Review: It Came From Anomaly Flats

It Came From Anomaly Flats by Clayton Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

.Review of IT CAME FROM ANOMALY FLATS by Clayton Smith

What could possibly be as great as the original novel ANOMALY FLATS, the story of the town that makes TWILIGHT ZONE, OUTER LIMITS, and NIGHT GALLERY look like Levittown? Well, here it is:
IT CAME FROM ANOMALY FLATS

If you've read ANOMALY FLATS (if you haven't, whyever not?? I've read it twice) you remember that this tiny little odd community somewhere in Missouri is transdimensional, horrific, the stuff of epic science fiction. But some of the background of the town has only been hinted at. Come along now with your guide Clayton Smith and explore parts of the town you haven't yet discovered....

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Review: It Came From Anomaly Flats

It Came From Anomaly Flats by Clayton Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

.Review of IT CAME FROM ANOMALY FLATS by Clayton Smith

What could possibly be as great as the original novel ANOMALY FLATS, the story of the town that makes TWILIGHT ZONE, OUTER LIMITS, and NIGHT GALLERY look like Levittown? Well, here it is:
IT CAME FROM ANOMALY FLATS

If you've read ANOMALY FLATS (if you haven't, whyever not?? I've read it twice) you remember that this tiny little odd community somewhere in Missouri is transdimensional, horrific, the stuff of epic science fiction. But some of the background of the town has only been hinted at. Come along now with your guide Clayton Smith and explore parts of the town you haven't yet discovered....

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Review: Avert Your Eyes Vol.1

Avert Your Eyes Vol.1 by Spike Black
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of AVERT YOUR EYES Vol. 1 by Spike Black

A delightfully freaky and spooky collection, as readers expect from author Spike Black, these ten tales manage to upend reality, to mirror it, or to alter it entirely (and "mirroring" is a theme used more than once, as is repetitive time loops of the type in "Groundhog Day"). Whatever your concept is of consensus reality, you may find yourself rethinking that again and again. Every story is a gem, worth reading and then pondering (even rereading). I enjoyed each one, but my favourite still remains the first story, "Freak Fear." I easily identified with the protagonist, became involved in the story--and then, the ending just blew me completely away. Loved it!!

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Review: Sarah Killian: Serial Killer

Sarah Killian: Serial Killer by Mark Sheldon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of SARAH KILLIAN SERIAL KILLER by Mark Sheldon

A truly delightful somewhat-extreme horror story, released July 29, 2016, this novel relates in first person narrative the life and times of one Sarah Killian, not a woman you'd want for your best friend, but definitely individual-with-purpose. Once upon a time, beginning at age sixteen [and I think there is much more to that than meets the eye, or in this case, the page] Sarah turned the harsh lessons of life to use, and became a killer. More accurately, she started on a path of serial killing, until in her early 20's, she was recruited by the shadowy organization [layers upon layers, and who among them knows the entire and actual truth] known as T.H.E.M. Trained by this organization as a Professional Serial Killer [NOT assassin, as Sarah will insist], she is sent out as a contract killer, but rather than being say, a sniper, she frameworks each killing to appear to be that of a serial killer, and especially of the individual chosen to be a "Herring" [as in the "red herring" of the mystery genre.

I so enjoyed this story that I hope Sarah will be a series. Yes, there is gore, there is violence, there's even references to intimacy, but you don't have to worry about being overburdened with emotions. Sociopath Sarah gets along just fine without them [except for rage and vengeance, qualities she possesses in abundance!]

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Review: Single White Psychopath Seeks Same

Single White Psychopath Seeks Same by Jeff Strand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of SINGLE WHITE PSYCHOPATH SEEKING SAME by Jeff Strand

This is the second horror/mystery in the Andrew Mayhem series about the feckless, not-quite-brilliant, often-irresponsible wants-to-be-a-private-detective-but-he's-no-Lew-Archer protagonist. Husband, father of two, Andrew has one best friend and very few work experiences. He does, however, have one supreme talent: he's always in the wrong place at the wrong time, or at least when he's in coffeeshops. Who knew?

This novel is quite a bit gorier in tone than the first, although since the first dealt with snuff films-to-order, that's a stretch. Andrew and Roger meet up, to their eventual dismay, with a private investigator who is just about as feckless as Andrew, and through him, several rampant psychopaths, two of whom (a married couple) own an Alaskan estate at which they and their sadistic friends practice their favourite games: the slow road to death. Andrew is supposed to be a serial killer himself, but he is soon found out, and subjected to the designs of the five psychopaths-in-residence, as is Roger, whom they have added to their "prisoner" compound.

