Review: Write Like Hell: Dark Fantasy & Horror

Write Like Hell: Dark Fantasy & Horror by Mitchell Lüthi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

WRITE LIKE HELL! is not a traditional short story anthology. Rather it's a more diverse collection, am ezine, showcasing writing frim members of the Sentinel Collective. Included are short stories, a film review, and a nod to Lovecraftian monsters.

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Review: When the Clock Strikes on Halloween

When the Clock Strikes on Halloween by Lisa Ferland
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Delightful picture/text for young ones. Gently spooky, loving and supportive. Great illustrations.

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Review: The Ghost Sensitive

The Ghost Sensitive by Lois Lee Gates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Nicole has been marked by the Otherworld since her family moved into a haunted house in the Seattle area at age 6. Now as a second-year college student in Savannah, one of America's most haunted cities, she and new roommate Molly set out to investigate the paranormal, thus exposing Nicole to the depredations of the Other Side.

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Review: Haunted

Haunted by Claire Buss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A proper set of scares herein, in this collection of Poetry and Short Stories by the writers of the Sparkly Badgers Facebook Group. Included are Bios for all the writers to point the reader to their further work

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Review: SHORT HORROR STORIES Vol. 3

5 Stars

Again, a trio of three horror shorts by three authors from Team Scare Street . Rowan Rook offers a new solution to monsters under-the-bed in "A Powerful Thing." Sara Clancy delivers implacable terror at a mountain resort in "The Shadows." My favourite is "Hard Rain" by Ron Ripley, which quite frankly, scared me senseless. (Shivers)

Review: DARK DEITY by David Longhorn

5 Stars

DARK DEITY is Book 3 of THE ASYLUM Series, about the former Rookwood Asylum in England, recently converted into flats, and its resident terrors. I thought it started a bit more slowly than the first two in the series, but once underway, there was sufficient flash and bang and plenty of terror evoked. The author strums multiple chords of the Supernatural and I found the story definitely scary.

Review: THE POOR AND THE HAUNTED by Dwight McKissen

5 Stars!

What an incredible, enormously gratifying, horror novel. Stomach-churning and heartwrenching, indeed, but the true unconditional love between two siblings, the police officer who valued them, and the young man's family-in-the-future, is enough to restore my lost faith in human nature. I think I shall rank this novel alongside Garth Stein's A SUDDEN LIGHT--top praise indeed!

Review: BEYOND KIDDING by Lynda Clark.

5 Stars

As much as I enjoy feckless heroes, I've never encountered one as spectacularly feckless as protagonist Rob Buckland. What kind of fool "invents" a son to get a better job? And then supplants that lie by announcing the boy has been kidnapped, and reporting it to the police? Well, this protagonist. From that out of the gate, how could I not race through the novel holding my breath?

Laden with humour and expressed in alternating third-person and first-person narrative, BEYOND KIDDING is both hilarious and heartwarming.  

Review: MONKSPIKE by Sarah England

5 Stars!

Author Sarah England has a particular flair for Occult Rural England Horror, with perpetually dark forests and tiny inbred villages, old folk tales with historical foundation, mystery, human evil, and Supernatural evil as well. I always feel reading her novels that I am peeking in on an environment where the sun never shines and where generation after generation slump under the weight of centuries of ancestral guilt and fear. The terror here is all the more intense because it's implacable.

Review: THE HAUNTING OF ST. LUCIAN PEAK by Cat Knight

4 Stars

In England, during World War II, lived a Vicar who loved his Rectory more than he loved his own soul...

A haunting tale of Black Magic, possession, and an evil tome. Will good defeat evil? Or will evil inevitably win out?

Review: COFFIN CEMETERY by Ron Ripley

5 Stars

5 Stars

I really enjoyed this novel, but I definitely felt it both ended too abruptly and also cried out for a sequel, because I am not ready to give these characters up. Gratifyingly, a couple  of them reappear in Short Horror Stories Vol. 2, so that is encouraging for a sequel.

