An unsuccessful mix of miltary tale and vampires

Blood Demons

Richard Jeffries

Lyrical Underground 

March 20, 2018

2 stars

 

In South Dakota, a couple throw a child with a bomb off the top of Mount Rushmore and destroys the monument. In the middle east, a secret military unit is exploring a tip that might link to the planned destruction of the monument and find signs of a secret group that may be the original source for the legends of vampires.

In a nutshell, this is the idea behind Blood Demons by Richard Jeffries. It is an intriguing one and I was really looking forward to it. The basic plot is inspired and the combination of military adventure and horror is a nice touch. I really wished it took off but it didn't. I think there is a lot of blame to be spread around for this. But if I picked one it would be characterization. No one character ever become real and this is especially true for the main protagonist /unit leader Major Josiah Green. At least one character should stand out for the reader and it just doesn't happen. Add on some stiff and forced dialogue that doesn't always fit the situation and the desire to root for the characters disappears. Jeffries' demons, The Vetala, fares slightly better mainly due to attention regarding their origins and rituals and a link to vampire legends, but it just doesn't meld well especially when the Mount Rushmore attack, one of the best written scenes in the book, is largely forgotten as rather muddled action scenes in Afghanistan takes center stage.

So all in all I found it to be a choppy book. There wasn't really enough to keep my attention even though I struggled through it. I really cant give it more than two stars which I admit are mainly for what the book could have been rather than what it is.

An unsuccessful merge of cyber tech and demons

The Dark Net

Benjamin Percy

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pubdate : August 1, 2017

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars 

 

 Let's talk about truth in advertising.

When I first looked at the title, It seemed pretty self-explanatory. The Dark Net. I am quite aware of what the Dark Net means in relation to the internet. The blurb at the back of the book didn't sway me any other way. My expectation was one of a William Gibson influenced tech thriller mixing the perils of cyber culture with the terrors of the supernatural. Now THAT would be a novel!

It was not meant to be. Whenever a disappointment like this happens, I am well aware that the expectation of the reader and the goal of the writer can misalign through no fault of the other. But this is where truth in advertising comes in. My expectation is indeed what appears to be the promise of the promotion . The Dark Net just isn't the cyber thriller it is touted to be, supernatural or otherwise.

So once we get that out of the way, what is The Dark Net? Basically it is a supernatural tale of demons, possessions and the gates of hell. Percy sets his story in Portland . How well he incorporates Portland I will leave to others more knowledgeable about the city to sort out. As for this reader, It doesn't really feel different than any other city asides from a few mentions of landmarks like Powell Books. The plot centers on the emergence of persons or devils with dark designs planning for evil around a place called The Rue that appears to be a conduit for such evil. A not-so-keen-on-computers reporter is honing in on the situation and becomes a target for the evil entourage. Add in an ex-evangelist homeless shelter manager, a mysterious woman who may have had one too many lives, and a blind girl who has gained some ability to see due to a surgical apparartus and is now seeing strange shadows and you have the basis for the action to follow.

The problem is I've seen this all before. There really isn't much that is new here for any book featuring demons, psychics, and gates of hell. The dark net gets a mention at the beginning of the book then becomes a minor player. Finally in the last 50 or so pages it goes into play but for this reader it is too late. This may have worked if there were more involving characters but except for Hannah the blind girl we just don't get enough to care much about the rest. Hannah is the most interesting character but she seems to have been borrowed from a few other known horror epics and we do not get enough originality in her character to separate her from the slew of psychically gifted adolescents which have already graced the pages of many supernatural stories. I found Hannah's aunt Lela rather annoying as an aggressive reporter who is hopelessly incompetent with anything to do with the internet or computers. Luddite journalists may have worked in the 90s but not in the 21st century.

There are some nice moments and some good ideas here but they do not come together and eventually blend into the formulaic. it appears we will still have to wait for the successful marriage of Gibson-esque tech thriller and supernatural horror epic .

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.

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.

Mercenaries vs religious fanatics and monster

Little Heaven

By Nick Cutter

Publisher: Gallery Books

Pub. Date: January 10, 2017

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

It's hard to believe after two stunning novels of horror from Nick Cutter in the last few years but Little Heaven is a major disappointment. Cutter has carved himself a splendid little niche of visceral thrills with The Troop and The DeepLittle Heaven pales next to them. It's a little hard to figure out why since it does have the require amount of scares and body horror that the author is known for. Let's see if we can.

