A missing girl in East Texas

Jackrabbit Smile

Joe R. Lansdale

Mulholland Books 

March 22, 2018

 4 stars

After reading 13 novels and a handful of short stories and novellas about Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, I do not just feel like I know them . I'm feeling like I am a part of their East Texas town. Hap and Leonard would be the two guys my parents would tell me to steer clear of and the first person they would call, reluctantly, if they got into a jam. As police chief Marvin Hansen would say, they are assholes and hardheads but he would trust them with his life.

Jackrabbit Smile has all the fixings of a Hap and Leonard novel. The duet is fronting their own detective agency, owned by Hap's old time girlfriend and brand new wife Brett. They are given a job to find a missing woman, Jackie aka Jackrabbit. Hap and Leonard are hired by Jackie's extremely racist mother and brother who gay and black Leonard pounces on like a cat and treat in his psychologically aggressive style like a chew toy. The job takes them to Hap's childhood stomping grounds Marvel Creek and they find out that the town has added a bunch of questionable characters that includes a white supremacist called Professor. Of course, the big question is; is Jackrabbit missing or dead and how was she involved in Marvel Creek's chaotic mix of low life schemers and racemongers?

There are always social issues of race and class lurking in a Hap and Leonard novel but novel #13 really brings them to the forefront which goes far to make it one of the best book of the series in a long while. We get all the snappy dialogue and hard ass action we would expect. Brett plays a minor role which is OK since the meat of the plot is always centered around the rapport of liberal and idealistic Hap and conservative and overly aggressive Leonard. But here is where I need to discuss something that is both disturbing and exciting that I am catching in the last two novels.

As the series goes, we always expect Leonard Pine to be the one most likely to kick ass. Hap kicks ass too but it is usually reluctantly. Yet as the last two novels plays out, and all the novels are in the first person perspective of Hap Collins, Leonard is more blatantly expressing a darkness that was always there. Hap realizes it and seems to know that he has no control over Leonard and that darkness. The thing is, after 13 novels, where is Joe R. Lansdale leading us? Will this bode well or ill for the macho bromance that is Hap and Leonard. I hope the author follows through on this because it could be taking the series out of its very popular formula and leading us in new and very tense territory. For this book, it is one of the thing that vaults this book out of the formula and keeps me guessing where the two friends may be headed. Do the other readers of the series agree with me or do they think I'm off the rails a bit? Let me know.

The Hap and Leonard series is one of those series that I highly recommend starting from the beginning. However if you are reluctant to do that, this one is stand alone enough to enjoy on its own merits. Ten to one odds though, after you are through you will be picking up the rest of them.

First blockbuster thriller of 2018

Sometimes I Lie

Alice Feeney

 

Flatiron Books

March 13, 2018

5 stars

 

"My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:
1. I’m in a coma.
2. My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
3. Sometimes I lie."

Alice Feeney from the first page of Sometimes I Lie lets us know we are dealing with an unreliable narrator. How unreliable may be unimaginable even by the most savvy thriller reader.

As warned by the author, Amber Reynolds is indeed in a coma. That is the first fact we can accept. Through Amber's first person narration we learn she does not know how she ended up in a coma, at least not at the beginning. Amber can hear the people who visit her in her hospital room and soon learn there was an accident but she has no memory of it. To make things more complex, her perceptions on what is happening to her may be muddled by hallucinations and incomplete input while in the coma. But she is sure that her husband have fallen out of love with her and she suspects he may have had something to do with why she is where she is.

Alternating with her experiences in the coma, we get more info from other chapters that cover the days before the accident and a diary that was written twenty years earlier. All of this hold key clues on what is really happening, Asides from Amber, we learn about key players; not only her husband Paul but Amber's sister Claire, a returning ex-boyfriend Edward, and Amber's very unsympathetic colleague Madeline who works at the local radio station with her.

And none of this adequately prepares you for what is actually going on.

Sometimes I Lie is a spider web of a novel. Each passage is a fine thread that works with the others to trap you in its web. I cannot tell you how many times this novel surprised me and not one of the surprises felt forced. It's fairly impossible to tell you any more about the book without giving too much away. It's sort of a cliche nowadays to say you are better off going into a book cold but that cliche is more true here than in most suspense novels I have read. What I can tell you is that the twist and turns within this novel are impeccably timed to leave you disoriented and anxious for more.

In the present state of the psychological thriller, unreliable narrators and alternating chapters of time and perception are the rage but I have never seen this pulled off as well as in this book. Amber is empathetic in her predicament and reasonably paranoid about the people who visit her and what she hears. Yet She has her own secrets which are revealed throughout the book. She is the focus though most of the novel but the other characters become more solid and three dimensional as time goes on. Alice Feeney is as much as a juggler as a novelist and it is amazing to watch her go through her paces without dropping a pin. More amazing is how the novel transcend its tricks and gimmicks and allows you to become totally absorbed in the character and emotionally mesmerized by the outcome. It's a stunning outcome that I predict will be leaving some people confounded and thinking "what did I just read?"...in a good way.

To be honest, I'm not a very good predictor of commercial success in novels. But I feel I am reasonably safe to say this will be the first blockbuster thriller of 2018 and will deserve every bit of its acclaim. I feel more safe stating, in this early stage of the year, this will be a top contender on my best of the year list for best novel.

Domestic trauma, different perceptions

The Wife Between Us

Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

St. Martin's Press

January 9, 2018

3 & 1/2 stars

At the beginning of The Wife Between Us, we quickly become acclimated to three main characters. The first one is Vanessa, the ex wife of a wealthy almost perfect catch of a husband. The second is Nellie, a young woman who works two jobs as a school teacher and a waitress and is now the fiance to the catch of a husband. The third is that husband, Richard.

Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen gives us these protagonists in a series of alternating chapters between Nellie and Vanessa,. Nellie's chapters are in third person while Vanessa's are in first person. This goes on for a third to half of the novel. Then Hendricks and Pekkanen throws us a hell of a literary curve ball. What it is will remain unsaid since it is at the center of everything that happens from that point on. Suffice to say, it is downright brilliant leaving the reader disoriented and rushing to keep up. Interestingly Richard doesn't get his own chapters. He is purposely seen from the eyes of the other narrators which is an important point in itself. Overall the pacing, the structure and the twists are all evidence of the authors' brilliant style and plotting.