I empathized strongly with the characters a d their struggles. This is Supernatural Horror, combining both human evil and spirit evil, including ghosts who were evil in life and are still evil in Death.

Review: KAZOKU by Tara A. Devlin

4 Stars

KAZOKU is Book 4 in the TORIHADA FILES Series. "Kazoku" is the Japanese term for "family," and here the conflict is between a soecialized type of family: a Yakuza clan, as contrasted with dysfunctional family, lack of family, and hope of family. Greed collides with Family, with horrifying Supernatural results.

Review: THE CHILL by Scott Carson

5 Stars!

THE CHILL (written under a nom de plume) is one extraordinary novel: Supernatural thriller, family dysfunction, average small-town in contrast with highly dysfunctional cultish village. No need for suspension of Disbelief: I leaped immediately into the story on Page 1, and I devoured every bit of it without a pause. The story is so "real" I seemed to be living it, not reading it.

The "Chill" is an Upstate New York dam and reservoir, initially intended to provide water supply to New York City, but instead left as surplus to requirements. Unfortunately its construction came at the cost of submerging a village, and herein lies the tale. I've been fascinated by "drowned communities" since reading Stuart Woods' novel UNDER THE LAKE  in the latter 1980's, and I will probably always be simultaneously fascinated abd repelled by such examples of human greed and cupidity.

Review_CLOWNS VS. SPIDERS by Jeff Strand

5 Stars

As a lifelong severe arachnophobe, why would I read a story about Clowns (I'm a Coulrophobe also) and totally humongous Spiders in ginormous Swarms? Given that, why did I frequently find humor? Why did I so strongly empathize with the protagonists?

Credit for the humor and the empathy is solely due to the author, Jeff Strand, who created characters I couldn't help but admire and cheer on, applauding their integrity, friendship, and strength of character. He also interleaves humor, even chuckles, throughout the book, despite the fact that an Apocalypse of Arachnid Proportions is one of the worst potential world-ending events I can imagine.

If you've read the Andrew Mayhem Series or KUTTER or THE HAUNTED FOREST TOUR, you already know how this author can giftedly balance humor and gore, while serving up characters you can't help but admire. So shove aside your Arachnophobia, and dig in.   

Review: The Ladderman

The Ladderman by Angela Archer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You remember Bloody Mary? Candyman? Here's Ladderman, an implacable and irresistible force of Nature--and he hears you whenever you recite his rhyme.


Ghastly implacable horror delivered at a furious pace! I loved it!

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Review: Apartment 412: Enter at your own risk.

Apartment 412: Enter at your own risk. by Pamela McCoy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a toss-up between 3.5 and 4: 3.5 because the grammatical errors (and occasional misnaming) made my attention erratic. 4 because the novel has some tremendously convoluted plotting (multiple plots) and the author does well at not telegraphing the book's secrets in advance. There are several astonishingly horrific villains. There is more gruesomeness than gore, though gore is certainly at hand, so be forewarned. Some (most all) of the villainy infuriated me. I will be interested to read more from this author, whose imagination is undeniable.

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Review: THE PROTO PROJECT by Bryan R. Johnson

5 stars

Although this novel is designed for middle graders, I found it delightful, with a good sense of humor plus some worthwhile lessons about loyalty, friendship, humanity, and right action. The characters are endearing and "Proto," the AI, is a gem.

Review: SHORT HORROR STORIES by Team Scare Street

5 Stars

Three more utterly terrifying tales from Team Scare Street. I was delighted to discover that one of these involves a few characters from Ron Ripley's COFFIN CEMETERY.
Due to these three tales, tonight I'll be sleeping with the lights on--if I sleep. 

Review: STRANGERS AT THE GATE by Catriona McPherson

5 Stars

Totally wow! I don't know how this accomplished author kept straight this sizable cast of characters or the multiplicity of red herrings, but the result is an incredibly amazing novel. I couldn't tear my eyes from the page nor rest till I achieved the ending. Any reader who can puzzle it out in advance has my admiration. I only guessed at one small aspect. If this novel was a Medieval Morality play instead of a psychological thriller, its Cautionary theme would be: 

Be Careful of What You Wish.    