The first thing that stands out in Cutter's first two books is that the plot is held together by brilliantly vicious ideas of horror. Although formed adequately to catch the reader's empathy, the characters are secondary to that horror. In Little Heaven we have another horror but it is secondary to the characters. Normally this would be good but the characters of the novel doesn't stand apart enough to make us care. The action of the novel goes back and forth over two decades; from the 60s to the 80s. The constant throughout this see-sawing are three mercenaries who gives us very little to like about them. And these are our "heroes". The novel describes how they meet through a contract hit and how their paths continues to cross. One of them, Minerva, plans to kill another, a British black man named Ebeneezer, to fulfill a wish for revenge. For reasons never sufficiently explained, Minerva , Ebeneezer and a third man named Michah maintain an uneasy bond through the years. This hard to believe bond takes them to a religious commune and eventually a confrontation with a misshapen creature in the wilderness.

The main human villain does not fare well either. The commune of Amos and his followers is a thinly disguised Jonestown but Amos shows none of the charisma required to bring something like that together. He looks and acts like a fool leaving the reader to wonder why anyone would follow him. Interestingly, the most believable thing in the novel is the strange creature in the forest and that is because we are given a creepy and scary glance at his development in the prologue. The image that Cutter sets forward never leaves us and give us the kind of promise that he delivered in his first books. Unfortunately that is not to be in this book.

It seems that the author is blending a few styles of writing here besides his own. There is some Cormac McCarthy in the type of protagonists he creates and a lot of Stephen King in Amos and the circumstances his commune finds it in. Yet it ever really gel together. We end up with a well written horror tale that should of worked but doesn't. I am only left with recommending either The Troop or The Deep to the reader or telling them to wait for Cutter's next book.

Mental unease

Madhouse

Edited by Brad C. Hodson & Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Publisher: Dark Regions Press

Pub Date: May 22, 2016

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I kept thinking of a cinematic comparison while reading Madhouse. There was a movie in the 70s called Asylum. It had a screenplay by Robert Bloch and featured a number of stories set in the confines of a mental institution. There was also a framing story that very loosely tied all the others together. It is one of the better horror anthology movies that you will find.

Madhouse is a little like that. It also has a connecting framing story about the patients and staff who are isolated in an Arizona mental facility during a sandstorm. These "chapters" as they are called, are written by the editors Brad C Hodson and Benjamin Kane Ethridge. Between these chapters are 20 pieces of short fiction contributed by a number of horror and fantasy writers including John Skipp, Scott Nicholson, Lisa Morton, Rena Mason, Jeff Strand and others. As I understand it, all the authors were given a layout of the fictional Golden Canyon Behavioral Health Center to keep the stories consistent with the shared world environment. Whether they knew of the on-going narration before they wrote their stories is unknown to me. However the characters in the chapters do show up in the stories and there seem to be some consistency with characters as well as the confines of the center.

That part about how much the author worked within the confines of the connecting narration is what troubles me. I think they knew little beyond the bare basics because, for the most part, it feels like a jumble. That makes it confusing to follow. Because of this, no one story stands out and makes the collection work. There are some very good tales here. I especially like those by John Palisano, John Skipp., and Jeff Strand. Not so much the chapters by Hodgson and Ethridge which is unfortunate because that is the thread that supposedly binds them together. The full sum of the parts just didn't work for me.

What does work is the overall design of the book and the illustrations that accompany the collection. Dark Regions Press has a stellar reputation for the design and appearance of their publications and Madhouse does not disappoint in this area. There are lots of gorgeous and creepy illustrations from Aeron Alfrey that are worth the price of the admission alone and they do add a great bit of atmosphere to the accompanying stories.

But it doesn't really gel together in the literary department despite the quality of writing. It's a noble experiment but, as a screenwriter and sometimes critic friend of mine would say, "It's a interesting failure."

Son of the Black Plague

Plague Pit

 By Marc Alexander

 

Publisher: Venture Press 

Pub. Date: October 13, 2016

Rating: 2 out of 3 stars

Plague Pit was originally published in 1981 under the pseudonym Marc Ronson and has been re-released in the 21st century under what I assume to be the writer's real name, Marc Alexander. The late 70s and early 80s were horror's golden years. Thanks to writers like Stephen King, Clive Barker. Peter Straub, Robert McCammon and others, the horror genre burgeoned into a bestselling marvel. Every printing house in the world was clamoring for horror novels. That tends to bring out a fair amount of chaff. Quite a number of novels of that period disappeared into obscurity for good reason.
Plague Pit appears to be one of those. It has a good if far-fetched premise. British construction workers in London unearths a long forgotten burial pit of the victims of the Black Plague. The mutated and airborne virus infects the workers who quickly spread it through England and beyond. The book gets in trouble immediately with its premise even if it is a promising one. The idea of the Black Plague staying alive over 300 years is questionable in itself even if the author tries to explain it with a few scientific theories. But I would be able to forgive that if the story was the least bit interesting.

