well worth getting your hands on.

Vanguard Press

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THE SOMNAMBULIST by Jonathan Barnes
Review by Hank Wagner

To go into too much detail about specific plot points of this wonderful novel would be a disservice to potential readers. Therefore, to try to persuade you to read this dark, odd, amusing, surreal thriller without resorting to unnecessary spoilers, I present below a list of other works that came to mind when I was reading it. Rest assured that, for various and sundry reasons, The Somnambulist compares favorably to:

The Alienist, by Caleb Carr

From Hell, by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell

“A Study in Emerald,” by Neil Gaiman

Anno Dracula, by Kim Newman

The List of Seven, by Mark Frost

The Dante Club, by Matthew Pearl

The Prestige, by Christopher Priest

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke

Really.

Very highly recommended.

Harper Collins

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