Difficult as it is to imagine, author Strand's trademark humour is here as always to leaven the horrendous nature of the storyline, and yes, we have character delineation as well. Seems somewhere in their abyss, even psychopaths can find some sort of fellow feeling. So, not recommended for the faint of heart, but if you like your horror on the extreme side, with plenty of violence, gore, and threats of same, deeply seasoned with humour, and a first-person viewpoint in which the protagonist readily acknowledges his imperfections, go for this.



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Review: Kutter

Kutter by Jeff Strand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of KUTTER by Jeff Strand

The very best factor in this book is the character evolution. The next best factor is the delightful dogs (yes, all of them, even the meanies). Those two factors alone would satisfy me. But author Jeff Strand, who thoroughly knows what he's about before he sets to the keyboard, additionally gives us a wonderful story which leavens serious horror with humor, empathy, suspense, and a neat turning-of-tables as the protagonist (initally an unfeeling, almost robotic, individual whose only excitement comes from an odd version of serial killing) is confronted emotionally by a pesky co-worker, a new lady, his found dog's former owner, and physically by two fear-inducing men with mean dogs and a serious agenda.

I would have read this novel just because of the author. I would have read it just because of "Kutter," the Boston Terrier. The gift of character evolution brought the story to an entirely new high level for me. Love it.

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Review: Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary

Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary by Jeff Strand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of GRAVEROBBERS WANTED: NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY by Jeff Strand {Andrew Mayhem #1}

GRAVEROBBERS WANTED: NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY had literally been on my TBR list for about 4.5 years, the second book I listed as "to read" after I joined Goodreads on 1 January 2012. Just recently I found the ANDREW MAYHEM COLLECTION on Kindle Unlimited, a set of the first four books in Jeff Strand's wonderful Andrew Mayhem Series. Talk about feckless protagonists [I've been reviewing a 6-book series with a female protagonist who is nothing but feckless]: Andrew Mayhem, husband, father of 2 feisty offspring, non-worker, bouncing from university major to major to major, now from not-job to not-job, doing odds and ends to earn an income while his registered nurse wife "brings home the bacon," tries out videotaping a cheating spouse (not his) and ends up beaten and assaulted (not by cheater but on his behalf) which is very difficult to explain to Andrew's long-suffering wife Helen. Next, in the vein of "too good to be true," a curvaceous blonde offers Andrew and best friend Roger (never the sharpest tool in the shed) 20K to--wait for it--exhume her husband. But hang on! Husband isn't buried in a cemetery. No, his grave is off in the woods, isolated, untended, and had nothing to do with a funeral home or normal interment.

That alone would make most folks suspicious, and leery of participating. Not so this non-dynamic duo. Before the novel ends, a lot of people are going to get hurt, some very badly (fatally and it's not pretty), there will be abductions, confinement, terrors, threats, natural deaths, and broken bones. The storyline turns really ugly but unfortunately, somewhere in the world such events probably are occurring, given the nature of modern culture. Mr. Strand manages to leaven the horror throughout with the most clever humor. I generally eschew comedy in favor of real horror, but in this storyline I don't think I could have handled my outrage if it weren't for the consistent humorous notes so cleverly interwoven. Kudos to Jeff Strand for bringing a mystery that is both humor-filled and horrendous.





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Review: A Living Grave

A Living Grave by Robert E. Dunn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE LIVING GRAVE by Robert Dunn

At the core of this novel is Fear: fear of dying, fear of living. Some characters are torn between giving up on the way to an assured demise, others block out joy and pleasure and happiness in order to dwell on horrific memories a decade in the past. Some refuse to acknowledge their personal responsibility, others internalize victimization into guilt and shame. All of these options are emotionally and psychologically crippling.

In the beautifully scenic Ozarks, under a surface of scenery, contentment, simple joys and peace, stirs a monstrous conspiracy fueled (as almost always) by greed. Whiskey, illicit drug operations, and violence rumble under that pleasant surface, as does out-of-town criminal muscle and a cultural phenomenon which is often dismissed as "urban legend" and in Martin Reaves' A FRACTURED CONJURING is given the coined term "Chronic Mysticism." From a metaphysics viewpoint, this involves the use of mass thought forms to create a "tulpa" of the mind and of the culture, bringing to life a construction of the mind and propagandizing belief in it in the minds of the public (or a subculture).

Sheriff's Detective Katrina Williams carries a horrendous weight from her past. In addition to the thoughts and memories that constantly trouble her, she must battle her own as-yet-unacknowledged addiction to alcohol, and the occasional bullying of male law enforcement determined that she is "less" than they. She experienced this over and over during her tenure as an Army officer, a tenure which resulted in the PTSD with which she daily struggles.