Review_EVERY FOUL SPIRIT by William Gorman

5 Stars

EVERY FOUL SPIRIT is the gore-laden, terrifying sequel from the unstoppable Crystal Lake Publishing. I adored BLACKWATER VAL, fpund it an outstanding venture in other (often unwanted) worlds and I adore this sequel as much. (More, please! More!) Kate Frankin, as her mother, strides between this world and others. Fifteen years ago she was instrumental in an "intervention" of sorts in the Val, as a child (she is, and was, exceptional). Now at twenty-one she returns to Blackwater Val at the bequest of the very much beleaguered police chief, to stop a horrible villain. I would relate my favourite scene, but that would require spoilers.

Review: Amber Hollow

Amber Hollow by Edgar Swamp
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

AMBER HOLLOW is the product of a very creative mind, a novel whose mysteries twist and turn, echoing backnon themselves, constantly changing appearances, till one doesn't know in which direction to look or whether one is coming or gping--because everyone lies, many of them in what they consider the service of a Greater Good-which isn't. A riveting novel of paranormal, Supernatural, contemporary tied to historical--even, perhaps, Lovecraftian. An amazing novel.

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Review: Midnight in the Graveyard

Midnight in the Graveyard by Kenneth W. Cain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Editor Kenneth W. Cain collated an outstanding collection in this volume, from new authors to up-and-comers to the long-established. Every story is significantly scary, and as the Introduction by author Jonathan Janz recommends: Don't read at night. I concur. Even reading these in the daytime is scary enough; reading at night is asking for Nightmares.


MIDNIGHT IN THE GRAVEYARD is the debut of Silver Shamrock Publishing (release October 15 2019).

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Review: Article 15: A Griffith Crowe Adventure

Article 15: A Griffith Crowe Adventure by M.T. Bass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Half-Arapaho Wyoming ranchowner Griffin Crowe sidelines as a troubleshooter for a hogh-powered Chicago law firm. Usually success is expected, but his newest cade entangles him with an unstoppable femme fatale and vastly more trouble than he could have imagined.

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Review: Molten Mud Murder

Molten Mud Murder by Sara E. Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

MOLTEN MUD MURDER is an engrossing murder mystery set in beautifully scenic New Zealand's North Island. At once a police procedural, a narrative of forensics, a romantic suspense, and an unfolding mystery set against a backdrop of divergent cultures and an often ugly history, this novel kept me riveted. Forensic odontologist Alexa Glock is a strong protagonist, despite her tragic past, determined to persevere in unraveling this puzzling case. I hope her adventures (North Carolinian temporarily transplanted to New Zealand) take root and prosper in sequels.


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Review: Pete the Pig Gets Picked On

Pete the Pig Gets Picked On by Lindsey Coker Luckey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cheers for Pete, who finds his "differentness" is a useful trait to help himself and many others. Engaging rhyme and illustrations power a tale for children with a great lesson.

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Review: Dragon's Fury

Dragon's Fury by Michael Gordon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A wise pesson, capably presented. No bad guys here: a dragon friend and a boy, both learning good ways of coping with frustration. Lovely illustrations.

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Review: Ghosters 3 Secrets of the Bloody Tower

Ghosters 3 Secrets of the Bloody Tower by Diana Corbitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I, too, have coulrophobia and couldn't stay in the Thousand Clowns Motel (or anywhere within sight!) But like our intrepid ghost "detectives," I too would adore visiting London and touring the thirteen components of the Tower of London. Kerry, Theresa, Joey, and Kerry's Gran have an extra special encounter coming: the spirits of the two princes, nephews of Richard III, disappeared, and from the beginning, presumed murdered. And the exciting third installment of the Ghosters adventures is afoot!

