Excerpt from The Devil's Work by Mark Edwards.

Back in her room, she was about to start unpacking her suitcase, trying hard not to think about Liam or the gift she’d turned down, when a scream came from the room next door. 

Sophie jumped up, yanked the door open and peered out. Several other girls had done the same. 

Becky stood outside her room, both hands held to her mouth, eyes stretched open in horror, fingers clawing at her head like the character in that painting, The Scream. All the blood had drained from her face. Her bulky pink suitcase lay at her feet. She was staring at the room like there was a monster inside. Or a corpse. She made little gibbering noises, unformed words, like the sound of her sanity shattering into tiny fragments.

Sophie reached her first. ‘What is it?’ she asked in a soothing voice. ‘What’s happened?’ 

‘My. Room.’ That was all Becky could say. She pointed a shaking finger at the closed door then sank to her haunches. She stared up at Sophie, her eyes empty. What had she seen in that room? Sophie didn’t want to know. 

Two other girls had reached them, Jenny and Ameera, the latter crouching and putting an arm around Becky, who was making the awful noises again, noises that penetrated Sophie’s skull, made the inside of her head itch. Sophie guessed that not many people had returned yet or the whole corridor would be filled with gawping, concerned students. 

‘Go on,’ Jenny said. ‘Take a look.’ 

Sophie turned to her. ‘Me?’ 

When she realised no one else was going to make a move, she approached the door, gripped the handle and pushed it open slowly, sticking her head inside then immediately withdrawing it. 

‘Oh, God, it stinks in there.’ 

‘What of?’ Jenny asked, clamping her hand over her nose as the smell escaped the room and reached them. 

It smelled like a cut she’d once had that became infected, sweet and rotten. 

‘What did you see?’ whispered Ameera. 

Sophie had been hit so hard by the stench that her other senses hadn’t kicked in. She moved back towards the door and pushed it open. 

‘Oh, my God,’ said Jenny, as Becky began to wail.

All the clothes and possessions that Becky had left behind were strewn around the room – clothes and underwear on the floor, CDs and books smashed and ripped and scattered. A large cuddly rabbit lay in the middle of the floor, its belly slit open, stuffing bulging out. Its eyes had been pulled out and there was a vibrator stuck into one of the holes, still buzzing. Photos of Becky which were stuck to the wall had been defaced – devil’s horns drawn on her head, red pen slashes across her face. A family photo had been torn to shreds and a picture of a woman who was clearly Becky’s mum had been rendered obscene, saggy breasts and a dense pubic triangle drawn over her clothes, a crudely rendered penis spurting close to her lips. 

That was far from the worst of it. 

A washing line had been strung across the room, tied to the wardrobe handle at one end and attached to a nail in the wall at the other. Dead mice had been attached to it by their tails, their plump white bodies hanging motionless, little black eyes open, staring sightlessly. Their stomachs had been slashed open like the rabbit toy beneath them. Stepping closer, forcing herself to confront the horror, Sophie could see that wire had been wrapped around the tails and the washing line to pin them to it. There were seven of them. 

‘I’ll call Security,’ Jenny said quietly from the corridor. 

Sophie looked back. Becky sat on the floor, arms wrapped around her legs, rocking back and forth, her expression glazed and slack. Her sleeves were pulled up and Sophie was shocked to see scars criss-crossing Becky’s forearms. She realised she had never seen Becky in short sleeves. There were no fresh cuts but the scars were evidence that Becky had, at one point, self-harmed. 

‘Take Becky to the kitchen, give her something to drink.’ 

The other two girls nodded and led Becky away, leaving Sophie on her own in the room, trying not to look at the dead mice, focusing on the bed.

Photos of Becky and Lucas lay on the pillow, ripped in two. A used condom lay unfurled on the quilt, apparently still containing sperm. She turned her head away. Someone had scrawled words on the mirror in red lipstick. 

SLUT. BITCH. SLAG. 

DIE IN PAIN. 

Small words designed to cause maximum pain. 

Next to them were more photos, dim and underexposed, of Becky pressed up against a wall, face screwed up, a man entering her from behind. 

Sophie left the room. Her head felt light, legs shaky. The urge to be sick bubbled up through her but she fought it. A minute later, one of the caretakers arrived along with a security guy. Sophie drifted away towards her room. She wasn’t going to be sick. She wasn’t. She had a horrible feeling about who had done this. She remembered hearing Liam say that Becky needed to be taught a lesson, recalled Jasmine’s threat to Becky after she revealed her identity. 