I wish I could say the second half of the novel keeps up but it doesn't. It doesn't fall apart. In fact, we become even more involved in the three characters and how the plot will unravel. It just lags after the big reveal. There are two basic reasons for this. First is a continuous weave of background stories interspersed in the narrations. It is sometimes difficult to tell the present and the past in the narrative and I'm not sure if that is intentional or unintentional on the authors' part. More importantly much of it, but not all, seems like filler and doesn't add to the story. The second reason is an ending that meanders and drags. We get one more twist at the end but this time it feels forced and unrealistic, very much unlike the earlier twist.

What does work though works well. Vanessa becomes our main narrator and maybe an unreliable one. We do not know at first if we can believe her side of the story or how stable her mental state is.
We are given clues throughout, but the authors' building of the tension keeps us guessing until the very end. You probably notice I've said very little about the plot and more about the structuring of the plot. This is because the less you know, the more you will enjoy it. Basically, it is a story about an ex-wife, a soon-to-be wife and the man connected to both. It is not so much a suspense thriller in the conventional way but more of a tale about human perceptions and psychology. And this is why it works in the final analysis.

Despite the problems in the second half, I still enjoyed it. I just wished it stayed as tight in the second half as the first half. Overall though, I believe most readers will become quite involved with the main characters and that is why this novel has the good possibility of being the first blockbuster read of 2017. Even with my hesitation, I do recommend it for those who want a different form of suspense thriller.

Four short novels by Joe Hill

Strange Weather

Joe Hill

Publisher: William Morrow

Pub Date: October 24, 2017

Rating: 4 & 1/2 out of 5 stars

I believe I have read all the novels that Joe Hill has written and published. So I feel fairly secure in saying that he has a certain weakness that he shares with a particular relative. he is subject to long novels that tend to have too much filler.It is no coincidence that his best novel, Heart Shaped Box is also his first and shortest. In my opinion, last novel The Fireman was impressive but way too long for the plot. On the other hand, NOS4A2, was just as long and fantastic so what the hell do I know?

Here in Strange Weather we have four short novels. Novellas. I do not believe any goes over 200 pages. From the strength of this book, I would say novellas are something he might want to focus on more. Each one has the right length, stays on track and, for the most part, rocks and rolls. All of them has elements of horror although at least two are not technically a horror story and one has no supernatural elements. This would be a good book for the Joe Hill novice to wade in to see what he can do.

Let's go over all four.

Snapshots is a very clever supernatural thriller that involves a boy who meets a strange man with a strange camera. Without giving it away, it's a clever gimmick and Hill makes it works partially because the teenage boy is so believable in his vulnerabilities. It is the closest to a straight horror tale in this collection and is the closest to the type of story that the other relative made so famous. For those who remember the old Polaroid cameras, it will make you wonder a bit. Five stars.

Loaded is by far the best novella here. It is not so much a horror story as much as a topical suspense thriller. There is definitely a sociopolitical message here. It starts with the murder of an innocent boy by a policeman then moves some years into 2013 to pick up another situation is unnerving and unfortunately way too possible today. There is some really good development of characters for such a short novel and the ending is explosive. It makes me hope that the author writes some more non-supernatural suspense in the future. He certainly has the skills. Five Stars

Aloft is fantasy where a skydiver lands on a strange cloud and is held prisoner. It felt a little Lovecraftian to me although it really isn't. It has a nice imagery while describing this strange trans-formative cloud. Four stars.

Rain is the only one that lost me. It has a great starting idea for a world wide catastrophe but it simply didn't hold me. The usual well-define characters didn't make it here to this party. There appears to be a social allegory in this one too but I don't think it took hold as nearly well as the allegory took place in Loaded. But Hill can't write a bad story so three stars.

So seventeen stars altogether averages to 4.1 stars. But the first two stories are so good I'm going to say 4.5 stars easily. What is really important is that Joe Hill has delivered 4 quite different short novels and hit it out of the ball park twice, gave a solid effort on the third and...well most people loved that one so let just say I am in the minority. As I stated, this is a good beginning read to learn what the author can do. But if you, like me , just happen to love novellas then it is pretty much essential reading.

I see a full moon rising

Full Wolf Moon

Lincoln Child

 

Publisher: Doubleday

Pub Date: May 16, 2017

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

 

Lincoln Child, along with his partner in crime Douglas Preston, has a pretty good gig going for them. They specialize in the not-so-supernatural thriller. In most cases , and especially with the Pendergrast series, this involves a mystery of seemingly supernatural origins but ends up being something from the natural, albeit the very imaginative and slightly farfetched natural. These Scooby-doo books, as I irrelevantly like to call them, are fun to read but I tend to go more for the supernatural scare rather than the manufactured natural one. However they are great summer reads or, on the other side of the seasons, fireside reads.

When Lincoln Child is writing solo, he likes to keep a good thing going. His protagonist is Jeremy Logan who calls himself a enigmalogist which is "an investigator who specializes in analyzing unnatural phenomena with no obvious scientific or rational explanation." As one may surmise from the title of this fifth installment of the Logan series, Full Wolf Moon is centered on the theme of lycanthropy. In the Adirondack Mountains, two hikers has been found dead with their corpses ripped apart, both having happened on different full moons. Logan is attending an artist and scholar retreat when his college friend who is now a ranger in the area asks him to investigate the deaths. The official explanation is a rogue bear or wolf, but the timing of the killings suggest another explanation and the strange seclusive family that lives in the woods seem to be the town residents' favorite suspect.

While Full Wolf Moon has a good sense of suspense and scares , it is more mystery and science fiction then horror and certainly not supernatural. As with Child's other books, there will be an explanation. Getting there is where the fun is . Child brings together some interesting science into the story that I suspect carries a good mix of fact and fiction. I think I prefer Child solo as compared to the Pendergrast series Preston & Child are known for. Mostly because Jeremy Logan is more accessible . He seem to be the professor next door type while Pendergrast is fairly foreboding. The pace and formula though is pretty much the same. These are light reads. This particular book is fairly predictable and feeds you a good amount of red herrings before the final reveal. I would recommend this more for the mystery fan than the horror aficionado. It may not take you into any new territory but if you read it you probably know what to expect and won't be disappointed.