I have not found a story so troubling since I read Lee Child's THE VISITOR, which also deals with military sexual harassment, and all the way back to Thanksgiving of 1975, Susan Brownmiller's AGAINST OUR WILL: MEN, WOMEN, AND RAPE. Author Robert Dunn (whose books RED HIGHWAY and MOTORMAN I have reviewed and found immensely moving) has elicited all the emotional trauma, the victim's shame and guilt, the rage for vengeance, by making "Hurricane" Katrina Williams a vibrant, even larger-than-life, individual, in this very moving mystery.

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Review: A Fractured Conjuring

A Fractured Conjuring by Martin Reaves
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Review of A FRACTURED CONJURING


I stand in awe of the intellect, the creative imagination, that wrote this novel. This book functions on so many levels--less a vast cast of characters than a multiplicity of levels per character. I read several in-depth reviews before beginning it, and early on in my reading of it, and I am far from being the only reader awestruck. What an imagination is this! Mine feels as if it has been stretched like salt water taffy, then popped back into place, over and over again. Certainly I end the book a different creature than when I had begun it.

Whether you choose to view this story as the chronicle of a descent into madness, or as reincarnation come to life, or as demonic inhabitation, I think that you will not be able to walk away from A FRACTURED CONJURING unchanged. I think the novel should be accompanied by a neon warning label:
"Caution: Your sanity, character, emotions, soul, and spirit will all be supremely rocked and challenged should you take up the concept of reading this novel."


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Review: The Awakening

The Awakening by Brett McBean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE AWAKENING by Brett McBean

Coming of age novels exist in many forms and degrees of quality. I've read several, and enjoy this particular category. I've never read one to date as outstanding as THE AWAKENING by accomplished and gifted author Brett McBean. This novel repeatedly blew me out of the water. Set in the small town of Belford in the Midwest, a bigoted, isolationist community under the surface (on the surface it's a calm, peaceful, quiet little Norman Rockwell vision), THE AWAKENING is the story of three fourteen-year-old boys, leaving middle school for the horrors of high school [the protagonist once rhetorically questions, "Is anybody ready for high school?"]. Toby and Frankie have been fast friends since earliest times, Toby the only child in a nuclear family, Frankie raised by single mother and older sister since birth. The two are inseparable, and good kids as a rule. But the summer between middle school and high school is beyond nightmarish: tragedy, fatality, bigotry, shunning, and so much more.

THE AWAKENING is also the story of Jacques (Jack) Joseph, an elderly Haitian native, whose history goes back much farther than the reader would expect. In his interaction with Toby, we learn so much of Haitian history beginning in 1918 [virtually none of it positive], and of vodoun, both white and black [as Mr. Joseph puts it, with either hand--the right hand of positive spirituality, the left hand of black magic, what in medieval times sometimes went by the term "bar sinister."] So there are actually novels upon novels within the framework of THE AWAKENING, a story everyone would benefit by reading. [Sherwood Anderson, take note.]

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Review: Chill the Bones

Chill the Bones by Sten Ostberg
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of CHILL THE BONES

CHILL THE BONES is one of those wonderful noir stories with sparse prose and taut plotting and unexpected twists that seem to be a hallmark of Scandinavian crime fiction. The infant daughter of a former police detective is abducted, and the kidnapper makes it clear that he or she will stop at nothing. As the situation escalates, the parents' marriage is strained, they are in danger as well as the innocent child, and the revelations of the cause will rock them and the reader.

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Review: The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE YELLOW WALLPAPER by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A classic I should have read long ago, THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a short story with incredible impact. Originally published in 1892, the narrator is a wife virtually imprisoned in an estate house, for the summer, by her physician husband (with the connivance of her physician brother). She is a victim of the prevailing 19th century thought on females that they were prone to "hysteria" due to their biology (no thank you, Dr. Freud) and although not expressed in those terms, hysteria is what her husband diagnoses. He respects her so little that he refuses her choice of rooms (she sensibly asks for a room with light and air and garden exposure) and installs her in the top-floor nursery, where the wallpaper peels in strips, the wooden floor is scratched, and there are no curtains to ease sunlight nor moonlight. Then he stays away as much as possible. The consequence is a gradual mental and psychological decline, a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy by the physician/husband (he declares "nervous depression," she descends into insanity).

THE YELLOW WALLPAPER is a stern and ringing condemnation of the upper-class Victorian Era society (on both sides of The Big Pond) that ruled women third-class, prone to bouts of hysteria, and allowed husbands to decide everything, including disrespecting an adult woman with the "fond" appellation "little girl."

