Book Reviews

  • My Top 5 Horror Books

    Do you like to be scared? Not the oh-my-gawd-there’s-a-madman-with-an-axe-chasing-me-down-the-corridor type of scared, but the ‘safe’ scare of a good horror film or book, the type of scare where the monster stays safely inside the cinema or the pages of your book? I do. While you’d never catch me on a rollercoaster, the thrill ride of…

  • West Seattle Blues by Chris Nickson

    West Seattle Blues is the second outing for music journalist Laura Benton. Set several years after Emerald City, Laura is now married with a son who is almost walking and a husband in the book business. She still works, albeit not as much as she used to, writing reviews and doing occasional interviews. When the…

  • The Quick by Lauren Owen

    I love a book which conjures me away to a different time, a different life and The quick, the debut novel by Lauren Owen certainly ticks those boxes. Brother and sister James and Charlotte live in Yorkshire where, in the absence of parents (a dead mother and disinterested father), they are looked after by household…

  • Red Cells by Jeffrey Thomas

    Dark Fuse is proving to be a great publisher of horror shorts and Red Cells by Jeffrey Thomas is no exception. Jeremy Stake is a shape-shifting PI who is doing time so his client he impersonates doesn’t have to. Stake is in no ordinary penitentiary: this future world, populated by aliens and mutants, has a…

  • Horror Shorts

    Fancy a short shot of horror? I have two books to recommend to you. In Broken Sigil by William Meikle Joe Connors is a cop who is called to investigate the death of his friend, Johnny Provan. Connor’s investigations soon unearth an affair between his friend and his late wife and when he visits the…

  • The Troop by Nick Cutter

    I love horror films but it is rare that a book in the horror genre satisfies and excites as much as a good movie. The Troop by Nick Cutter is one of few to hit the mark. Set on a small uninhabited island off Prince Edward Island in Canada, a small group of scouts –…

  • The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice

    Elysium, the New Orleans home of Nikki Delongpre and her parents, holds a secret and when Nikki breaks up with her long term boyfriend Anthem, and takes creepy Marshall home for a midnight swim, the consequences have repercussions beyond anything the teenagers could expect. I really enjoyed the first 80% of this book by Christopher…

  • Gideon Smith and The Mechanical Girl by David Barnett

    I really enjoy reading Steampunk and I have reviewed one or two here on my blog. Not every author captures the essence of the alternative Victorian technology and society as well as David Barnett does in Gideon Smith and The Mechanical Girl. So, what is this book about? Gideon Smith is the son of a…

  • The Returned by Jason Mott

    I watched some of Les Revenants (The Returned) when it was screened in the UK recently. It was very good: atmospheric, beautifully filmed, great story. So when I saw The Returned, the debut novel by Jason Mott, I had to read it. This book has many similarities to the TV series – the dead return…

  • Tampa by Alissa Nutting

    Haven’t people got their knickers in a twist over Alissa Nutting’s Tampa? I knew it would be a controversial and difficult read before I began, but this book quite took my breath away. And I’m not entirely sure it’s a good thing. I feel I need to address the controversy separately from the book itself…