It is hard to imagine how one can make the idea of a deadly and virulent epidemic racing through modern England boring but the author manages it. The biggest reason is found in the characters. All of them are one dimensional with no reason given to root for any one of them. Then there is that stiff dialogue. Much of it does not add to the story and simply tries to be cute which leads me to believe the real purpose of the plague is to warn people to shut the hell up! The author makes everyone jumps through their hoops. There is the spreading of the disease, denial and coverup by the government, and a rapid race to find a cure and a vaccine. Yet the reader is left on the sidelines wondering where this is all going to go if one doesn't care in the first place.

The novel was and still appears to be billed as a horror novel. It doesn't really fits the claim and is what I would call speculative fiction; telling a story of what might happen using a realistic and believable scenario devoid, or with little, supernatural or pure science fiction intent. A epidemic themed tale should have some tense and scary moments though. This is little to none in this book. Some may find this "future plague" novel to be entertainment but I was left with only one thought of wonder. I wondered why anyone would bring it back.

Reality TV vs the apocalypse

The Last One

By Alexandra Oliva

Publisher: Ballantine Books 

Pub. Date: July 12, 2016

Rating: 2 & 1/2 out of 5 stars

I must admit I have never been a fan of reality TV shows, mainly because they are as far from reality as humans can get without calling it a fantasy. I did get into Survivor for the first three seasons until I realize I could pick out what was scripted and predict every move. And I still regard the very entertaining but phony Pawn Stars as one of my guilty pleasures. That was only one reason I was looking forward to The Last One by Alexandra Oliva which, for most of the hype, appeared to be using the setting of a fictional reality show as a microcosm for human society and for examining the media's manufactured blend of reality and fiction.

In The Last One 12 people are appearing in a new reality show that is a cross between Survivor and The Great Race. It is a different type of reality show in that the participants compete in a "race" where, unknown to them, there is no finish line. They continue until one is left standing and their only way out is to surrender before the end is by saying the words, Ad Tenebrus Dedi. The contestant nicknamed Zoo is on a solo challenge and strays off. She comes across signs of devastation which she thinks is part of the game. Little does she know that the world is experiencing an event of apocalyptic proportions.

The idea is inspired and, at first, the implementation is brilliant. it starts with a prologue that shows the series being structured and gives us a hint of the global disaster to come. After that we get alternating chapters with different perspectives. One is in the first narrative of Zoo as she wanders thinking she is still in the game. The other is third person in which we follow all the contestants as it leads from the beginning to the end. We get a feel for the contestants who are known by their nicknames: Zoo, Rancher, Waitress, Engineer Girl, Black Doctor...yes that last one seems a little off. They resemble not only the stereotypes you see in reality shows but a microcosm of civilization. We learn their real names gradually. Some readers seem to have trouble pairing them with the nicknames but I did not find that an issue. Add to this, the author's clear mastery of her writing style. It is unarguably well written and it carried the story to the finish line.

Yet by the end of the first half of the novel, the brilliance seems to slip away. Zoo is still thinking she is in the game even when everything screams, "No!". The appearance of an young man stretches it to the point of absurdity when she thinks he is the cameraman. We are led to believe that Zoo is very smart yet that assumption is quickly going out the window due to the need to continue this hard to believe scenario. Back at the game, I am wondering what the payoff is, and I mean the payoff for the reader not the participants. With our cast of stereotyped characters and their related actions, I started to wonder if we are seeing an attempt at a Lord of the Flies/Animal Farm styled analogy yet that doesn't really work either. In a way this is a beautiful example of the need for expectation, execution, and finish in a novel. The expectation is beautifully set up. The execution is good at the beginning yet doesn't follow through. And the finish is a whimper.

I wish I could recommend this. Oliva certainly has a home-run novel in her. But this one makes it to third base and get tagged. I do seem in the minority though. . Being the author's first novel, it bodes well for things to come. But all in all, and considering the great start, it ends up a disappointment. I still recommend it over most reality TV shows though.

John Waters hitchhikes across America.