A mother and son drama

Fierce Kingdom

Gin Phillips

Publisher: Viking

Pub Date: July 25, 2017

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Joan and her four year old son are enjoying the last few minutes at the zoo before it closes. But on the way out, Joan hears gun fire and sees some very disturbing things near the exit. She does not know exactly what is happening but she knows people are dying. She and her son run for their lives and hide in an abandoned animal enclosure. For the next three hours, she will be fighting for her life and the life of her son. She will be making some difficult choices.

There is a lot of emotion in Fierce Kingdom which, related to the plot and theme, is one of the best titles this year. It is predominantly about what a mother would do for her child. Gin Phillips has her heart in this book. She writes about a situation which no one would want to be in. We learn much about Joan as she make tough decision and interacts with two other women who find themselves struggling to stay alive. While the situation is harrowing , it really isn't a psychological thriller as much as a psychological drama. The heart of this book is in the relationship between a mother and a young boy.

The problem with what transpired is that the author has chosen a suspenseful situation that calls for tense moments and smart well-timed decisions. This is where the novel falls down. It gets off to a good start yet bogs down in the middle as we get a lot of thoughts from the mother on what is happening but nothing much really happens. Finally, we get glimpses of the terrorists but when they show up they are neither realistic or interesting. Plus, there are just too many strange decisions that may serve to drive the tension but fail because they don't make sense. One example: Joan is worried the light of her cell phone will attract the killers. I kept thinking," then turn it off and wait until they are gone to use it." What does she do,? She tosses it away. It may haveincreases the sense of isolation but doesn't help to make the situation believable.

But at the end the plot is helped along when Joan meet two other women who are hiding. This picks up the level of tension and has a beautiful moment when one of the women recognizes the gunman. It is a nice turn and I wish there were more like it.

Overall, Fierce Kingdom is full of beautiful writing. Gin Phillips is certainly a writer worth noticing. But perhaps thriller related books are not her forte. Literary drama is and if this was solely a drama before family and taking risks, it might have been more fruitful. Read this for the emotional drama and you will be pleased, If you are reading for the suspenseful plot, perhaps maybe not. I do recommend it though for that wonderful writing and for its emotional pull.

A study of fear and guilt

The Breakdown

B. A. Paris

 

Publisher:  St. Martin's Press 

Pub. Date: July 18, 2017

rating: 3 & 1/2 out of 5 stars

Cass is headed home to her cottage and husband when she passes a car on the road. She is driving on a secluded road, a "shortcut", in the middle of a relentless rain storm. She sees a woman sitting in a car but can't tell who it is. She pulls over but is afraid to get out, partially due to the storm but more because of her fear that it may be a set up for a robbery or worst. The woman in the car remains sitting there. Cass drives away promising herself she will call the police when she gets home. She forgets to call and wake up that next morning to discover on the news that the woman was murdered that night.

She is engulfed by guilt and, worried how others will see her actions, tells no one including her husband or the police. Shortly after this, she finds her memory failing. She forgets a number of things ranging from where she left her coffee cup to where she parked her car. She doesn't remember buying things like a baby pram or ordering the installation of a house alarm. She believes that someone is in her house or sees what she thinks may be the murder knife on the kitchen table but the police find nothing when they arrive. And then there are the constant phone calls from someone who doesn't respond when it is picked up. Cass fears that she is being stalked by the murderer of the young woman but she is just as afraid that she may be having a mental breakdown or is beginning the descent into dementia.

The experienced reader of suspense and mystery novels will catch on to a tried and true theme in The Breakdown very quickly. it is about a woman that appears to be mentally deteriorating . The experience with the woman in the car is the catalyst and we read to see how they relate to each other and if they relate at all. The author, B. A. Paris, plays it like a fiddle. We read the narration in Cass' perspective so we do not get the clues until she does. Cass is a young woman who is in love with her husband and life in general but is constantly worried about suffering the fate of her mother which was early onset dementia. We can instantly identify with the potential loss of her dreams to an unforgiving ailment. Paris pays into that well and it is what makes The Breakdown so involving.

But while this is what holds us, it is the familiarity of the plot that may hinder our full enjoyment. This is well traveled territory and, while the author tries hard to place some new twists into it, sooner or later it becomes formulaic. Most readers will figure out what is going on early if not necessarily all the whos and hows. Fortunately those whos and hows is what keep us in the read. Paris uses a nice gimmick near the resolution to feed us the loose ends while our protagonist wraps up the ending. It all works but it doesn't knock me out of my seat and eventually makes the great beginning and slow build up a little less effective.

While it doesn't break any new ground, it is still an entertaining novel and a solid psychological thriller made most effective by its study of a woman potentially losing her mind to her life long fears. It still gets a strong three and a half stars and my solid recommendation for an entertaining suspense read.

More of the same from Koontz

The Silent Corner

Dean Koontz

Publisher: Bantam

Pub Date: June 20, 2017

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

My love/hate experience with Dean Koontz goes all the way back to 1975 when I read Demon Seed. It was a neat science fiction thriller that was fun but not necessarily memorable enough to return to the Koontz name. I did not read another Koontz novel, even though he was quite prolific even then sometimes writing 8 books a year under his own name and pseudonyms, until 1983 with Phantoms. That was the start of my love for the writer and what I consider his golden years with Watchers, Lighting, Midnight, and others setting the framework for the author to be considered the dean (no pun intended) of the mainstream sci fi/horror thriller. But soon, somewhere in the 90s I believe, the books started coming out as off an assembly line. It didn't help that all those novels he wrote earlier under pseudonyms were now being issued under his own name with many of those were rather tepid and straddling several genres. The original horror thriller plots now seemed to be rehashed and formulaic. Even though a gem would occasionally pop like like Odd Thomas, the creativity just wasn't there any more even though the fast paced writing skills were still fresh.

But I kept reading. Let's face it, Koontz is an icon in the field and his worst, like Relentless, still tops a lot of writers' best. The City was the first since Odd Thomas that perked up my ears again. Then Ashley Bell from last year blew me out of the water . Could we be in the midst of a creative revival for the writer?

This year we have The Silent Corner which is billed as the first in a series featuring rogue FBI agent, Jane Hawk. Despite the name of the main protagonist, The Silent Corner doesn't soar. It just hangs there then sinks like a leaky balloon. In this book, Jane Hawk is investigating the death of her husband who committed suicide despite having a happy and satisfying life and no signs of being suicidal until he write a strange suicide note with the line, "I very much need to be dead". Jane cannot accept the verdict of the coroner and investigators and discovers there is a huge splurge in suicide acts throughout the world, many by them by people who previously shown no inclination of being depressed or hopeless. She find herself being hunted down as she discovers a conspiracy that leads straight to high-end citizens with the brains and money needed to reshape the world through any means necessary.

