It’s been a while since we have any book reviews here, so it just seems fitting that the one book I felt like writing anything about happens to be a companion piece to one of my favorite movies – TrickTrick reviews ‘r Treat (our review). But this book goes far past some slick advertisement for the film. It is a big, glossy, beautiful advertisement for the film – with the added bonus of being a nice addition to any of you HalloweenHalloween reviews lovers out there. Sure the book delves into the making of the movie and detail almost every aspect of Trick ‘r Treat from its inception to its filming, but like the movie, this book also touches on a lot of the traditions associated with Halloween and how they originated. JackJack reviews o Lanterns, black cats, trick-or-treating; it’s all discussed in this book. But it doesn’t end there. As an added bonus, the book acts as proverbial trick-or-treat bag stuffed with various treats in the form of comics, masks, stickers, posters, postcards and pumpkin stencils. It is a clever addition that makes Trick ‘r Treat – Tales of Mayhem, Mystery, and Mischief a must-have for fans of the film, as well as fans of Halloween. [Read more...]

As Conover County continues to transform into a supernatural sanitarium, the inmates flex their newfound “muscles.” David Atterhull – now able to toss pickup trucks – and his kin begin to claim territory as well as hostages. Wyatt, discovering strange new powers of his own, is confronted by enemies from school; enemies that can now call on unnatural energies. And Alisha continues her crash course in being a witch. It’s an apprenticeship that allies her with Sheriff Morgan, who has reason to believe Conover hasn’t yet seen the worst of this mess. [Read more...]

Somewhere in Midwestern America was a place called Conover County. When the old book was opened, and the runes therein used in haste and ignorance, a place of farms, simple folk, and small-town dreams became a den of monsters and nightmare. North 40 is the story of those who survived and came to confront an even greater evil on the horizon – one that wouldn’t just consume their flesh, but their souls as well. That’s the official description of Wildstorm’s first issue of their new horror comic, North 40. A six issue series detailing what happens when a county full of rednecks, trailer parks and farm boys are visited by evil forces from another dimension. [Read more...]

It seems my luck has run out. After a highly improbable run of exemplary books, I finally returned to earth with a decidedly mundane selection. Christopher Fowler’s The Victoria Vanishes is a pedestrian exercise in crime fiction that tends to focus more on the drama inside the “Peculiar Crimes Unit” than it does the actual case it purports to solve. The thing is – once Fowler gets around to the actual meat of the book, his story is a rather good one. A killer is on the loose, and he is dispatching his victims in crowded pubs. He is targeting lonely, middle aged women, and administering death at the end of a syringe. If not for the good work of the pathologist, the very existence of a crime would have gone unnoticed. A check of other deaths reveals the work of a serial killer, and our heroes are on the case.   [Read more...]

It seems I have been blessed of late. I have happened upon one of those most improbable streaks in which every book I have picked up has been worthwhile. I have just read one of the strangest and thoroughly entertaining novels I have come across in a long, long time. Death with Interruptions is the first work of Jose’ Saramago that I have had the pleasure to read, but I assure you it will not be the last. Perhaps I have an unrecognized, latent affinity for novels produced in Latin countries. It could be that only the very best are being translated into english. Whatever the reason, as this is the second Latin writer to hit it square out of the park,  they are batting one thousand with this reviewer. This book addresses, in a narrative style, a situation that makes one question the nature of death, life, society at large and our place in it. Without being obvious or profane, the author leads us to question our basic moral assumptions. But outside of the lofty ramifications of this read, it is first and foremost a most engaging and entertaining story. [Read more...]

I don’t know about anyone else, but I fear that the horror genre may be dead. I settled in to read Dead City, by Joe McKinney. I was expecting cheese of the good variety. The cover of the paperback showed faces in the gloom, and a tagline straight from a horror flick: “They won’t stay dead.”

The Short Review: At least there are zombies.

The Long Review: Five hurricanes have swept the Gulf States. Riots have broken out in the afflicted areas. Remember Rita and Katrina? Yeah. Something like that, but more of it. Evacuees have been flown from Houston to San Antonio. Unbeknownst to everyone, some evacuees are hosts to a deadly virus, turning them into mindless revenants bent on devouring human flesh. Zombies, if you will. The novel is written first-person, from the point of view of Officer Eddie Hudson of the San Antonio PD. This book doesn’t fool around, because right in the first chapter, the shit starts happening. It starts with a call reporting a few people being drunk. He and another officer go to check it out and… it’s zombies. [Read more...]

I know I am going to love a book that starts with “The girl screamed once, only once…”. Ian Rankin uses this line to great effect as he sets the scene for a brutal murder in the first chapter of this hard-boiled who-done-it, Exit Music. In classic style, we tag along with Detective Inspector John Rebus and his loyal partner, Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke, as they begin a new investigation from the beginning; the blood is still warm and the crime scene is fresh. What first appears as a mugging gone horribly bad is quickly complicated when the identity of the victim is learned. He is a Russian poet who is highly critical of his motherland and the changes occurring there. In an era when Russian reporters and dissidents seem to have a higher mortality rate than a front line soldier, the victim’s connections suddenly open the doors to international intrigue and political implications. When a second murder is discovered, the victim being a material witness in the case, the heat is turned up, and it brings all the creeps out of the woodwork. [Read more...]