Carsick

By John Waters

 

Publisher:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Pub Date: June 3, 2014

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

 

I really like John Waters' take on pretty much everything. He has a good eye for pop culture and a wry observational style that brings out the bad and good in everyone including himself. So I was surprised I couldn't really get into Carsick, John Waters' chronicle of a hitchhiking journey across America. The most glaring reason is that only the third section is about the actual trip. The first and second section are fictional accounts of the best that could happen and the worst that could happen. They are well written and amusing. Waters can do no less. But I felt they distracted from the point of a literary travel book about America, an account of a travel that confronts you with the real face of America and , especially when you have an astute observer like Waters, an investigation in the contemporary state of culture and country. When I think of books like this, I think of Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and Blue Highways by William Least Moon, two of my favorite all-time non-fiction works. I realize it may be unfair to throw any book into a stack that include such insightful and revealing classics, but that is what happens when you enter the territory. At least, Moon and Steinbeck wrote exclusively about the travels in their books.

So that leaves the third non-fictional part, the real story. It's good. it's entertaining. But it didn't really tell me much. It felt in a hurry and didn't give me insight like other books by Waters. In the long run, I really could not get into it. Overall, I felt a little cheated. And I felt a little sad because I really wanted this book to be more. I know a lot of people who liked it. But I found myself wanting to dig out Travels with Charley or Blue Highways, books that define the nature of the travel-across-America genre and revealed the real natures and dreams of the average resident of this country.

But I will give John Waters credit. I have done a lot of hitchhiking in my youthful days and now, in my mid sixties, the idea of doing the same fills me with fear and trembling. Waters must have big cajones to do what he did in his mid-sixties. I also love his cardboard sign "Not Psycho" which is the best cardboard sign I ever heard of second only to a panhandler on the street whose sign read "Will be president for food".

 

A look at one of the Ripper suspects

Prisoner 4347

By A. J. Griffiths-Jones

Publisher:  Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd. 

Pub. Date: May 29, 2015

Rating: 2 & 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

Of all the possible candidates for Jack the Ripper, Dr. Thomas Neil Cream may be the most unlikely. Born in 1850 and hung for murder at Newgate Prison in 1892, he is occasionally touted as one of the possible suspects. He was a murderer himself responsible for the death of several women and one man in Canada, the United States, and England. Yet his link to Jack the Ripper is only in the unsubstantiated rumor that he stated at the moment of his hanging, "I am Jack the...". (One biographer has suggested that Cream actually said in a moment of great fear and panic, "I am ejaculating" but that is probably as far fetched as "I am Jack the..".) But whatever rumors and innuendos existed to link him with Jack the Ripper, there are two bits of information that makes it nearly impossible.

1. Cream preferred poison not knives or surgical equipment. Serial killers rarely change their mode of operations. But even more convincing...

2. Thomas Neil Cream was in Joliet Prison in Illinois for a murder when the infamous Ripper slayings took place in 1888. He was not released until 1891.

In Prisoner 4374, A. J. Griffiths-Jones accounts the life and crimes of Thomas Neil Cream from his start as an abortionist at the age of 24 to his death at 42. I must say up front that I was a little disappointed with the back cover blurb that insinuated that Cream may have actually bribed his way out of prison to do the crimes and had a "doppleganger" take his place in his cell. For this is never a claim made in Griffiths-Jones' book. The author makes it clear early on that she does not believe Cream committed the Whitechapel murders. So what we have is a biography of sort about Cream who was dubbed the Lambeth Poisoner by the British press. The author chooses to tell the story of the Lambeth Poisoner in first narrative as Cream himself might have written it. And thus lies the problem. Is this a novel or a true crime documentation of his life? Although the author states she extensively researched her subject, and I am sure she did, there are no footnotes or appendix with references and some photos of Cream and papers such as a few letters and his sentence commutation which are too small to read and have no description of what they entail. With the first person narration it is difficult to assert the facts from what the author perceives in dramatic license as Creams' perception and opinion. So essentially, Prisoner 4374 only works as a fictional biography.

Fortunately, it works fairly well at that level. Griffiths-Jones does have a casual yet distinct style that brings out the personality in what must have been a charismatic if morally bankrupt man. The author adds a flair to the narrative and shows more than a little understanding of a anti-social personality depicted the way Cream makes excuses for his behavior and justifies his deeds. In its own way, it is an enjoyable read of a murderer who, despite the questionable linkage to Jack, has a certain villainous attraction of his own. One of the things that draws me to the story is that in Cream, we have a murderer who worked on two continents, something that is unusual and a dubious achievement at the time. Certainly anyone who enjoys reading about murderers and especially serial killers will find this entertaining.