As you can probably see, this is nothing creatively earthshaking. As we read on to the gist of the conspiracy even Koontz wittingly acknowledges the source which led to me to think, "Of course, wasn't that already obvious?". But retracing tried and true plots and giving them new life is what many mainstream thrillers are about. Unfortunately there is little that we can call "life" here. There is one long "Hunt, chase, destroy and repeat" throughout the 400 plus pages with characters just going through their paces. Jane Hawk goes through the motion of a hard-core Jack Reacher styled bad chick without any real humanity in her. We are told repeatedly how he loves her husband and is given a brief glimpse at her son who she leaves with some friends who seem to take the abandonment all in strife but that's it. There is little empathy here as she fight and kill her way through the bad guys.

And that's a problem too. if there is one thing Koontz does better than anyone else it is writing meaty villains. We get a lot of small cogs as they are eliminated one by one but once we meet the supposed big cog we become disappointed and we meet him too late. After all this is a series, we don't want to make the ending too satisfying, right? It messes up the formula for the series.

In order to make the formula work, you need meaningful characters. That is where the brilliant Ashley Bell shines. Here we get plot but no flesh, action but no heart, resolution but no revelation. We've seen this from Koontz before and even then he did it better. I may be unfair . A writer cannot score every time. Koontz has written enough to always consider him one of the major horror and suspense writers. But at this stage ofa prolific and gifted writer, I do wish the auto-pilot wasn't so obvious.

Hear no evil. See no evil....

The Fourth Monkey

J.D. Barker

 

Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 

Pub Dater: June 27, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

2017 appears to be the year of the suspense thriller. There has already been a number of quality ones out there and a few more of them usually show up during the summer. The term "Summer Read" seems to be tailor made for the mystery and suspense audience. For the most part, they are diverting and fun reads for the beach but occasionally a few goes past the quick read and amazes us with their combination of mystery, psychological suspense and even a dose of horror. The first one to wow me this year was Final Girls by Riley Sager. And now dead on its heels is The Fourth Monkey by J. D. Barker

The Fourth Monkey is one of those books that dares you to read it in one sitting. The suspense rarely lets up and there are a pair of very interesting and troubled protagonists that keep our interest. It is a serial killer novel that comes at a time when the sub-genre seems to be getting thin and predictable. Barker's novel manages to take a number of well worn ideas, such as the detective and killer duel of minds and the race against time to save the victim. Yet the authors is able to keep it interesting and fresh.

Homicide detective Sam Porter is recovering from the death of his wife but is pulled back to work when a six year old serial killer case that he has been on from the beginning seems to be coming to a head. The Four Monkey Killer (4MK as the officers not-so-affectionately call him) has been hit and killed by a bus. How do they know it is him when no one knows his identity? He had in his procession when he died a box with his victim's ear in it, signifying the first monkey "Hear no evil", and a diary proclaiming him to be that killer. 4MK has killed a number of young girls in the past years. Since he mailed boxes with bodies parts in them before he finally kills them, Porter surmises there is one more victim who is still alive. Sam Porter and his partner Nash now needs to find her with only a few clues and the killer's diary to guide them.

And this is where it gets interesting. We follow the tracks of the detective as they uncover each clue. There are plenty of red herrings and twists to entertain even the most jaded mystery fan. However, in alternating chapters we read the diary in which 4MK essentially tells us about his childhood and his origins giving us another thriller and mystery as it goes along. We know these two stories will come together at some point and the way it happens is the intricate web that the author weaves. The killer and detective appear to be continuing their battle of wits even beyond the grave as the diary haunts Porter and brings up a few ghosts of his own.

This is a hardcore cop and killer tale and one of the best I have read in a long time. I caught a few of the surprises and missed a few more which is good because it kept me guessing. Yet Sam Porter is the character that keeps the novel from just being a who-dunnit puzzle. He is tough and determined but vulnerable to the point you wonder if he will keep it together. 4MK is also a vital protagonist and the gimmick of using his diary to egg on and tease Porter works so well I stopped thinking of it as a gimmick especially since 4MK's back story is as riveting as the central plot. We also never lose the tension of the race against time which is often so important in books like this. J.D. Barker wrote a monster of a serial killer story and it may be hard to top it. But my money is on Barker to do so in his very promising career. He has the skills and the imagination to continue with a string of great thrillers. For right now, The Fourth Monkey will more than suffice.

Short fiction from Joyce Carol Oates

Dis Mem Ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense

Joyce Carol Oates

Publisher: Mysterious Press

Pub. Date: June 6, 2017

Rating" 4 out of 5 stars

It looks like Joyce Carol Oates, clearly a voracious writer, is putting out another short fiction collection close on the heels of the superlative The Doll-Master. Dis Mem Ber and Other Stories of Mystery and Suspense collects all her published short stories from 2016. That entails seven in total. The precious collection was fully titled "The Doll-Master and other tales of terror". This new collection is correctly titled as tales of mystery and suspense as the horror aspect is toned down significantly. But the aspect of psychological dread remains in these tales. Oates' fiction is steeped in psychological nuances and these stories in Dis Mem Ber are no different. In fact, if you are looking for fiction with a punchline and a clear ending, I doubt if you will be happy with Oates. Yet if you want human frailty and complexity then she is the writer for you. There is a reason she is always mentioned in the "short list" of potential and future Nobel Prize winners in literature.

This collection is of the high quality you would expect from Oates but, at least for me, doesn't reach the high standard she made for herself in The Doll-Master. About four stories are excellent and hits me in my guts even with her subtleties. But the other three are more misses than hits. Of the successes, "Great Blue Heron" is the most beautifully written as it deals with a grieving widow who fantasizes over the predator bird on her lake with harrowing results. "Heartbreak" explores a competitive relationship between two young sisters and is the most directly powerful story of the lot. The title story examines similar young girl yearnings and fantasies of a young protagonist who may not be making the best decisions about who she hangs out with. "The Drowned Girl" is about a college student's obsession on a girl who drowned in a water tank. It's a sneaky little story about those dark obsessions that take us over. All four of these takes grabs on to some inner darknessof the reader just like the best Oates fiction is liable to do.