No. Surely not. Liam was a self-proclaimed rebel, but she couldn’t believe he would do something this hateful. Beneath the pose, he was a nice guy. She had to believe that. Jasmine too. She could be hot-headed, had told Becky she’d cut her tongue out, but there was no way she would do this, surely? 

It had to be Lucas, Becky’s betrayed boyfriend. Apart from seeing his band play once at the Student Union she didn’t know him very well, but he came across as pretty intense on stage, his lyrics all about S&M and suicide. She had thought that was just him playing at being a rock star but maybe it went deeper. And besides, jealousy could turn the mildest people into monsters. The room was full of vile sexual imagery, including the shots exposing Becky’s betrayal of Lucas, plus naked photos that had probably been taken for Lucas’s benefit. Everything in the room spoke of revenge for Becky’s betrayal of her boyfriend. It had to be him.

Excerpted from THE DEVIL'S WORK © Copyright 2016 by Mark Edwards. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

About The Devil's Work by Mark Edwards

A gripping psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Follow You Home and The Magpies.

It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake.

What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie’s predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.

As her life begins to fall apart at work and at home, Sophie must race to uncover the truth about her new job…before it kills her.

About Mark Edwards

Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which terrifying things happen to ordinary people. His first solar novel, The Magpies (2013), reached the No. 1 spot on Amazon UK as did his third novel Because She Loves Me (2014).  He has also co-written various crime novels with Louise Voss such as Killing Cupid (2011) and The Blissfully Dead (2015). 

Mark grew up on the south coast of England and started writing in his twenties while working in a number of dead-end-jobs.  He lived in Tokyo for a year before returning to the UK and starting a career in marketing.  As well as a full-time-writer, Mark is a stay at home dad for his three children, his wife and a ginger cat.  

Website: www.markedwardsauthor.com

Twitter: @mredwards

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markedwardsbooks

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Author Interview with J.H. Moncrieff (The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave).

What is "The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave" about? 

Short answer? It's about a young boy's struggles with a cursed teddy bear. Deeper answer? It explores how it's human nature to be afraid of things we don't understand, and how that fear often triggers a very negative reaction.

How do you decide on a topic for one of your books?

I'm inspired by travel. Almost every trip I've taken has resulted in at least one novel idea. Often, it’s a 'what if' question that inspires me. I usually feel like I haven't chosen the topic so much as it's chosen me.
Would you consider "The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave" the darkest book you've written? Has it been the one that has affected you the most?

I don't know if it's the darkest, but it's quite disturbing in a lot of ways. I didn't expect Josh's relationship with his stepfather to get as ugly as it did. Part of me was afraid it would be too dark for Samhain, but I had to be true to the story and the characters.

What is your writing process like?

I have what I like to call an 'organic' writing process. I'll get a bit of an idea from something, and within a few days, a character will show up and start telling me the story. My job is to write down what the protagonist says as fast as I can.

What kind of research goes into it?

Maybe it's my journalism background, but I'm a stickler for accuracy, which can often mean a lot of research. Thankfully, I've found a professional researcher I can rely on, so I no longer have to spend weeks searching for details like whether or not slaves in 1700s Dutch Caribbean had pillows, or what dental care was like in ancient Egypt. From my very first professional novel, I relied on experts--I have a list of cops, firefighters, stunt drivers, forensic anthropologists, and even oilmen I can count on for fact-checking.

How did your writing evolve?

My first books were epic tales of a fish family who lived in terror of a bear that stalked them under the ocean. (Apparently I've got a thing for bears!) I was five when I wrote that series, and hopefully I've learned about a little thing we call 'suspension of disbelief' since then.

I think I used to fall into lazy writing when I was younger--characters that were caricatures, settings that were non-existent, etc. I strongly believe it's our job as writers to always push ourselves to be better than our last story--as long as we don't slip into the perfectionism trap.

What is currently on your own bookshelves? 

I love Stephen King, of course, but also Susan Hill, Daphne du Maurier, and the occasional John Saul. Barbara Kingsolver, Timothy Findley and Elizabeth Berg are my favorite literary writers, and I love Joanne Fluke's cozy mysteries. When John Douglas releases a book, I have to buy it--he's one of the first FBI profilers and one hell of a crime writer. I also love reading memoirs, non-fiction accounts about dark times and events in our history, and cookbooks.

What have you read recently that you've really enjoyed?