But even though I enjoyed the story, It seems like there was a lot more to be said than a brief imaginary autobiography. Cream and his villainy stands equal to others in his Victorian times like H.H. Holmes and Jack the Ripper whoever he really was. There never was a real link to Jack the Ripper and it is unfortunate that the author felt she needed to tease that link to get it going. The good thing about this book is that it is a fine introduction to a singular villain of the late 19th century. The not so good thing is that it is mostly just a taste, not deciding if it wants to be fiction or biography. I would recommend this on the standalone weight of the subject matter and apart from the ludicrous Jack the Ripper connection. Also those who like books about serial killers, and there are more of us than you would guess out there, will enjoy reading about one that is lesser known than the usual subjects. But if you are attracted to the book solely on the Ripper connection, you will be disappointed.

Creatures in the Suburbs

The Beast of Barcroft

By Bill Schweigart

 

Publisher: Hydra

Pub. Date: November 17, 2015

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

 

I think the monster novel is making a comeback. There seems to be a lot of literary creature features this year. Perhaps the vampire has finally ran out of blood and the zombies went on a brain-free diet. It is time Cryptozoology had a chance to lord over the horror novels for a time. Mythological creatures, Bigfoot, Sea creatures ...they all need a day in the sun.

The Beast of Barcroft is a novel about one of those creatures. Which one cannot not be said for the author Bill Schweigart takes a long time to name the monster in his novel. We are given a lot of choices though. In the beginning of the book, when down on his luck glass-half-empty Ben sees his dog killed by the creature, he is pretty sure it is a mountain lion. Except mountain lions are almost non-existent in the Washington DC suburb of Barcroft. There is a strange woman next door to him whose passion for collecting animals causes a neighborhood rat problem that that pales next to the increasing body count of the creature. From there on, The Beast of Barcroft develops into what could be called a monster mystery. What is the killer creature the resident fear and the officials scoff at? Is someone behind its appearance?

It's a nice plot and the author does follow with some nice imagery and scares. Yet the mystery wanes through a good part of the book. We do not even get a hint on the identity of the creature until about halfway through and perhaps that may not even be correct. By the middle of the novel, it feels like the plot is looking for a purpose and not finding it. The characters do not really help to find that purpose. Even Ben, despite a number of misfortunes, seems to be one-dimensional. When the Cryptozoologist arrives I am looking for a little eccentricity to relieve the ennui but none is found except for a few mild play of words on mythological terms. When we finally get to the true identity of the monster, it falls flat as does the expected climatic battle. If you spend so much time and drama to get to the payoff, I expect more than loose change.

But The Beast of Barcroft is still a pleasant horror tale. It just doesn't rise to the top of the food chain. Perhaps the zombies and vampires will one day have a worthy opponent from the loads of horrible creatures waiting in the literary wings but it won't be The Beast of Barcroft

A case of "depraved indifference"

Sex Death Rock N Roll

By Staci Layne Wilson & Darren Gordon Smith

Publisher: Excessive Nuance

Pub Date: July 16, 2015

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

This is the second short story collection that features horror short fiction with a rock music theme I received in the past few months. I have always enjoyed the combination. There is a lively "take no prisoner" attitude in both art forms. When it works it is fresh and magical.

But that doesn't mean it always works.

Sex Death Rock N Roll is a collection of five short stories by Staci Layne Wilson and Darren Gordon Smith.. All of them with a rock and roll theme. The first one, "Fandom/Phantom" is a collaboration. Of the other four, "Little Rosie vs The Devil" and "Depraved Indifference" are by Wilson while "In(ter)vention" and "Fishing with Grandpa" are by Smith. Most of the stories are well written and enjoyable. Yet I kept looking for the sparks I expect in this type of rock horror hybrid. Unfortunately someone forgot to light the fire. "Fandom/Phantom" has the best rock music feel to it. It is definitely not a horror tale but for what it is, a sci-fi look at the relationships between the rock idol and his admirers, it is quite touching. "Little Rosie vs the Devil" is a cute deal with the devil story that doesn't go very far in its brevity. "In(ter)vention" falls totally flat as a not very well thought out parody of addiction intervention. Then there is "Fishing with Grandpa" a sleazy story that is frankly repulsive especially considering the recent news regarding older celebrities and their manipulative sins.

That leaves "Depraved Indifference" which is the best of the lot. It is a disturbing but riveting ode to rocker suicide as it follows a man who himself is obsessed with the idea of suicide in a decidedly dangerous way. It was the one story that stayed with me after I closed the book.