The other three works are of high quality but didn't really hold me. That is true especially for "Welcome to Friendly Skies!" which seems awkward. It may be possible evidence that humor is not the author's forte.

Yet four superlative stories of seven is not bad at all especially when the judgement is in the reader's subjective mind. What is unarguable is that any collection of Joyce Carol Oates will reward you with superb writing, dark imagery, and a glimpse into the human condition.

A matter of survival

Final Girls

Riley Sager

Publisher: Dutton

Pub. Date: July 11, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The term “Final Girl” is a movie term referring to the final woman to confront the killer and survive in a slasher/horror movie. It is a well-known cliché that is prevalent in slasher films like Halloween, Friday the 13th and countless others but in real life it is virtually a non-existent event. Certainly it is common to anyone who has ever seen a slasher film. In the book of the same name by Riley Sager we are invited to contemplate the existence of three final girls and how the events afterward will affect them.

In Final Girls, Quincey Carpenter went to a cabin five years ago with five friends. She becomes the only survivor of a gruesome bloodbath. Before Quincey went through her nightmare, there were previously two similar but different incidents where two other women, Lisa and Samantha, survived a psychotic killer to be the only survivor. The media dubs all three “Final Girls” and, although they never met in person, there is a sense of unity and support between them as members of a club no one wants to be in. Quincy appears to be surviving well with help from her boyfriend and Coop, the police officer who saved her that night and became a sort of guardian for her. However her safety net starts to unravel when Lisa is reported to have committed suicide and Sam shows up on Quincey’s doorstep unannounced and for reasons not clearly apparent.

This sets up what is so far the best thriller to see light in the year of 2016. It is beautifully paced, constantly riveting, and pulls the reader into a tangled relationship that is not clearly revealed until the final chapter. Quincey is both strong in her willingness to survive but also fragile. She does not remember entirely what happened that night and has avoided confronting it, preferring to hide herself in her baking blog and letting her boyfriend and her guardian cop protect her. When Sam arrives it is both welcomed and questioned. Both of them are tough but not totally stable and the reason why Sam has chosen this particular time is constantly on Quincey’s mind. Yet they seem to connect because they went through a similar hell. Sam does indeed have an agenda but what it is will become slowly apparent as various twists and turns occur. Sam seems to be eager to get Quincey to remember the event of five years ago while Quincey feels safe and guarded in her loss of memory. The game between Quincey and Sam deepens while the reader is given flashbacks to Quincey’s horrific night five years ago. These flashbacks gives us more clue to the connection between past, present and the final girls.

I cannot overemphasize how deeply this tale of suspense grabbed me. Quincey is a beautifully complex character with levels of conflicts that one would see in anyone who went through such a nightmare. Sam is more of a mystery but she still rings true as one whose past is overwhelming her. The question forming the mystery are several. What really happened in the death of Lisa? What really happened five years ago at Pine Cottage where Quincy became the only survivor? And what is Sam’s real reason for showing up in Quincey’s life. The answers to these and other questions will probably not be the ones you expect but that is the wonder of a suspense mystery like this.

Final Girls is probably destined to be compared to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train but that may be unfair. I became fascinated by both Quincey and Sam in a way I did not in the other two best sellers. The twists and turns of Final Girls came on swift and natural but surprisingly. It is a clockwork of suspense hitting all the right alarms in your head. I feel comfortable in saying that we are looking as not only the big summer hit but one of the best, if not the best, thriller for 2017.

Abduction and survival

Doll House

By John Hunt

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Pub. Date: January 19, 2017

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

 Suspense novels that deal with abduction, torture, and rape have a fine line to tread. The good ones must shock and scare but not cross over the line into gratuitousness. At the beginning of the novel I worried Doll House would do just that. It is certainly shocking and gruesome but John Hunt manages something quite impressive. The gory descriptions of violence do manage to shock but they also serve to strengthen the character and her resolve to overcome her ordeal. Doll House eventually becomes a story of bravery and perseverance.

We meet Olivia and her father on the first page They are likeable and admirable people. Olivia is headed to college yet almost immediately she is abducted. That sets up the nightmare and the reader is thrown into a whirlwind of violence and terror. The author does a brilliant bit of paradox as Olivia is imprisoned in a room that is almost all pink. It's like a pretty doll house which is the farthest thing to that which she will be subjected to. That contradiction nicely serves to disorient the reader to the emotions and actions that will follow.

If this nightmare continued through the entire book it just may be too much for most people. Fortunately , through incidents that will remain unspoken to prevent spoilers, we do get a reprieve from the horrors. That does not mean the tension is over. The suspense is still carried on by Hunt's excellent storytelling skills and the book becomes more of a mystery and a portrayal of physical and emotional survival. But what keeps this tale so riveting is the relationship between the characters. Olivia and her father is the linchpin but even seemingly less important interactions like that of the victims (Yes, there's more than one victim. I'll let that little teaser out!) and even the interaction between the kidnapper are important.

A good horror-suspense tale to some extent must make the reader uncomfortable. It is about those things you do not want to experience in real life. Horror and suspense are indeed cathartic. Hunt packs a huge punch in this book, teetering over the boundary sometimes perhaps, but redeems himself by making the protagonist of the novel someone you cannot help but root for. Doll House is the first great suspense novel I've read this year.

Gives a new meaning to "frozen with fear"

The Winter Over

By Matthew Iden

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer 

Pub. Date: February 1, 2017

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

  The first thing I recommend if you plan to read The Winter Over by Matthew Iden, is to turn your thermostat up. You are bound to feel more chilled than usual as you read this mystery/adventure novel set in the nine month long winter of Antarctica. The biggest strength of Iden's thriller is how he makes the dark and cold Antarctic environment and the seclusion of those inhabiting a research station come alive. The detail he puts in describing the compound and all the work needed to keep something like that operating is quite impressive. And they become very important details as we continue reading.

Cassie is a new worker at the Shackleton station. She is a hired as a vehicle mechanic but takes on a number of tasks in the station as many of the maintenance workers do. There is a bit of a class chasm between maintenance crew and scientists but the station keeps operating well despite of it. The long winter is about to start and the overall staff has been cut down to about 40 to keep the station going throughout the dark months and the well under freezing temperatures. The last plane is about to leave and there will be no way to leave the station after that. It's a yearly event which no one worries too much about except there is a seemingly accidental death just days before the last plane leaves. Cassie discovers some things to make her wonder about that death but it is not until well into the dark and cold isolation that she starts to put it all together.

