Bedlam Lost - by Jack Castle - Comparisons to Lost and Wayward Pines are inevitable, but still an enjoyable read

4 of 5 Stars     Review copy

Havenport, Alaska.  A very small community with limited access in or out of town, and like the lyrics to Hotel California, "You can check-out anytime you like, but you can never leave."

As I'm reading Bedlam Lost, the first word that pops into my mind is "strange," but in a nice way.

The key players in this book share a common experience, they are new to town and the way each of them came to be in Havenport is shrouded in mystery. And just what is Latitude 61?

As a reader, I don't generally enjoy being left in the dark, but with Bedlam Lost, despite not really knowing what was going on, I found myself enjoying the storytelling.  There is an overall surrealness to life in Havenport, Alaska. And the story itself features more twists than a Philly soft pretzel.  The end result is an enjoyable read.

Bedlam Lost is currently available as an e-book from Edge publishers.  If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited you can read this one at no additional charge.  Plus, if you are an Amazon Prime member you can read it for FREE using the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Recommended.

Jack Castle's live reads more like that of a character in one of his books.  He has traveled the globe as a professional stuntman for stage, film, and television. While working for Universal Studios, he met Cinderella at Walt Disney World and they were soon married.

After moving to Alaska, he worked as a tour guide, police officer, Criminal Justice professor, and certified weapons instructor. He has been stationed on a remote island in the Aleutians as a Response Team Commander and his last job in the Arctic Circle was protecting engineers from ravenous polar bears. He has had several Alaska adventure stories published along with articles in international security periodicals.

The Beast of Barcroft - by Bill Schweigart - Entertaining story of a monster terrorizing a suburban neighborhood

4 of 5 stars     Review copy

I must admit, I never heard of Bill Schweigart until I came across this book in Netgalley, but I found the title, description, and cover to be enough to pique my curiosity.   I am so glad I took a chance.  The Beast of Barcroft was a genuinely pleasant surprise.

Great writing and interesting storytelling.  The author is quite skilled in character construction and creating believable situations out of beyond believable events.

There are a number of twists as the facts slowly come to light and several "Oh, Wow!" moments.

The story begins in the Arlington, Virginia, community of Barcroft where, recently divorced, Ben McLelvie is having a bit of a rat problem due to a neighbor, Madeleine Roux, who calls herself an animal rehabilitator.  Her activities have lead to all kinds of vermin which seem to have attracted a bigger predator to the neighborhood.

As deaths mount and the story changes, Ben is put in touch with Lindsay Clark, the curator of great cats at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo.  She has a friend who is a cryptozoologist, and that's when things really get interesting.

I'm kind of beating around the bush here because I don't want to give too much away, but I will tell you I did enjoy the read and will likely read the sequel when it comes out in February of 2016.

The Beast of Barcroft  is currently available, as an e-book, and is published by Hydra Books, a division of Random House LLC.

Recommended.

Bill is a former Coast Guard officer who drew from his experiences at sea to write the taut nautical thriller, SLIPPING THE CABLE. Bill currently residents in Arlington, VA with his wife and daughter, who along with their monstrous Newfoundland and mischievous kitten, provide him with all the adventure he can handle.

Blurring the Line - edited by Marty Young - What's fact...what's fiction...the lines are blurred in this anthology

4 of 5 Stars     Review copy

I can't help but like the concept for this anthology.  From editor Marty Young's introduction..."Blurring the Line is a mixture of fact and fiction – but perhaps some of the fact is really fiction, and some of the fiction is fact.  The lines have been blurred between the two, the division lost, and that was the whole point of this adventure."

Most of the stories do a good job of delivering on the anthology's theme, but there are a couple that  just didn't seem to hit the mark in that respect, or at least they didn't for me.  Of course, your mileage may vary.

Introduction – Marty Young – Marty Young is a Bram Stoker-nominated and Australian Shadows Award-winning writer and editor, and sometimes ghost hunter. He was the founding President of the Australian Horror Writers Association from and one of the creative minds behind the internationally acclaimed Midnight Echo magazine, for which he also served as Executive Editor until mid-2013.  In addition to the introduction, he is responsible for the various (non-fiction) pieces throughout this book that help tie all the the various stories together.