The first issue of The Last ResortThe Last Resort reviews, the new horror comic put out by IDW Publishing, finally hit the stands and I couldn’t wait to finally check it out. It is described as a “zombie epic that pays homage to 1970s exploitation films and disaster movies like Airport and Towering InfernoThe Towering Inferno reviews. In an entertaining and darkly over-the-top celebration of gore and sex, The Last Resort transforms a Caribbean paradise into a biological wasteland populated with homicidal flesh-eating vacationers!” and after reading the first issue in the limited series, I am already hooked. So let’s take a small break from some of this real horror depressing the shit out of me and take a look at some fun horror. But before going further, be warned their are some possible NSFW images in the form of drawn tits and a bit of gore. [Read more...]

Alan Banks and D.I. Annie Cabbot are investigating a fire that consumed two barges in the Yorkshire canal. Investigators find two charred bodies among the ruins, and are also able to determine the fire as having been deliberately set. Two nights later, another fire consumes a remote trailer and claims another life. The fires seem related, so Banks and Cabbot begin their investigation, trying to connect the dots that may link them while also trying to figure out why they are being set in the first place. The answer to that question will aid them in pinpointing the culprit and bring them to justice, possibly stopping them before any further lives are lost. [Read more...]

The dead are walking the EarthEarth reviews and wiping out every living thing they can get their rotting fingers on. But these are not your shambling, herd-like zombie made popular in film, nor are they the newer running zombie full o’ rage – both of whose actions are dictated by an unexplainable need to feed on human flesh. These zombies talk, they drive, they shoot guns, they think, plan and organize – and humans are not the only species effected. These zombies are demons who enter the body of the recently deceased and are amassing an undead army under the leadership of Ob, a powerful demon hell-bent on destroying Earth. His motives are quite simple. He enjoys making God cry. Ob, along with his brethren, have a massive chip on their shoulder over being banished to the Void. Now that they are free they are gonna settle the score by destroying all of God’s creations, starting with Earth. They will not rest until they storm the Gates of HeavenHeaven reviews itself, and Ob is able to drag God off his thrown by his beard. Because of cosmic rules as old as time itself, there isn’t a goddamn thing God can do to stop it.

[Read more...]

Donna and her 12-year-old daughter are on the run from her psychotic ex-husband who was recently released from prison. He had always vowed to track them down and kill them both if he ever got out, and they have no doubt he plans on keeping his word. The pair end up making an unexpected stop in the small coastal town of Malcasa Point, Pop 400. A town with a macabre tourist attraction – an old, Victorian house called Beast House. The house has been the scene of multiple murders over the years in which occupants of the house, both invited and uninvited, have met violent, grisly ends at the hands of some sort of beast. Some believe it is simply a man gone mad, others believe that it is an unexplainable monster normally only seen in nightmares. But one thing they all agree on – something lurks in that house at night, looking for the next victim to shred to pieces with its razor-sharp claws. But Donna and Sandy are about to find out the horrifying truth behind the legend after meeting two other of the town’s recent visitors, two men with scores to settle with the thing that lurks within the Beast House. [Read more...]

The United States has been invaded by an enemy and no one even knows it. But when they finally realize what has happened, it may be too late to do a damn thing about it. The problem is that this invader is a microscopic parasite. All across the United States, average people are turning into raving lunatics suffering from extreme paranoia and committing horrendous acts of violence against friends and family – even themselves – after becoming a host. Now a small group of investigators must try to determine what this parasite is, what it does and where it came from. Is it natural, having  been dormant for thousands of years? An advanced biological weapon? The only link shared with the infected, aside from their acts of violence, are their  insane rantings about “triangles” that coincide with the symbols later found on their bodies. Meanwhile, an infected man marked with seven of these triangles, attempts to cure himself before he also does something horrifying – more horrifying than anything anyone could have possibly imagined. [Read more...]

I think I have found a new crime fighting hero. Chris Grabenstein’s new John Ceepak novel, Mind Scrambler, the fifth in the series, rocked my world. The story revolves around two Sea Haven detectives who are on administrative leave  in Atlantic City. While there, Danny Boyle, Ceepak’s partner and the voice of the narrative, runs into a ex-girlfriend and makes an appointment to meet her. It is a rendezvous she will never make. Danny’s old flame is currently the nanny for a family of performing Magicians currently headlining at a major casino. She is found, after the show, in what appears to be an S&M sex scene gone bad, the victim of over-zealous asphyxiophilia.(GoogleGoogle it or ask your teenager.) With the Atlantic City PD overwhelmed with crime, and the potential media storm and bad publicity, Bolye and Ceepak are deputized to help with the case. As the clues mount, along with the bodies, it becomes crystal clear there is a lot going on behind the scenes, and uncovering the secrets this family of prestidigitators want to keep will not be easy. [Read more...]

Have you ever tried a new food and the taste that assaults your senses is strong, vibrant, and oh, so exotic? You spend the first few bites trying to determine if you even like it or not. But in a very short time you find that your mouth simply cannot be without the flavor. On a few rare occasions, a book will be that way for me. It’s the literary equivalent of my first experience with an Indian restaurant, or, in this case, authentic Spanish cuisine. Santiago Roncagliolo offers up a wonderful new taste experience with his debut novel, Red April. [Read more...]