I'm tempted to be corny and say, "But is it too late?" but won't because I think you get the idea. This is one of those stories that benefit from the reader knowing little about it before they dive into the pages. In basic plot ideas, The Winter Over is essentially one of those mysteries in which a finite number of people are trapped and you are wondering if any will make it out. But there are quite a few differences in this particular "And Then There Were None" scenario, of which many would make Agatha Christie envious. Iden spends a lot of time setting the scene well through half of the book. This leads a number of readers to call the book slow but I would rather call it " well planned". It isn't a case of "nothing happened" as much as a lot of little things are happening. Sooner or later though, all of frozen hell breaks out and it all makes sense. Lots of hints are scattered about and I suspect the savvy mystery buff will figure it out by the halfway point. Yet it is a very satisfying mystery that is weaved around a tight and well conceived setting. Like i said. Keep that thermostat up.

Many might consider this novel typical of a summer read and if you live in the desert like i do, it would probably a wise one when the temperature gauge hits 12oF.. But it's early in the year so let's call this a winter read perfect for around the fireplace. It is sort of a "Who Goes There?/The Thing" without the alien although there are monsters of a variety, the kind you meet every day. Mystery and adventure fans in particular will like this but anyone who loves good storytelling should give it a try.

Dr. Phil meets Natural Born Killers

Something Violent

By Kristopher Rufty

Publisher: DarkFuse

Pub. date: March 28, 2017

Rating: 3 & 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Dr. Phil meets Natural Born Killers.

Actually it is Dr. Ron. Ron McClure is the marriage counselor to the stars. He is bit of a celebrity himself through his books and TV appearances. When he is leaving a convenience store he is a bit torn about approaching a crying women through fear of getting involved but also tempted because she is quite beautiful. The woman finally approached him and the temptation of her beauty wins out...until she chloroforms and abducts him. When he awakes, he is tied to a chair. He discovers that his abductors are Seth and Jody, a serial killer team called The Sweetheart Killers. Lately Seth and Jody are having troubles. Seth doesn't want to kill with Jody anymore. Now they want Ron to fix them, to put the zing back into their killing spree, and save their relationship. Despite the obvious conflict of interest in helping two killers be successful in their chosen occupation, Ron agrees to try. After all, they are probably going to kill him either way.

What entails in Something Violent is a series of alternating flashbacks told by each other chronicling how they met and the events leading up to the crisis prompting the decision to kidnap the famous marriage counselor. In between, the hapless Ron gives his sage observations. This is a combination of horror tale and psychological crime thriller. But for me, it is also a satire of the bad couple romance thrillers we see occasionally popping up mainly in movies like Bonnie and Clyde, Badlands, and, as already mentioned, eNatural Born Killers. Seth and Jody are seriously unhinged but not so much that they don't want a special life with each other. So when the relationship falter , they act in the only way they know. They need to keep that homicidal spark that brought them together alive any way they can. The entire idea of a counselor struggling to save the joy of a behavior that will kill people, and probably himself, is deliciously perverse. Probably more so for myself since I am a retired therapist. Yet that is where the dark comedy comes in; A pair of killers struggling to find the humanity that keeps them together through their sociopathic thrills .

The other nice touch is hinted in the title. There appears to be a serial killer web site called Something Violent. Everyone needs a little support, I guess. This idea merges into the theme of the story and drives much of the narrative. How it does that will be left for the reader to discover. The author, Kristopher Rufty, does a nice job in moving the ideas along. There is lots of action and as should be expected in this type of dark thriller, lots of violence. The chain of events does call for a good amount of suspension of belief and if there is one main weakness, it is that the events often seems a bit to convoluted to come together comfortably. Yet I was able to exercise that suspension of belief mainly due to the fact that I saw it as a satire of serial killer tales, a kind of very dark comedy. The feel was enough to make me chuckle over the dilemma of Dr. Ron and his clients even in the goriest of passages.

In the last assessment, Something Violent gets my recommendation. It a clever take on the serial killer genre and remains entertaining throughout. It also makes me glad this couple never showed up during my counseling career.

A devil of a dilemma

The Devil's Prayer

By Luke Gracias

Publisher: Australian eBook Publisher 

Pub. Date: February 18, 2016

Rating: 2 & 1/2 stars out of 5

The Devil's Prayer by Australian author Luke Gracias starts out strong. We get a brief prologue that sets the stage with a shocking suicide death of a nun. The nun is a woman who abandoned her two daughters six years ago. Her daughters, now at age 17 and 23, had no idea why she left and where she went . A priest takes the oldest daughter Siobhan aside and gives her a message that sends her to Europe to seek out answers about what happened to her mother . This leads to some dark secrets that not only threaten the lives of Siobhan and her family but the fate of the world .

The novel's mystery centers on an actual artifact called the Codex Gigas (The Devil's Bible) which is the largest medieval manuscript in existence. Gracias makes good use of a number of legends concerning the book including that it was written by a monk who sold his soul to the devil and that twelve pages (The Devil's Prayer) are missing from it. The author certainly did some impressive research, blending his story with the historical facts regarding the manuscript. In a way, this type of novel bears more than some resemblance to the conspiratorial thrillers of Dan Brown via The DaVinci Code. However, there is also a different story that is the bulk of this particular novel and separates it from a comparison of anything by Dan Brown.

The bulk of the narrative is taken from a confession written by Siobhan's mother and this is the best part of the book. In the telling of how her mother, Denise Russo, ended up in a monastery we get a tense supernatural tale. To describe it even briefly would steal the heart out of the novel. This is what kept me turning the pages. It is an imaginative plot that gives the book its particular uniqueness and charm. As long as we are caught up in the confession, the novel grabs and holds us.

Then something inexplicable happens . In order to pull in the story of the Devil's Bible and those missing pages, we are taken into a textbook account of its origin. We lose the main narrative. This is further interrupted by an account from a Father Zachary. All of this is necessary information but it severely disrupts the flow. Considering its Dan Brown influences, it would have been nice if the writer took Mr. Brown's habit of not breaking the flow and spreading the historical background through the book, revealing it only as it becomes necessary. The first two-thirds of the novel reads like wildfire. The last third to quarter drags like a boulder in the mud. But eventually we get back to our heroine Siobhan who we are caring deeply for. And then...