Our Doom is Nigh – Tom Piccirilli – In addition to having the opening story in this collection, Blurring the Line is dedicated to Tom who left us earlier this year.  "Our Doom is Nigh" is a very personal piece.  Whether you knew his work intimately or in passing, it's a poignant and powerful telling of the last days of a writer.

Blurring the Line (non-fiction)

Woolen Shirts and Gum Boots – Lisa Morton – Set in the early 1900s, friends Annie and Florence plan a great escape to get away from Florence's abusive mother.

Clown’s Kiss – Tim Lebbon – Clown's should say all you need to know.  A beautifully written story of an aging widower living in Wellington Pond.  One day he see's clowns living next door and an increasing number of abandoned homes, but what is the reality.  Effective use of the anthology's theme.

Seeing is Believing (non-fiction)

Empty Cars – Lia Swope Mitchell – In the author's on words. "An absurd, methodical. and hopeless search for meaning by someone who's having trouble seeing any."

How Father Bryant Saw the Light – Alan Baxter – A somewhat disturbing story of a young priest doing what he can to help a young girl frightened by the Gangle Man.

Candlelight and Circles (non-fiction)

The Good Work – James Dorr – Are witches real?  You know, the scary kind in books and stories. The young witch hunters in James Dorr's story seem to think so.

Fearful Asymmetries – Peter Hagelslag – I absolutely loved this story.  A tale that seems all to possible in today's world where there is apparent danger lurking around every corner.  At what length will our governments and big business go to keep us safe.

Big Brother is Watching (and Predicting) You (non-fiction)

1-2-3 Red Light – Gregory L. Norris – I got a kick out of how the author took a simple game we played when I was a kid and created a terrifying short story of a traffic light with a murderous disposition.  Another story that was very successful within the parameters of the anthology.

Miskatonic Schrödinger – Steven Lloyd Wilson – "What if all of the things our unenlightened ancestors insisted dwelled in the darkness really did, and that it was shining lights into the darkness that we dispelled them?"  An interesting twist on Schrödinger's cat.

Monsters Don’t Exist (non-fiction)

Old Green Eyes – James A Moore – Looking for proof of the existence of a swamp monster. A well told tale that successfully blurs the line between truth and fiction.

A Peripheral Vision Sort of Friend – Alex C. Renwick – A story of the Suscon Screamer.  An actual urban legend I've heard of before.  Interesting how such legends differ, depending on who's telling the story.  True to the anthology's theme and a solid story from a new writer for me.

The Undiscovered Supernatural (non-fiction)

Consorting with Filth – Lisa Hannett – Ghosts blur the line for me more than any other type of entity or monster.  I want to believe, but all of the evidence I've seen can easily be misinterpreted or even faked.

Hoarder – Kealan Patrick Burke – A nice, disturbing little story.  You don't see many door to sales reps nowadays.  This story may help explain why.

Human Monsters (non-fiction)

With These Hands – Brett McBean – A story of ventriloquist who wanted to love children and be loved in return.

The Body Finder – Kaaron Warren – Frank has a gift...a gift for finding ghosts.  He's found and helped many over the years, just not the one he's looking for.  A very well told story.

Building Frankenstein’s Monster (non-fiction)

What’s A Monster without Resurrection? (non-fiction)

Salt on the Tongue – Paul Mannering – Story of a young boy whose mother finds him work with another family and forbids them to feed him.  Believe me, she has her reasons.

Every Time You Say I Love You – Charles L Grant – Another story of bringing back the dead from a true master of the genre.

Honey – Annie Neugebauer – Probably the most unusual story in the anthology, yet truly enjoyable.

The Voices Told Me To Do It (non-fiction)

Distorted and Holy Desire – Patricia J. Esposito – Is the guy who performs at the club an angel, a vampire, or just a man?

Nita Kula – Rena Mason  – A dark and gruesome ending to the anthology.  A solid story from Rena.