Overall, I wasn't that enthused with Death Sex Rock N Roll. You get death, sex, and rock N roll, yet the three very intimate subjects never really take off with the notable exception of "Depraved Indifference". It is ironic that I would see this story as the best of the lot since its title can also be a fairly accurate description of my own feelings toward this collection.

A game of life and death in the Mojave Desert

Swerve

By Vicki Petterson

Publisher: Gallery Books 

Pub. Date: July 7, 2015

Rating: 2 & 1/2 out of 5 stars

In Vicki Pettersson's novel Swerve, it takes hardly any time to cut to the chase. In the first chapter, Kristine Rush and her fiance Daniel are driving out of their hometown of Las Vegas, through the blistering hot Mojave desert, and eventually headed to Daniel's family cabin on Big Bear Lake. They stop at a desolate roadside rest so Kristine can change out of her work clothes and she is attacked by an assailant in the restroom. She is able to escape but discovers that Daniel has been abducted. This sets the tone for the rest of the novel which is an extended cat and mouse style game between abductor and Kristine.

It is a thrilling ride for the reader as they follow Kristine who has absolutely no idea why anyone would take Daniel and then subject her to the strange and violent torments to come. That is of course the mystery of the tale and what drives the first half of the novel. That first half is quite thrilling as the stakes become higher and Kristine becomes entrenched in a deadly game with a sadistic killer. Then comes the second half where everything is turned on its head not necessarily in a good way. It is difficult to describe my disappointment with the turn of events without giving it away except to say if you keep up with the latest bestselling thrillers you will have seen this before. But even if you do not know what happens, there is a serious perception twist that didn't sit well for me. The second half reads just as fast and furious and you still root for the underdog but it was too much of a flip-flop with no warning signs before you hit the road bump. We are asked to accept that the very smart and capable Kristine is essentially unable to pick up the clues that had to appear in her life, and are finally meticulously revealed to us, or we can simply accept that the writer is laying out too many unrealistic scenarios and expecting the reader to just accept them. I'll go with the latter.

It's too bad because Swerve is actually a well written and well paced suspense novel. I did care and root for Christine but more in the first half than the second. The novel's best quality is that it is a creative mix of road trip and kidnap thriller. It is an enjoyable read and is likely to do well with the summer vacationers and beach readers. I am sure that for many this will be a cant-put-down reading experience. But for me it is a riveting first half which eventually leads to the author squandering any credibility in the second half. It is one of those frustrating books that will entertain you throughout but may have you shaking your head by the end.

A paranormal thriller minus the thrills

Dark Equinox

By Ian Jarvis

 

Publisher: Damnation Books

Pub. Date: January 27, 2015

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Philip Tarot is a fake psychic who witnesses a murder in an Edinburgh graveyard while visiting the grave-site of his deceased wife. At first he wants to report the murder but realizes that claiming he saw it in a psychic vision would be a boost for his career. At first the detectives are skeptical but when the murderer is caught, Philip becomes a hero and a celebrity. But it also places him in the sights of The Sorority, an occult group going back to Aleister Crowley and now headed by his granddaughter. They are using a series of murders to start a chain of events that will change the world for the worst. He also gets the attention of Iona Kyle, a real occultist and psychic, who knows the extreme danger he is in.

Dark Equinox is best described as a paranormal mystery. There is very little that is horrific about the plot and it travels well frequented paths in the occult and supernatural thriller genres. The author Ian Jarvis moves the action well although I would preferred a little more action and less verbal explanations at times. His best quality is the ability to bring Edinburgh to life. He combines action with place quite well. Yet there was an old fashioned feel to some to the dialogue. I had to keep reminding myself that most of the novel is set in present day rather than the 40s, where the prologue is set. Dark Equinox is titled “Book one of the Iona Kyle series“ yet Iona is not the main character nor the most interesting. Most of the pleasure in this novel centers on Philip Tarot, a morally ambiguous man whose love for his teenage daughter surpasses his own questions about his chosen profession. There is a nice scene early on where he tries to explain to his daughter that telling a lie is not always bad while realizing it is he who has crossed that line. It helps set up Philip’s developing dilemma as he go in deeper to his own lies and places him and his daughter in danger. Two other interesting characters are the detectives Angie Blair and Bernard Fry. Frye is a die-hard skeptic while Blair is a little skeptical but is willing to believe if it helps her solve the murder. Their different styles adds a nice level of tension to the mystery.