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Review: Molly: The True Story of the Amazing Dog Who Rescues Cats

Molly: The True Story of the Amazing Dog Who Rescues Cats by Colin Butcher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From early childhood, we are taught that felines and canines never ever mix. Well, in the UK, the "star" of UK Pet Detectives, an adorable cocker spaniel named Molly, proves the exception to the rule. Along with her handler Colin Butcher , formerly in the Royal Navy and a long-time police officer, Molly has participated in over 100 searches with a high success rate.

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Review: Evil Sushi

Evil Sushi by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In addition to its creatively unexpected title, EVIL SUSHI is that rare event, Horror with Heart. I really warmed up to the characters (most of them) who are really just small-town good guys trying to survive in a world where "scarce resources" almost means "nonexistent," who still endeavor to provide for their families and loved ones, and help friends. (The setting is not too far in the future.) Corporate fishing (read depth charges) has exploded a deep-sea rift and two village fishermen are benefitting from an inexplicable resultant catch. But what's too good to be true often is, and between a greedy restaurant chain owner, govermental agencies, and corporations, the fishermen are between a virtual rock and a hard place. But most damaging and dangerous is what else lurks beyond the new rift. Absorbing Marine Horror.


Also read for the Canadian Challenge.

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Review: Evil Sushi

Evil Sushi by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In addition to its creatively unexpected title, EVIL SUSHI is that rare event, Horror with Heart. I really warmed up to the characters (most of them) who are really just small-town good guys trying to survive in a world where "scarce resources" almost means "nonexistent," who still endeavor to provide for their families and loved ones, and help friends. (The setting is not too far in the future.) Corporate fishing (read depth charges) has exploded a deep-sea rift and two village fishermen are benefitting from an inexplicable resultant catch. But what's too good to be true often is, and between a greedy restaurant chain owner, govermental agencies, and corporations, the fishermen are between a virtual rock and a hard place. But most damaging and dangerous is what else lurks beyond the new rift. Absorbing Marine Horror.


Also read for the Canadian Challenge.

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Review: Evil Sushi

Evil Sushi by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In addition to its creatively unexpected title, EVIL SUSHI is that rare event, Horror with Heart. I really warmed up to the characters (most of them) who are really just small-town good guys trying to survive in a world where "scarce resources" almost means "nonexistent," who still endeavor to provide for their families and loved ones, and help friends. (The setting is not too far in the future.) Corporate fishing (read depth charges) has exploded a deep-sea rift and two village fishermen are benefitting from an inexplicable resultant catch. But what's too good to be true often is, and between a greedy restaurant chain owner, govermental agencies, and corporations, the fishermen are between a virtual rock and a hard place. But most damaging and dangerous is what else lurks beyond the new rift. Absorbing Marine Horror.


Also read for the Canadian Challenge.

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Review: Evil Sushi

Evil Sushi by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In addition to its creatively unexpected title, EVIL SUSHI is that rare event, Horror with Heart. I really warmed up to the characters (most of them) who are really just small-town good guys trying to survive in a world where "scarce resources" almost means "nonexistent," who still endeavor to provide for their families and loved ones, and help friends. (The setting is not too far in the future.) Corporate fishing (read depth charges) has exploded a deep-sea rift and two village fishermen are benefitting from an inexplicable resultant catch. But what's too good to be true often is, and between a greedy restaurant chain owner, govermental agencies, and corporations, the fishermen are between a virtual rock and a hard place. But most damaging and dangerous is what else lurks beyond the new rift. Absorbing Marine Horror.


Also read for the Canadian Challenge.

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Review: Evil Sushi

Evil Sushi by C.A. King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In addition to its creatively unexpected title, EVIL SUSHI is that rare event, Horror with Heart. I really warmed up to the characters (most of them) who are really just small-town good guys trying to survive in a world where "scarce resources" almost means "nonexistent," who still endeavor to provide for their families and loved ones, and help friends. (The setting is not too far in the future.) Corporate fishing (read depth charges) has exploded a deep-sea rift and two village fishermen are benefitting from an inexplicable resultant catch. But what's too good to be true often is, and between a greedy restaurant chain owner, govermental agencies, and corporations, the fishermen are between a virtual rock and a hard place. But most damaging and dangerous is what else lurks beyond the new rift. Absorbing Marine Horror.