The anthology opens and closes with passages from the New International Version of the Bible. From Deuteronomy and Leviticus respectively.  Got me thinking, having read the Bible from cover to cover, it could just be one of the best horror books I've ever read.

Overall, Blurring the Lines was a book I enjoyed reading.  Some stories were much better than others, but reading this was definitely time well spent.

BTW, very nice cover art from Dean Samed.

Blurring the Line is available as an e-book now, with a print version to follow, from Cohesion Press. If you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited, you can read this one for no additional charge and if you are an Amazon Prime member you can borrow it for FREE from the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Recommended.

Childhood Fears - A four novella collection from Samhain Horror

4 of 5 Stars     Review copy

In May of 2015 Samhain Publishing released four new novellas exploring things that go bump in the night, the things that scared us as kids, and in many cases still frighten us as adults. Now, those four stories are available in a single volume called. Childhood Fears.

NIGHTMARE IN GREASEPAINT by L.L. Soares and G. Daniel Gunn.  L.L. Soares is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novel Life Rage.  G. Daniel Gunn is the author of the novel Destroyer of Worlds and the pseudonym for Daniel G. Keohane, a Bram Stoker nominated author in his own right.  Nightmare in Greasepaint does not disappoint.  The start of the story is more psychological horror with a house bringing back memories of what had happened to the protagonist as a child and what he had done, but as the story develops the tension builds, much like the climb to the top of a super-coaster and then reaches incredible speeds as you plummet back to earth.  A quick and satisfying read.

THE BEAR WHO WOULDN'T LEAVE by J.H. Moncrieff.  J.H. Moncrieff has been a professional writer all of her adult life with a number of those years spent as a journalist tracking down snipers and canoeing through crocodile-infested waters.  The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave preys on our childhood fears and manages to juggle the three possible scenarios in a way that kept me guessing to the very end.  Is it really Edgar, the teddy bear, doing all these bad things, is it Josh's step-father making it look like Edgar, or is there something wrong with Josh himself.  Although the idea of an evil teddy is not terribly new, and at times you could easily predict what might come next, the result still hits you in the face like a ton of bricks.

SCARECROWS by Christine Hayton.  Introduction to Edgar Allen Poe at age twelve, hooked Christine Hayton on the horror genre and her attraction to the macabre continues to this day. Scarecrows was yet another enjoyable story in this quartet of novellas.  "Cathy isn't in her bed and I can't find her anywhere."  As a parent I find those words alone to be fear inducing. Although the story is told moving back and forth over a period of years in the late '60's, each chapter heading came with a note to let the reader know where they were in that scene. Scarecrows has a solid twist and proves that truth is stranger than fiction.

WINTERWOOD by JG Faherty.  JG is a Bram Stoker Award and ITW Thriller Award finalist. He's the author of five novels, seven novellas, and more than 50 short stories.  Winterwood unleashes the monsters.  Krampus, the Holly King, the Wild Hunt, and Gryla (the Holly King's wicked bride, the mother of the Yule Lads and the evil sister of Mother Earth.  A witch with a fondness for children.

Overall Childhood Fears is a solid read and accomplishes its goal in examining the things that scared us in our childhood and beyond.  The book is available now from Samhain Publishing in both paperback and e-book formats.

Recommended.

Sunfail by Steven Savile - Largely unsatisfying thriller that could have been so much better.

2 of 5 Stars     Review copy

I went into Sunfail fully expecting a great read.  I'm sorry to say, it just didn't work out that way.

When the author wrote, "They even had a hashtag for it on Twitter, #sunfail.  It trended for six days.  On the seventh day there was no internet." I really thought we were in for some post-apocalyptic fun.

Part of my problem with Sunfail is there were a lot of nice little scenes, but in many ways they failed to connect to one another. Even a story with fast-paced global action and the occasional James Bond quality stunt was not enough to overcome the disconnect.  The use of a number of conspiracy theories could have been great, but it seemed as if they were just thrown in and never fully developed.  As a matter of fact there were a number of seemingly important storylines that never quite paid off.

And then there was the story's end.  It just didn't work for me at all.  It almost seemed it was setting up for a sequel, but I don't think it's likely, and if it does happen I don't think I'll be reading it.