Some might consider this a spoiler . I consider it a dire warning since the author failed to warn us about this at the beginning. We are left hanging. The ending is a cliff-hanger of the worst kind. Frankly, I find this unforgivable especially since there is no warning that this is a series or in need of a sequel. If it is a stand-alone novel then it is even more infuriating. When one writes such an exciting novel and then denies us the pay-off, something is very wrong. Please. If you are writing a series let us know beforehand. It's one of my pet peeves.

So here is the low-down on this novel. We have a dynamite beginning with a four star story written by someone who knows how to write. Then in the last third or quarter, we are bogged down by an info dump. Still, if we had a climatic ending we would be looking at a three and a half star book at least. But instead...cliff hanger. No payoff. This serious error forces me to give this book two and a half stars. This may sound harsh especially since i enjoyed his writing so much. Yet endings in a thriller are essential and this one didn't. It's too bad because it is a terrific two thirds of a book.

An adventure thriller with a big fish

Fathomless

By Greig Beck

Publisher: Cohesion Press

Pub. Date: September 29, 2016

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Adventure novels are sturdy creatures that find themselves lounging on bookshelves, being read at the beach, and pretty much enjoying strong sales at the book stores. They are generously docile until the reader starts rifling their pages. At that point they have a tendency to hook their claws into you and you are pretty much stuck with them until the last exciting page.

Greig Beck is an Australian writer who knows the adventure thriller quite intimately. He seems to revel in them. This new creature of his, Fathomless, has all the markings of a thoroughbred. Borrowing from Michael Crichton, Clive Cussler and, in this particular book, the Jaws man himself Peter Benchley, Beck still manages to write a thoroughly entertaining book with his own style.

In Fathomless, we start in the 50s when explorer Jim Granger find a new route through a cave in the Arctic that leads to an undiscovered underground body of water known to the residents as “Bad Water”. He quickly meets his demise but decades later his granddaughter Kate Granger comes across the same clues and, with the help of a Russian billionaire, puts together an expedition to explore the underground sea. What fuels the expedition is that the creature that killed her grandfather may an animal that has been extinct for millions of years. They are also about to find how it was a good thing it was thought to be extinct.

The monster of the novel is a Carcharodon Megalodon, a very large form of shark and the most dangerous predator to ever grace our planet, at least according to the writer and excluding man. The thrills in the book are continuous but seem to divide into two parts. The first part is the discovery and exploration of the warm-water sea. This reads much like a Crichton novel as we are introduced to undersea exploration technology and eventually to several creatures that manages to survive millions of years in the isolated waters. The author has a good feeling for the techno-thriller and even a better touch for describing the strange world our explorers find them in. There is of course intrigue and sabotage which makes the adventure even tenser. In the second half it turns into a hunt for the predator. The Jaws-like twist in the plot is exciting and gives a whole new urgency to the old adage, “We need a bigger boat”.

It’s an exciting romp with aspects of thriller, science fiction, horror and of course adventure, all forming an entertaining style of beach read or, since summer is over, a fireside read. The protagonists of the novel all do their job yet none of them really stand out as flesh and blood characters outside the confine of the pages. There was only one sour note for me. It entails a Greenpeace style ship and crew that interrupts the hunt. It is pure stereotype and a little bit nasty considering the escapism of the story. But it doesn’t dim the excitement all that much.

Overall, Fathomless is an engaging novel and intelligent novel that promises thrills and adventure and delivers. While Greig Beck is a new writer to me, I can see that he is likely to have an enthusiastic group of readers that follow him on his adventures and will be delighted to shudder at the formidable creatures in this book

A World War II Thriller

The One Man

By Andrew Gross

Publisher: Minotaur Books 

Pub Date: August 23, 2016

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

 In the popular world of mainstream thrillers, Andrew Gross has become one of my favorite authors. Originally a co-author for some of James Patterson's assembly line turnouts, he has succeeded quite well on his own and, for my money, surpasses the talent of his ex-collaborator with a series of financial-based thrillers starring detective Ty Hauck and several stand alone novels. My favorite is the tense and exciting 15 Seconds...until now.

Yet as much as I knew what the author could do, The One Man came out of left field. While ostensibly a thriller, Gross bases his new novel in the wider spectrum of World War II. It becomes a taut and emotional historical suspense tale that works on many levels. It is a suspense book, a historical novel, and a dramatic story of lost and found relationships. In the One Man, Nathan Blum is able to flee Poland before Hitler invades it. But he is filled with remorse since he entire family had to be left behind and are killed by the Nazis. He is picked for a secret mission that could well be suicide. He is to return to Poland, go undercover into the Auschwitz concentration camp, and rescue a scientist that may have the knowledge to place the Allies in a distinct advantage. He finds getting in is difficult but finding one man who is a needle in a haystack of thousands and getting him out before he and his mission dies may well be impossible.

The German concentration camps are never a pleasant topic. The author must thread a fine line between showing the atrocities and terrors of the camps yet not making so horrific and depressing that we lose the excitement of the story. Gross does this quite well. We follow Blum and the scientist Mendl through their days in the camp and witness the one-foot-in-the-grave dilemmas of the prisoners. It is harrowing and maybe a little too much for some readers who may like their thrillers a bit more escapist. Yet it rings true to history and never loses the fact that this is a suspense novel about the odds of survival and the the possibilities of second chances. The author even throws a few cameos into the mix with the appearance of historical figures like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Wild Bill Donovan. Back at Auschwitz, there are a few particular incidents that happen to Blum, Mendl and a young but brilliant teenager that I will not spoil for you. But suffice to say the overlying theme here is the strengths of relationships in the most unlikely places. With all the thrills of adventure in form of an escape and the descriptive horrors of the camp., it is these relationships that make this novel far more that the historical thriller it is.

Even though Andrew Gross has a significant "cult" following among the thriller fans, this could easily be the book that propels him into the popular best-seller list if he hasn't made it already. it should. But more importantly, it is also quality writing with deeply emotional feelings. I love to see an author go beyond what I think he can do and this is indeed one of those novels.

A complex and moving tale of psychological suspense

Disappearance at Devil's Rock

By Paul Tremblay

Publisher: William Morrow 

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

Paul Tremblay is fast becoming the name to recognize when it comes to psychological suspense and horror. We received a generous taste of his talent in last year's A Head Full of Ghosts. Yet his latest novel reveals that last year's book was only the tip of the iceberg.