Also read for the Canadian Challenge.

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Review: Short Horror Stories Vol. 1: Horror Short Stories Collection with Scary Ghosts, Paranormal & Supernatural Monsters

Short Horror Stories Vol. 1: Horror Short Stories Collection with Scary Ghosts, Paranormal & Supernatural Monsters by Scare Street
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A trio of horror shorts to delight the discerning horror aficionado, featuring implacable and inescapable horror in differing, seemingly practical and everyday venues. The first story, my favorite, has some resonances of "Ring" and a "gift" that keeps on giving, but also some poetic justice. In the second, a compassionate Catholic priest unfortunately encounters horror beyond his worldview (no poetic justice here). In the third offering (delightfully tongue in cheek), a very wealthy and self-centered widow encounters the long arm of poetic justice.

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Review: SHORT HORROR STORIES VOL. 1 _ SCARE STREET

A trio of horror shorts to delight the discerning horror aficionado, featuring implacable and inescapable horror in differing, seemingly practical and everyday venues. The first story, my favorite, has some resonances of "Ring" and a "gift" that keeps on giving, but also some poetic justice. In the second, a compassionate Catholic priest unfortunately encounters horror beyond his worldview (no poetic justice here). In the third offering (delightfully tongue in cheek), a very wealthy and self-centered widow encounters the long arm of poetic justice.

(Release Oct. 16)

Review: If Only I Could Tell You

If Only I Could Tell You by Hannah Beckerman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Over how many decades can a covert family secret divide sisters? It's been 28 years for sisters Jess and Lily, but now that their mother Audrey has terminal cancer, and Lily's hotshot lawyer husband is off to the States for six months (maybe more), surely it's time to clear the decks, air the family laundry, expose all the secrets. Isn't it?


Narrated from triple points of view: Audrey, Jess, Lily, this psychological evocation set in London will resonate with fans of Lisa Jewell and Paula Hawkins, any reader who wishes a clearer understanding of Family, or who yearns for Second Chances.

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Review: FINDING MIRANDA: Minokee Mysteries, Book One

FINDING MIRANDA: Minokee Mysteries, Book One by Iris Chacon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

FINDING MIRANDA is Book 1 of the MINOKEE MYSTERIES, set in Little Cypress Forest in North Central Florida, in a tiny insular community, Minokee. No real estate sales, just lifetime living and inheritance. No businesses.


It's problematical not to love a novel featuring a dog, a librarian, a sweet-hearted blind guy, and lots of suspense leavened with gentle humour. Fortunately I really enjoyed the story, and am gleefully anticipating the next (THE MAMMOTH MURDERS, release Nov. 1)

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Review: The Furies

The Furies by Katie Lowe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

THE FURIES is a novel of deeply character driven literary fiction, turning on the twin cruxes of Sisterhood and "female rage." It stars several charismatic demagogues, including Robin, the girl whose friendship narrator Violet so strives for (to the point of mutating her character) and cherishes; Annabel, teacher of Aesthetics and a perennial "secret" girls' class, inciting female rage and revenge; and the not-quite-appropriate Dean of Students. Elm Hollow, the private girls' school in a small seaside English community, is the inheritor of myth and history, including an undercurrent of occult study and practice so appealing to a certain segment of the students.

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Review: The Dark Stuff

The Dark Stuff by Paul Seiple
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Which is worse, human evil or Supernatural elements? Human cupidity, concupiscence, and rage, or demonic manifestations? Readers of THE DARK STUFF will have a plethora of opportunities to ponder these questions, as the nature of demonic infestation dances a fine line with evil that is purely of human conception. This novel of Supernatural Horror will really appeal to those who consider the Spirit Board (Ouija) not a toy, but a tool of the demonic and an open invitation to Evil.


I quite readily emphasized with protagonist Daniel; he really tries. Unlike a few of the other characters! Daniel recognizes his foibles and strives to overcome. In fact, his dedication is practically unending; many individuals would have given up long before. The outcome abd denouement were unexpected, but ultimately satisfying in terms of poetic justice. (Don't read ahead!)