Unfortunately Sunfail is not a book I can recommend.

Published by Akashic Books, Sunfail is available in e-book, paperback, audible, and MP3 CD formats.

Steven Savile has written for Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval, Stargate, Warhammer, Slaine, Fireborn, Pathfinder, Arkham Horror, Rogue Angel, and other popular game and comic worlds. He won the International Media Association of Tie-In Writers award for his novel, SHADOW OF THE JAGUAR, and the inaugural Lifeboat to the Stars award for TAU CETI (co-authored with International Bestselling novelist Kevin J. Anderson). Writing as Matt Langley his young adult novel BLACK FLAG is a finalist for the People's Book Prize 2015. His latest books include SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MURDER AT SORROWS CROWN, published by Titan and PARALLEL LINES a brand new crime novel coming from TITAN in 2016.

Made To Kill: L.A. Trilogy Book 1 - by Adam Christopher - Robot noir, yeah, it's a thing

4 of 5 Stars     Review copy

Adam Christopher is a novelist and comic writer, and award-winning editor. He's the author of The Burning Dark, The Machine Awakes, and Made to Kill, and Adam has also written novels based on the hit CBS television show Elementary.  His debut novel, Empire State, was SciFiNow's Book of the Year and a Financial Times Book of the Year for 2012.

Born in New Zealand, Adam has lived in Great Britain since 2006.

I spend much of my spare time reading and reviewing Horror.  I can't seem to get enough, but every once in a while I like to step outside of the genre for something a little different.  I stumbled upon Made To Kill over at NetGalley and I just couldn't resist the concept.  Robot noir, set in the 60's, with the last robot on earth, once a P.I. and now an assassin. How could I not read this.

Raymond Electromatic is a Licenced Private Detective.  It says so right on the door to his office. Only thing is, he's no longer a private detective.  He's now a hitman. What about Azimov's "Laws of Robotics"?  Seems those laws don't apply in this alternate timeline of Los Angeles in 1965.

Once you're able to wrap your head around the idea that everything you know about robots is wrong, it's kind of fun to relax and get lost in this crazy story of a Russian plot to take control of the minds of innocent Americans.

The story is conceptually strong, but did seem to be a bit forced at times.   Even taking that into consideration, I found myself enjoying this wild ride.

Made To Kill is available in hardcover, paperback, e-book, and through Audible from Tor/Forge, a division of Macmillan Publishing.

Recommended.

Brother - by Ania Ahlborn - Brilliantly conceived and executed with precision. Horror at its best

5 of 5 Stars     Review copy

Ania Ahlborn is the bestselling author of the horror thrillers Within These Walls, The Bird Eater, The Shuddering, The Neighbors, and Seed, which has been optioned for film. Born in Ciechanow, Poland, she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and their dog. For more, visit the author online at AniaAhlborn.com.

This is the second book I've read this year from Ania Ahlborn, having read Within These Walls back in April and now Brother. Both works are fine examples of literary horror and each is well worth your time as a reader.

Brother is the disturbing story of the Morrow family who live deep in the heart of the Appalachians, in West Virginia.  This is a family that has managed to take all of the fun out of dysfunctional. There is definitely a strange family dynamic at play here. Abusive parents, and siblings that are just as bad. "Folks like the Morrows didn't have much. They got by living off the land." This is a quote that goes much deeper than what it seems on the surface.

At the core of the story is Michael, the youngest brother among the four siblings.  Michael was not born a Morrow, having been abducted when he was just six-years-old.  Told he was abandoned by his family, Michael has grown into his teen-aged years immersed in the horrors of the Morrow household.

Brother is a story of complex relationships, with fully developed characters, that left me beaten and fully drained by the book's end.  As all of the secrets of this tale were reveled, I felt as if I was about to crumble, so powerful were the images in my mind.  It left me asking how much can one person take before they just snap.

I would love to see this on the big screen some day.  Another book that's certain to make my top ten list at the end of the year.

Brother is available now in every imaginable format from Gallery Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

If you love horror.  I promise you won't be disappointed if you choose to make Brother your next read.