Black Jack Derringer: The Ace of Spades is like one of those little four-piece Whitman’s Samplers. You end up with a good idea of what the story’s going to be, but it’s over and gone just when you’re really ready for more.
Wild Alice West is not a woman for breeding or homemaking or any of the other things the Wild West-flavored land called the Skillet considers women good for. She’s a bounty hunter, plagued by a bit of bad luck, a mouth that constantly gets her in trouble, a society that can’t respect her and the fastest shot she’s ever met. (She’s humble too….)
Full Review at DarkScribeMagazine.com
With Skull Full of Kisses Michael West throws his tales into the long list of single-author collections available to horror readers today. With ten tales of love and monsters, Skull Full of Kisses gives readers more meat than many other lengthier collections out there.
West’s style is easy to read, but well-paced and well-formed, delivering solid stories page after page….
Full review at DarkScribeMagazine.com
25
Feb
Yasmin Stoker is a tour guide in one of the most haunted fictional cities ever. She’s also a wraith, an undead creature who feeds off the life of revenants — that is mindless, murderous newly-risen vampires. Nicomedes, a blind, mad Lich Lord and undead ruler of the city, orders Yasmin to derail a PI’s investigation into a series of murders of young girls. Yasmin has no choice but to obey, but the strange appearance of one of victims, prowling the streets on hunts of her own, takes Yasmin on an adventure to find the killer, which might just unbalance the current power system and let loose a horde of demons on the city….
Full Review at DarkScribeMagazine.com
ISBN: 9781439167618
I was given this book to review.
Book three in the Megan Chase series finds Megan, human ruler of a demon clan and psychiatrist, in more trouble. This time Megan is preparing for a big time demon meeting, where a cluster of inhuman beings will try to force her into performing a ceremony that would make her a full demon. It doesn’t help that an FBI agent arrives at her office, offering immunity if she’ll just testify against the other demons (most of whom run various illegal cartels, not to mention they all seem to attract bodies in large quantities), which includes Megan’s rather serious boyfriend, fire demon Greyson Dante.
Megan finds unexpected pressure put on her relationship as the meeting starts, not from the FBI, but from the realization that if she is to have any future with him she will have to become a demon, or let him go forever. Balancing her wants against her needs, and the needs of her clan of “personal demons” is hard enough without the appearance of an angel, who is most definitely trying to kill her. Now Megan must find out who sent the angel, defeat it, decide whether she values her humanity or Greyson more and most importantly: Survive.
Demon Possessed is fast, a little confused at the beginning as all the threads present themselves but before they come together as one related plot. Megan is a bold urban fantasy heroine, who unlike others doesn’t seem to be opposed to being rescued, married, and playing a female-oriented role, she just doesn’t want to lose herself to other peoples’ demands on her. As emotional as the previous book, Demon Inside, but focusing on Megan’s future rather than her past, Demon Possessed is at times hard to stomach due to intensity of emotion, not intensity of graphic violence. But it’s a good read, and a sad farewell to Megan and Greyson and their family, as this is the last anticipated book in the series.
Campaign Trilogy book 2
ISBN: 978-1409241256
I was given this book to review.
Jobe, his possibly angelic, possibly demonic reflection, Wendy and her ghostly twin brother are all back, hot on the trail of the people who kidnapped Wendy’s father, who are hopefully the same people behind a virus that creates serial killers. Both are odd characters. Jobe is a full on anti-hero, the servant of god-style serial killer who punishes the evil doers around him. Wendy is a thirteen year old girl, smart beyond her years and yet vulnerable to the horrors she’s caught up in. And yet they are the heroes, the only ones with the ability (both supernatural and non) to hunt down and stop some pretty insidious bad guys.
One of the stand out elements in this book is its antihero lead, as readers will find themselves conflicted about and uncomfortable with Jobe’s methods, but it’s absolutely clear that he is in fact the hero of the story. Also Wendy is a precocious young girl, who knows and understands far more than she should. But rather than being unbelievable her grown up mentality is explained by the role she’s played as parent in her messed up family for so long, and tempered by some emotional strife in reaction to the first book, The Lesser of Two Evils, and events in this book, which serve to remind readers that despite her capabilities she is still a teenaged girl.
The only flaw Trail of Madness suffers from is lack of tightness. Not yet flabby, it remains that some shaving could have been done to firm up this 400 page tale.
One of the most interesting serial killer tales I’ve read in a while with the most vivid characters, I recommend this one to readers who like the serial killer concept, but want to see something new done with it.
19
Jan
ISBN: 978-1935142058
I was given this book to review.