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Review: Trail of the Hana K'ilo

Trail of the Hana K'ilo by Channing Whitaker
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I enjoyed the first novel in the Skeptic Detective Series, ONE NIGHT AT THE DRAKE MANSION, but TRAIL OF THE HANA K'ILO I enjoyed a thousand times more. Maybe it was the Alaskan setting, maybe the cryptozoology, maybe (again) it was the tension between Skeptic Science and True Believers (this time in cryptids). In any event, I gleefully devoured this one and am scanning the horizon for the next. Harlan Holt, Skeptic Detective, rocks.

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Review: One Night in Drake Mansion

One Night in Drake Mansion by Channing Whitaker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First in the Skeptic Detective Series, our protagonist is Ph.D. candidate Harlan Holt, a member of Science, Magicians, Skeptics Foundation and anthropology graduate student. Harlan is an endearing and personable young man with a scientific frame of mind. Together with a young woman about to enter medical school, an aspiring actress, a paranormal investigator and a medium, he spends one night in a mansion abandoned for 80 years after the disappearances of all five of the family plus a well-known magician.


Between spooky occurrences and the unfolding of a historical megalomania, the reader is kept engrossed. Perhaps best is the ongoing balance between Science, as represented by skeptic Harlan, and paranormal believers, in the psychic medium and the paranormal investigator. The denouement is stunning.

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Review: One Night in Drake Mansion

One Night in Drake Mansion by Channing Whitaker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First in the Skeptic Detective Series, our protagonist is Ph.D. candidate Harlan Holt, a member of Science, Magicians, Skeptics Foundation and anthropology graduate student. Harlan is an endearing and personable young man with a scientific frame of mind. Together with a young woman about to enter medical school, an aspiring actress, a paranormal investigator and a medium, he spends one night in a mansion abandoned for 80 years after the disappearances of all five of the family plus a well-known magician.


Between spooky occurrences and the unfolding of a historical megalomania, the reader is kept engrossed. Perhaps best is the ongoing balance between Science, as represented by skeptic Harlan, and paranormal believers, in the psychic medium and the paranormal investigator. The denouement is stunning.

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Review: One Night in Drake Mansion

One Night in Drake Mansion by Channing Whitaker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First in the Skeptic Detective Series, our protagonist is Ph.D. candidate Harlan Holt, a member of Science, Magicians, Skeptics Foundation and anthropology graduate student. Harlan is an endearing and personable young man with a scientific frame of mind. Together with a young woman about to enter medical school, an aspiring actress, a paranormal investigator and a medium, he spends one night in a mansion abandoned for 80 years after the disappearances of all five of the family plus a well-known magician.


Between spooky occurrences and the unfolding of a historical megalomania, the reader is kept engrossed. Perhaps best is the ongoing balance between Science, as represented by skeptic Harlan, and paranormal believers, in the psychic medium and the paranormal investigator. The denouement is stunning.

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Review: One Night in Drake Mansion

One Night in Drake Mansion by Channing Whitaker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First in the Skeptic Detective Series, our protagonist is Ph.D. candidate Harlan Holt, a member of Science, Magicians, Skeptics Foundation and anthropology graduate student. Harlan is an endearing and personable young man with a scientific frame of mind. Together with a young woman about to enter medical school, an aspiring actress, a paranormal investigator and a medium, he spends one night in a mansion abandoned for 80 years after the disappearances of all five of the family plus a well-known magician.


Between spooky occurrences and the unfolding of a historical megalomania, the reader is kept engrossed. Perhaps best is the ongoing balance between Science, as represented by skeptic Harlan, and paranormal believers, in the psychic medium and the paranormal investigator. The denouement is stunning.

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Review: The Devil’s Due

The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Bonnie MacBird delightfully leavens her very serious subjects (the Great Detective, serial killing, yellow journalism, mob hysteria, anarchy, terrorist bombings, insanity) with gentle wry humour in the third of her Sherlock Holmes series.