"The Ruins" by Scott Smith. I was surprised by how good that book was--it's simply brilliant, and very creepy. I also read a couple of short romances by Elle Rush--"Leading Man" and "Candy Cane Kisses." I don't usually read romance, but I quite enjoy her books.

Why scary stories? What attracts you to this genre?

Horror is very freeing. I've written mysteries and suspense thrillers, but in those genres, readers expect the guy to get the girl (or vice-versa) and the hero must triumph in the end. I love that calling something horror means you can do whatever you want and get as dark as you like. If a reader picks up a horror story, they know that anything can happen, and that's pretty exciting.

Since I never know how my own books will end, it's best to call them horror. That way, no one is disappointed when things get nasty.

What are you working on now?  

I'm working on a new twist on the sea-monster myth and a series of horror novels set in ancient Egypt.

Thanks for having me!

Bio:

J.H. Moncrieff loves scaring the crap out of people with her books--when she's not busy being a journalist, editor, book doctor, and publicist. In her "spare" time, J.H. loves to travel to exotic locales, advocate for animal rights, and muay thai kickbox.

J.H. Moncrieff: Website | Twitter | Facebook

The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leave: Amazon | Samhain | Kobo | B&N

Watch the trailer!

The Shuddering - Audio.

Title/Author: The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn.

Narration: Luke Daniels.

Genre: Horror.

Publisher: Brilliance Audio.

Source: Gifted by Midnight Book Girl.

Synopsis:  They only come when it snows, and nobody ever gets away. A group of close friends gathers at a secluded cabin in the wintry mountains of Colorado for a final holiday hurrah. Instead, it may be their last stand. First a massive blizzard leaves them marooned. Then the more chilling realization: something is lurking in the woods, watching them, waiting? Now a weekend of family, friends, and fun has turned into a test of love and loyalty in the face of inhuman horrors. The only hope for those huddled inside is to fight - tooth and nail, bullet and blade - for their lives. Otherwise, they'll end up like the monsters' other victims: bright pools of blood on glittering snow, screams lost in the vast mountains. ~Goodreads.com

Midnyte Musings:  I can't really take out the spoilers with this review.  1) Because for me the plot is so integral to the story and 2) I want to discuss the book, not just tell you to read it. 

Remember when Horror movies were full of unexpected twists and turns?  The expectations you had due to watching other movies didn't hold true for Horror and anything could happen.  That's kind of what The Shuddering is for me.  Ania Ahlborn takes me back to "old school" Horror.  There is a set up so the reader kind of knows about the danger and then there is the story of the main characters and their own encounters.  What you hope for, what you really want may not come to pass.  And just when you think that things might be okay, it is taken away from you without really telling you. 

Julie from My Five Monkeys mentioned she had a book hangover from reading something.  That's what I have from The Shuddering.  I was SO attached to some of the characters and I was rooting for them SO much.  The people in this book are what make it.  Jane and her brother Ryan want one last trip to their family mountain cabin before Ryan moves out of the country.  Ryan invites his best friend, Sawyer, who also happens to be Jane's ex-boyfriend.  The one who got away.  When he shows up with his girlfriend things get awkward.  What I really love is the feelings of the characters are believable and there is no bad guy.  The story and emotions of all the players are presented and they are real, complicated and bittersweet.  I totally loved Sawyer and his voice put me in mind of Chris Helmsworth, so that's how I pictured him.  I wanted Jane and Sawyer to get back together so bad and became very much invested in them.  Sawyer is torn between the feelings he still has for Jane and his commitment to his girlfriend.  I loved that Sawyer is not a jerk about it.  He didn't suddenly ditch his girlfriend and his feelings are still there for her and he shows the reader why he fell for her.  (Although I knew in my heart that he and Jane belonged together.)  Jane also invited her best friend, Lauren and she and Ryan also explored their own new feelings for each other.  Ryan starts to feel that Lauren may be the one woman who he would want to risk being in a relationship with.   Although I enjoyed the Sawyer/Jane drama the most, the Ryan/Lauren situation was also interesting.  If the characters fell flat this book would not have worked for me at all.  The portrayal of the dynamics of this group is an astute observation of the psychological workings into their minds.

Now lets get to the Horror part.  The monsters are mysterious creatures.  They are frightening, huge, ugly and relentless.  Although I had a little bit of a difficult time really visualizing them, this did not diminish their power.  I also appreciated a plain ol' monster.  Something unknown and original.

I gave my husband the book to listen to as well, and he loves it.  He kept gushing about how great it is was.  He also kept asking if the monsters would turn out to be aliens.  Hmmm, well I guess there's no real answer to that mystery. 