Silver is a tome, one hell of a book, in scope, complexity and power. Twinning a secret religious cult made up of the descendants of the misunderstood Judas and a handful of highly organized acts of terrorism that begins with 13 people burning themselves alive at the same moment in time across the world, Silver pits a team of secretive investigators against a worldwide religious-political threat.
Move over Dan Brown, Saville threads in more flavor, texture and dimension into a story than most authors dream of. Moving from the U.S. to Israel, Rome and Germany and including a vast cast that will make other international thrillers appear pale in comparison, Silver is a hefty read.
The pace is even, but not always speedy and the layered details might not be intriguing to all readers. The emphasis here is strongly on large scope character and world building. Silver would appeal to readers who enjoy more of a mainstream slant to genre fiction, such as those who find Stephen King and Michael Crichton’s detail and character-oriented styles to their taste. Even readers who might find this storytelling method slow will have to admit that Saville backs it up with a lot of plot interest and intrigue and a twist on the Christian theological mythos that’s edgy and new.
ISBN: 978-1-60168-141-6
I was given this book to review.
An alien species has landed on our planet, but do to a bloody miss understanding instead of trying to befriend us, they’ve built a city under Philadelphia and now they prey on us, their killings surfacing on our streets as a serial killer working in one small area.
Now that the matriarch of a local family has died her secrets are coming to light, the least of which is that one of her children is a half breed (and telekinetic), her father being one of the people eating aliens.
The aliens look like humans, except for having pointed teeth and red eyes. Furthermore, they’re targeting one small area (and have been since 1960) because they’re trying to punish the people who accidentally killed one of their own, and they routinely kidnap people and keep them in a slaughterhouse of sorts, taking a piece of them at a time for food. And yet in almost 50 years no one has found their underground city, and the police haven’t solved the “serial killer” cases in the tiny area (even though a person at the local university later mentions they have samples of the killer’s blood).
If you can embrace this flawed logic, you’ll find Dark Side of the Moon to be readable and nicely paced. However you’ll also find a cast of characters who are strangely stupid (one keeps close track of her periods, but doesn’t realize she’s pregnant until the reanimated corpse of her mother tells her so despite being 3 months late), absolutely trusting (when the blood doesn’t match any know humans the people immediately assume that means it’s alien), and apparently all involved in a who-can-be-the-biggest-asshole contest. Almost everyone in this book is mean to each other, showing no restraint.
The writing is not bad, but the storytelling leaves the reader with no characters to connect with, many moments of confusion because of logic leaps (like the humans and aliens cross breeding with no apparent problems, and the humans assuming “alien” in the first place) and a lack of any conflict other than; blood thirsty aliens kill and eat the humans, humans fear the unknown and kill the aliens (also, the aliens are much more advanced than us and though they can clone organs, they eat humans out of vengeance).
In the end the family is called to work together instead of continuing to fight each other, and after some tragic events there’s a moral-infused ending encouraging others to always give second (or third, or whatever) chances and everything can end for the better. Except this is a horror novel. So tacked onto the happy ending is a horror ending that mirrors the opening of the book, bringing Custer’s world full circle.
If you love B-style monster or alien stories you’ll probably like Dark Side of the Moon. If wishy-washy science and almost universally mean characters both you, best to skip this one.
31
Dec
ISBN: 978-0345512093
I requested this book from the author.
Jessie Shimmer is an apprentice wizard who wants nothing more than to spend a pleasant afternoon with her lover and Master, Cooper. Instead their spell to summon rain goes wrong and Cooper vanishes, leaving Jessie alone in a park suddenly torn apart by magic. Despite being sealed off and left to die by the other magic users of the city, Jessie defeats the demon that came through the tear that took Cooper, taking severe damage herself.
When she wakes in the home of Mother Karen, her friend and a healer things only get worse, for the magical ruler of the city wants Jessie silenced and Cooper to remain gone, permanently. With Mr. Jordan trying to crush her will and her desire to see Cooper back safely in her arms Jessie must risk losing it all, suffer the guilt of her past that she didn’t even know about and try to save Cooper from his.
Spellbent is a fast paced, hard to put down novel. Somewhere between Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden and Terry Pratchett’s magical sections of Discworld, Snyder takes readers on a ride through strange creatures, powerful magic, true evil and personalized hell dimensions.
Accompanied by her familiar, a sometimes ferret, sometimes something else altogether, and motivated by family and love Jessie is a lead that gets things done. Many urban fantasy novels have begun to display themes of friendship or defying the odds. Snyder gives her characters a familiar dark past, save that the focus is far more on their modern life and current survival than on a constantly circling cycle of dealing with the trauma of their pasts.
A strong, enticing debut for Snyder in urban fantasy, this one is definitely on my list of must reads for the year.