It is the characterization and the intriguing premise of fake psychic helped by real psychic that hooked me initially. But there are too many issues to make the novel successful in my eyes. First, there is Iona Kyle, the supposed heroine of the story. Compared to the other three I mentioned she comes across flat. The attempt by the author to make her a bit of a mystery herself gets in the way of the reader developing any empathy for her. Yet even when we find out more about her, it feels more like a standard plot twist than the type of development that involves the reader.

Which brings up the plot twists themselves. The paranormal mystery has been around for a while and is laden with formula and gimmicks. Unfortunately the author tends not to avoid any of them. There is pretty much every occult trick in the books thrown in from Nazis to mind control to rescuing spirits. When so many are thrown in, we also expect the formula that goes with them. We are introduced to the characters fairly quickly, but it is no surprise to us when we find out who the last potential victim of the Sorority will be. It fits the formula.

This being the first book of a series, there is always room for improvement. I would like to see Iona become more real and vulnerable and see perhaps a mystery that examines those vulnerabilities. There are a number of nice things about this novel but it doesn’t rise over the more generic paranormal thrillers that are glutting the market. I might recommend this to the avid supernatural mystery fan but not too many other readers.

Small town horror, mainstream thrills

Consumption

By Heather Herrmann

Publisher: Hydra

Pub. Date: May 26, 2015

Rating: 2 & 1/2 out of 3 stars

When I read a blurb on a book that compares it to Stephen King, I cringe a little. Sometimes it seems like every horror author wants to be Stephen King. I cant blame them. I want to be Stephen King. But those public relation drones in the advertising division of that mainstream publishing company wants you to be Stephen King because that is where the big bucks are. If I ever do write the great American horror novel, I plan to have a provision in my contract that says, "DO NOT COMPARE ME WITH STEPHEN KING!"

But the blurb on Heather Herrman's novel, Consumption does compare her to Stephen King...and Joe Hill...and the lesser known but in the same ball park Sarah Langan. That will probably be fortunate or unfortunate depending on the reader. But there is no doubt that Consumption is dependent on a formula for mainstream horror. We have a couple with issues going into a situation that will make or break them. There is a nondescript small town with a mysterious event about to take place, in this case the Black Squirrel Festival. We have a cast of dozens, all with their own level B issues. And finally, a dark and seemingly invulnerable terror. I've seen this all before. Yet Consumption starts out promising. There is a slow but nice build-up. We get some tragic happenings that foreshadow worst to come. For the first half of the novel, I was envisioning a scenario that raises the book out of the formula and into something different.

What went wrong? For starters our promised monsters called the Feeders didn't impress. Essentially they are a take-off on zombies; smart, hard to identify but still zombie-like nonetheless. With the nice build-up I expected more. Then there is the cast of dozens. No one really stood out. John and Erma seem to be the most obvious protagonists with their relationship issues and the faint glimmer of hope that we see at the beginning. But nothing really develops from there and we are thrown into a soup of extras all vying for the brass ring. When we finally find the catalyst that knows what is going on we have crossed the point of no return and are headed for "don't care."

Yes, Consumption is formula but that doesn't mean it can't work. Robert McCammon's first few books were all formula yet there was something about the writing that jumped out at you and made it live. I just don't see that here. While Herrman had a great idea and can write very well, the story overall becomes weighed down with too much filling, not enough uniqueness and not enough awe. It is mildly entertaining but eventually forgettable. There are some good, maybe even great things in it but just not enough for me to recommend it.

A bad night in Mexico

Mañana

By William Hjorstberg

 

Publisher: Open Roads Media

Pub. Date: May 12th, 2014

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

It was the 80s and I was chilling with some Mexican friends in Valle De Santiago, not too far from where most of the action in William Hjortsberg’s Mañana takes place. A bunch of local farmers came over in the evening toting a few bottles of El Presidente brandy and some low grade weed. It was a fun night but at some point I lost track of what happened. I woke up the next morning with one hell of a headache. One of the farmers was shaking me. “Quick, we have to sell some hay!” After a few turns at my very poor Spanish and help from my bi-lingual friend, I discovered I promised the farmer to go with him to take his hay to market.

I asked my friend, “When did I tell him I would do that?”

“While you were milking his cows, around 2 in the morning."

“But I don’t know how to milk cows!”

“You’re telling me,” my friend said.

I am not one to renege on even a drunken and stoned promise. So I went with my new farmer friend and we sold his hay. We had a great time. Afterwards we went to a hole in the wall restaurant where we had the locally prescribed hangover cure of chicken soup and a Coke with a raw egg in it. Yes, the hangover cure worked almost immediately, in case you were wondering.