The plot of Disappearance at Devil's Rock centers around a fairly typical suburban family consisting of Elizabeth Sanderson and her two children, 13 year old Tommy and 12 year old Kate. Tommy is spending the night with his two friends but doesn't return home. What results is a town-wide search for the boy, a series of events that hint of the supernatural, and numerous lies and diversions that at first hide the truth but eventually reveal a turn of events that Elizabeth or any of the people searching for Tommy will not be prepared for.

This is not a fast-paced novel yet the author's quiet and determined phrasing pack more of a wallop as you think about them later. There is little violence . This is a character driven novel with protagonists that are well thought out and complex. We do not know what has actually happened to Tommy until the very end and the author gets us there through a series of events that relies on several character's perspective and even some mysterious diary pages whose appearance is a big part of the puzzle. The changes in perspective could cause a lesser writer to crumble but Tremblay writes through it like the expert storyteller he is.

Overall I must say Disappearance at Devil's Rock is as impressive a novel as they come. It is a literary feat that manages to combine mystery, psychological suspense, and horror yet feels unique and different. With the year only half over, I think we have a major contender for best novel of 2016.

Mean Streets

Zero Saints

 By Gabino Iglesias 

Publisher: Broken River Books 

Pub Date: November 14, 2015

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

 

 

Zero Saints is as gritty and uncompromising a novel you will find while still being glad you read it. Gabino Iglesias places his story in Austin, Texas. It is not the urban chic Austin of SXSW or Austin City Limits but the Austin of gangs, drug dealers and a displaced people. Fernando has crossed from Mexico into the Austin streets but have not escaped the terror of the gangs. While his life is still hard, being a drug-dealer in Austin is still better than the horrors that affected his family south of the border. But he is about to realize that may no longer be true. At the beginning of Zero Saints, he has been abducted by a group of drug dealers who want him to take a message to his boss that they were taking over some of the territory. That message includes Fernando watching his friend being tortured and having his head sawed off. This new gang is of a level that is past anything Fernando has experienced. . They seem to have special powers emanating from a source of dark magic. Even Fernando's paid enforcers are afraid to take them on. But Fernando has a need for revenge and honor even when everything tells him it is hopeless.

There are many things that make this novel stand out from the load of similar crime and gang novels. First is the main character. Fernando may not be what most readers consider a role model but he is honorable in his own way. He has values and faith. That is something the reader can identify with. The second thing is the language in the book. Almost half is in Spanish yet it does not slow it down. It flows effortlessly through the pages blending into the plot and action. I could read some of it even though I do not understand Spanish very well, it is the language of the streets that I am familiar with. Let's just say the Spanish I heard as a child was not taught in the schools. Yet except for occasional large portions of prayer, it is not only easy to get the gist but it places you there in the midst of the action and angst. And that leads to the third reason this book is so vibrant. The flow. It doesn't stop whether it is violent action or a tense conversation or the moving emotions of the past and present going through the mind of the protagonist. Iglesias have developed in under 200 pages a very real glimpse of life in these parts of the United States. The supernatural aspects are only a tease to the real messages in this book.

If I read Zero Saints last year when it came out, there would be no doubt it would have been on my top ten list. But I didn't. That is no reason to miss it. As long as we have urban life, as long as cultures collide, and as long as we tolerate an underclass of immigrants, this book will have relevance. I give my top recommendation to Zero Saints.

The land between crime noir and horror.

Rage and Redemption in Alphabet City

By Amy Grech

Publisher: New Pulp Press 

Pub Date: November 3, 2015

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

Amy Grech may be called a mystery or suspense writer if we go by the conventional use of the term but it is a label that doesn't quite make the grade. There is very little mystery in these five tales between the covers of Rage and Redemption in Alphabet City. It might be better to call her a writer of dark suspense bordering on Crime Noir. But here is the thing. Grech's fiction doesn't really fit into any buttonhole very well. Her tales are indeed dark. So dark that they inhabit a limbo between horror and suspense. They are stories that tend to be heavy in dialogue which acts like a lure to bring the reader into a very bleak world filled with protagonists with very disturbing minds. The characters in these tales are often like car crashes waiting to happen and we all know what they say about watching a car crash.

Take for instance the title work which is also the longest piece of fiction in the collection. It is essentially a novelette broken into seven parts. It starts like it is going to be a fairly typical murder and revenge tale. Then we meet the characters . We become akin to uncomfortable eavesdroppers or peeping toms. By the time it is through, we are not really sure who the real villains are or how deep we have dropped into the madness. It is both an uncomfortable and exhilarating feeling.

"38 Special" is a brief story about Russian Roulette. Actually, it is about two games of Russian Roulette, How they come about and what evolves is where the story is. In the action, we find out about who is playing and what precipitates the events. That is where the suspense, and the horror, resides.

"Cold Comfort" explores the seamy side of sex play when the safe words are off and the players may not know their roles. The first characters you meet are named Jack Masoch and Sadie O'Grady which may give a hint where this sordid tale is going. It is rough and gritty, it is also a bit of a parody reminiscence of a cross between 50 Shades of Gray and Fatal Attraction.

"Prevention" may be my favorite story. Compare to the others, it has a fairly simple plot and twist but is no less shocking. It concerns a familiar refrain in families that goes, "Mom always liked you best", and takes that resentfulness to the extreme. It is vicious, nasty, and maybe a little endearing in a perverse way.

What all these four tales have in common is a snapshot of an inner city that is rough, dirty, and unforgiving. It's inhabitants are not the type of people we want to meet and their problems are not the kind we would want to have. It is uncomfortable. scary, and disturbing but still contemporary to our times, hence believable. That is why the last story fails. "Hoi Polloi Cannoli" is more of a post-apocalyptic tale that appears to echo Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" then goes off on its own. Yet it feels out of sync with the first four works. Add on the feeling that the twist in it is a little too familiar to the other tales and it loses a lot of the edge. I might of liked it more on its own. Here, it feels anti-climatic.

Nonetheless the first four works of short fiction are quite a treat. They are somewhat nihilistic gems of suspense yet often adds more than a little black humor to the mix, especially in "Prevention". This collection will appeal to the reader who enjoys either dark crime stories or horror. They are a nice mixture of both yet manages to find it own niche, which is probably in a very dark alley in the worst part of town. It is better to visit niches like that in the pages of a book than in real life. Take my word on that.