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Review: Chill the Bones

Chill the Bones by Sten Ostberg
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: The Nature of Balance

The Nature of Balance by Tim Lebbon
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Mystery Hill

Mystery Hill by R. Patrick Gates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of MYSTERY HILL by R. Patrick Gates

MYSTERY HILL is a tautly-constructed YA horror/mystery involving (naturally) monsters, mythology, clueless adults (several), and smart youngsters (some too smart for their own good). It's fast-paced and a one or two sitting read; certainly it kept me turning the pages. Definitely emotionally involving, the story explores relationships in families, blended families, and families with loss (of a parent), as well as sibling rivalry gone ballistic.

When Jenny, her father, stepmother, and stepbrother move to a tiny Maine community, just so her stepmother can live her dream of living in a Colonial era rustic farmhouse, Jenny is distraught at being uprooted from her school and friends. Little could she realize initially how much worse can happen. She soon makes two good friends in whom she delights, but their very proximity to her puts the friends and their families in danger, as well as Jenny's own blended family.



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Review: Kids

Kids by Jack Rollins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of KIDS
(Anthology from Dark Chapter Press, Various Authors)

The Victorian ostensible perception of children was to consider them sweet little innocent angels (hence the popularity of cherubs on the graves of children in that era), but modern society recognizes that children can be not only misbehaving, but actually criminal. Children can and do kill, on occasion. Children also, on occasion, torment and kill small animals and pets. The various children in this Anthology, singly or paired, are something more than just acting up. Some of these are downright evil.

Every single story in this anthology is a gem: well-written, tautly-developed, with fascinating and well-rounded characters. There is suspense, horror, plot twists, and many surprises, not all good. I definitely recommend this, both for the Anthology as an entirety, and for its introductions to many excellent authors.

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Review: Blood in Electric Blue

Blood in Electric Blue by Greg F. Gifune
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of BLOOD IN ELECTRIC BLUE by Greg F. Gifune

If you've read anything by Greg Gifune, you know to expect cutting-edge, off-the-mainstream fiction that will delve deep into the reader and carve its own unforgettable niche. Mr. Gifune presents several enduring (in more senses than one) characters in BLOOD IN ELECTRIC BLUE, a novella I believe has and will impact me as powerfully as did his novel SAYING UNCLE.

BLOOD IN ELECTRIC BLUE weaves mythology with loneliness, death, violence, childhood horrors, transgender/transsexualism, the longing for love (in many stripes), domestic violence, and so much more, including the backdrop of a city with its selective neighborhoods, a low-rent "red light" district, and a suspicious chemical manufactory that never ever stops. It is unforgettable, literally and metaphorically.

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Review: Island Red

Island Red by Matt Serafini
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of ISLAND RED by Matt Serafini


ISLAND RED is at once sci fi, adventure thriller, horror, and emotionally involving. Commencing explosively as a courting couple enjoying a nighttime swim witnesses, to their eternal regret, a fireball plummeting from the sky into the ocean. From that point, the horror and adventure are nonstop, as the inhabitants and visitors of a tiny island called Crystal Key, 20 miles from the Florida Keys, come under attack by quadruple, somewhat unrelated threats, every one promising fatal consequences.

This is not one of those adventure thrillers in which a happy hero rides to the rescue, saving the damsel and many bystanders. This is far more nihilistic, and believe me, some of the humans are more monstrous than the marine threat or the newly-arrived (via fireball/meteor) threat. Wildlife, after all, acts on instinct, following the evolutionary imperatives. Humans, however, choose to act, so I think the greater onus is on the human monsters in this story.



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Review: LampLight - Volume 4 Issue 4

LampLight - Volume 4 Issue 4 by Jonathan Janz
My rating: 0 of 5 stars



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Review: Satan's Lambs

Satan's Lambs by Lynn S. Hightower
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review: SATAN'S LAMBS by Lynn Hightower

Definitely not for the faint of heart, SATAN'S LAMBS is a high-powered detective/metaphysical/psychological study, not amiss for the fact that it's original publication was in 1993, before the era of cell phones and before widespread home computer use. In context, it doesn't seem bewildering when the protagonists must hunt a pay phone, because the storyline flows so smoothly and definitely captures the reader's attention. The author adds a plethora of scenic details, as the story travels from University community Lexington, KY, to Appalachian Eastern Kentucky, and Knoxville and Nashville, TN, with points in between. An abducted child, badly injured mother, and a generational satanist family cult are bright splashes of colour, again riveting readers' attention. I look forward to exploring more mysteries by this accomplished author.


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Review: Pay The Ghost

Pay The Ghost by Tim Lebbon
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Review of PAY THE GHOST by Tim Lebbon

A short story of extreme horror, which is also extremely sad. Seems like there are no winners in this one (except perhaps the titular ghost).The faint of heart will not enjoy this one. However, in the hands of an author I consider a master of horror, the characters are so finely delineated, the horrors so imaginative, the setting so vivid, that this is a tale well worth the perusal [Just not at night and not alone.]

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