The serial murders of wealthy noted philanthropists and the ongoing terrorist bombings by anarchists (and suspected French terrorists), in tandem with a new Police Commissioner entirely opposed to "amateur investigators" (read Sherlock Holmes) and a yellow muck-raking journalist determined to destroy Holmes' reputation, keep Holmes and devoted literal-thinking sidekick Dr. Watson in a chaotic, and dangerous, uproar.

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Review: The Devil’s Due

The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Bonnie MacBird delightfully leavens her very serious subjects (the Great Detective, serial killing, yellow journalism, mob hysteria, anarchy, terrorist bombings, insanity) with gentle wry humour in the third of her Sherlock Holmes series.


The serial murders of wealthy noted philanthropists and the ongoing terrorist bombings by anarchists (and suspected French terrorists), in tandem with a new Police Commissioner entirely opposed to "amateur investigators" (read Sherlock Holmes) and a yellow muck-raking journalist determined to destroy Holmes' reputation, keep Holmes and devoted literal-thinking sidekick Dr. Watson in a chaotic, and dangerous, uproar.

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Review: The Devil’s Due

The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Bonnie MacBird delightfully leavens her very serious subjects (the Great Detective, serial killing, yellow journalism, mob hysteria, anarchy, terrorist bombings, insanity) with gentle wry humour in the third of her Sherlock Holmes series.


The serial murders of wealthy noted philanthropists and the ongoing terrorist bombings by anarchists (and suspected French terrorists), in tandem with a new Police Commissioner entirely opposed to "amateur investigators" (read Sherlock Holmes) and a yellow muck-raking journalist determined to destroy Holmes' reputation, keep Holmes and devoted literal-thinking sidekick Dr. Watson in a chaotic, and dangerous, uproar.

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Review: The Devil’s Due

The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Bonnie MacBird delightfully leavens her very serious subjects (the Great Detective, serial killing, yellow journalism, mob hysteria, anarchy, terrorist bombings, insanity) with gentle wry humour in the third of her Sherlock Holmes series.


The serial murders of wealthy noted philanthropists and the ongoing terrorist bombings by anarchists (and suspected French terrorists), in tandem with a new Police Commissioner entirely opposed to "amateur investigators" (read Sherlock Holmes) and a yellow muck-raking journalist determined to destroy Holmes' reputation, keep Holmes and devoted literal-thinking sidekick Dr. Watson in a chaotic, and dangerous, uproar.

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Review: The Devil’s Due

The Devil’s Due by Bonnie MacBird
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Author Bonnie MacBird delightfully leavens her very serious subjects (the Great Detective, serial killing, yellow journalism, mob hysteria, anarchy, terrorist bombings, insanity) with gentle wry humour in the third of her Sherlock Holmes series.


The serial murders of wealthy noted philanthropists and the ongoing terrorist bombings by anarchists (and suspected French terrorists), in tandem with a new Police Commissioner entirely opposed to "amateur investigators" (read Sherlock Holmes) and a yellow muck-raking journalist determined to destroy Holmes' reputation, keep Holmes and devoted literal-thinking sidekick Dr. Watson in a chaotic, and dangerous, uproar.

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Review: The Devil's End

The Devil's End by D.A. Fowler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Page-turning Horror, adolescent angst gone vicious, coming of age into a world of madness, Witch Hunting, Satanism, Demonic-Darkness-is-about-to-cover-the-Earth; plus one of the funkiest Denouements I've ever encountered: I was riveted. Not too many characters I liked, though there were a couple; but even jerks don't deserve all this. A contemporary version of the Witch craze of the 16th and 17th centuries, only now there's good reason; sometimes when there is suspicion there are grounds for it. A plethora of extreme gore and violence (including children and animals and certain aberrant perversions), so if particularly sensitive, proceed with caution. If extreme horror doesn't disturb, continue on. THE DEVIL'S END is highly suspenseful and the tension is rampant. And that ending!!

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