I guess I was lucky compared to Tod the protagonist in Mañana who, after his first time using heroin, wakes up next to a dead prostitute with her throat slit. All the others, a seedy group of dealers and gangster types, are gone along with Tod’s girlfriend Linda. It is up to Tod to find out who killed the girl. For all he knows, it could have been him. But his main goal is to find his girlfriend to see if she left willingly or was kidnapped. What follows is a journey to the dark side of the 70s counterculture and the underbelly of gang life in Mexico.

It’s too bad it isn’t interesting. Hjorstberg at his best is a talented writer whose gritty style glows with atmosphere and emotion. He was at his best in his novel, Falling Angel, whose plot most people are familiar with due to its retelling in the movie Angel Heart. Mañana is not the writer’s best. The gritty style is still there but there is no investment in the characters. Tod is meant to be sincere and inexperienced but just comes out stupid and self-centered. We do not meet Linda until the end but what we find is a jarring reversal with no real explanation. The rest of the characters are essentially colorful but stereotypical gangsters and drug leaders. Then there is the pace. Aside from the straight-to-the-plot first chapter, it moves really slowly to the point that we wonder about Tod’s motivation. The back story with Tod and Linda is visited but it offers no revelations and drags the story even more. While the atmosphere is dark, it just doesn’t ring true that these two naive tourists would find themselves in a situation like this. Without that bit of information, the rest of the tale becomes too big to swallow.

I will give the author credit for setting the stage though, he writes about a dark side to the Mexico in the 70, a region and area that most authors describe nostalgically. There is no nostalgia in Hjorstberg’s Mexico, just criminal deals and betrayals. Yet that theme doesn’t take hold enough for me to immerse myself in the dark. While there is no denying Hjorstberg is a skilled writer, Mañana is ultimately a major disappointment.

Return of the mutant monsters

Stomping Grounds (Short Sharp Shocks #2)

Edited by Neil Baker

 

Publisher: April Moon Books

Pub. Date: December 24, 2014

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

I am a horror movie loving child of the 50s. In the days of nuclear doom and the cold war, the movie scare of the decade was mutant monsters. From the 50s to the early 60s, I couldn’t get enough of them. Speaking of them, THEM!, the giant ant spectacular, was the Citizen Kane of big monster films. Yet even the bad ones were fun. Ranging from giant tarantulas to 50 foot colossal men, they were a jolting escape from the real scares of nuclear war. Dying from a nuclear blast …no fun. But fighting giant rabbits in Night of the Lepus or Killer Shrews in Attack of the Killer Shrew? Cool! Who cared if most of the films were terrible? The camp was half the fun.

Stomping Grounds (Short Sharp Shocks #2) goes back to that time of mutant scaries. Its seventeen stories are all about monsters attacking the poor humans in one way or another. Even those that are not all about giant mutants, there are a couple Lovecraftian influenced tales wedged in, still harbor a fondness for the big and campy. Most have a tongue in cheek quality and could be classified as “Monster Slapstick”. The best ones are enjoyable and fun.

I just wish there were more that were enjoyable and fun. Overall the quality is uneven fringing on Four Wheel Drive only territory. Some read like a good idea underdeveloped and others just never take off. The good ones stick to the humorous idea of mutants. One of the exceptions is “Juggernaut” by JC Henderson which comes off as a rowdy parody of Lovecraftian terrors. Christine Morgan in “The Humming” deserves credit for tackling a hummingbird as a giant monster. It didn’t scare me but I did giggle. From there on, it is a bit of a drought until you come to Amy Braun’s “Bring Back the Hound”, a creative tale in which Hermes and Charon venture to capture an escaped Cerberus and deliver him back to Hades. It may be the best of the lot.

But my favorites were still the ones that seem to feed off the 50s monster movies and celebrate the silliness. “Avanc” by DJ Tyrer catches the idea of radiated 50s style terror well and adds a nice moral: Don’t frack near a nuclear plant. Peter Mesling’s “On the Strangest Sea” has a Captain Ahab leviathan ring to it. But the weirdest, almost “Bizarro” story is “Blood Run” where our nearly suicidal heroes tackles a herd (“tower”?) of 30 foot giraffes. It is a bit of a blood fest that will leave you laughing and gagging at the same time.

I really wish there were more tales that caught my fancy. Over all it was not really that entertaining due to so many misses. It is a cute idea but not one that was fulfilled in the final project. Unfortunately, despite a few cute stories, I would have to give this collection a miss rather than a hit.