If you want to listen to a fun Horror story, one that puts you back to the time when scary stories were thrilling and heart pounding, check out The Shuddering.

Narration:  This book had a cast of characters and that always presents a challenge for the narrator and me as a reader.  I do think that Luke Daniels did a good job, even if all the other snowboarders sounded like surfer dudes.  I absolutely Sawyer's voice and like I said before, it didn't hurt that he sounded like Chris Helmsworth to me.  My husband had a little bit of an issue with the female voices and I told him that usually is the case with a male narrator.

Starstruck over: The characterization of the main characters.

Buy it now for only $2.00 on Kindle:  The Shuddering.

Challenges:

Through a Broken Window.

Title/Author: Through a Broken Window by L.F. Falconer.

Genre: Horror.

Publisher: Outskirts Press.

Source: Copy provided by author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Take a peek, if you dare, and step into a world that balances upon the fringes of sanity.

Meet seven-year-old Ronnie who develops and unhealthy appetite for cranberries--or Andre, a travler who wanders into the wrong neck of the woods. Meet the ghosts of Virginia City, Nevada, and pray you never cross paths with the Devil of Desatoya. Ten dark tales of the strange and deranged, this collection of short stories is sure to appeal to the darker side of even the squeamish, so don't be shy. Take a look.

See for yourself what lies behind the broken window. ~Goodreads.com.

Midnyte Musings:  This collection of short Horror stories are filled with the gruesome, the gory and the spooky.

L.F. Falconer, I felt, at times,  explores how far she is willing to go and push boundaries without crossing the line into gratiuitious exploitation.  The events lend themselves to the stories and give validity to the ensuing plot.

I also thought that the title of the book, Through a Broken Window, taken from one of the stories fits the collection as an entirety.  It made me feel as a reader, I'm doing something ordinary with a gruesome twist.  I'm gazing through a window into Ms. Falconer's mind, into these stories, but the window is broken and shattered and something is terribly wrong within these fictional landscapes. 

I think another important part of storytelling is irony.  A grifter getting scammed, a murderer getting murdered, a relatable hero dying after a long and arduous journey.  This works well in the Horror genre and Falconer knows how to utilize it

The most disturbing tale, for me, is the first one, Christmas Cranberries about a serial killer in development and I also loved Sylvan Rain, which I felt was quite prolific, eerie and totally surprised me.  The aforementioned Through a Broken Window was quite nice as well and I wish the main character had taken the plunge because I myself as a reader wanted to know more than I was shown.  Still a cool story though.  Although I feel that the writing could use some work and polish, this was an interesting collection that had me pondering the stories when I was done.

Starstruck Over: The originality of some of the pieces.

I Travel By Night.

Title/Author:  I Travel by Night by Robert McCammon.

Genre: Horror/Western.

Publisher: Subterranean Press.

Source: Purchased.

Favorite character: Anne Kingsley.

Favorite Quote: "The night was his territory, his world, his blessing."

Synopsis: For Lawson, the horrors that stalked the Civil War battlefield at Shiloh were more than just those of war. After being forcibly given the gift of undeath by the mysterious vampire queen LaRouge, Lawson chose to cling to what remained of his humanity and fought his way free of the Dark Societys clutches. In the decades since, he has roamed late nineteenth-century America, doing what good he can as he travels by night, combating evils mundane and supernatural, and always seeking the key to regaining a mortal life.

That key lies with his maker, and now Lawson hopes to find LaRouge at the heart of a Louisiana swamp with the aid of a haunted priest and an unexpected ally. In the tornado-wracked ghost town of Nocturne, Lawson must face down monstrous enemies, the rising sun, and his own nature. ~Goodreads.com

My Thoughts: So, yay.  Robert McCammon's newest Horror read!  I Travel by Night has it all, a struggling hero, a damsel in distress, vampires, thrill, chills and an awesome gun totin' heroine.  This story went by fairly fast with no long, dawn out expositions or explanations.  One or two flashbacks, some reflection and mostly action. 

Trevor Lawson, the main character is a reluctant vampire who hopes to literally find his way back to humanity.  He has moral issues with the creature he's become, and it drives Lawson and the plot.  He struggles with what he is turning into and what he craves while trying to hold onto himself.  In a way, he is adhering to the philosophy that it's what you do with your life instead of letting circumstances overcome him.

There is a bit of vampire lore, enough to give you a taste and become intrigued.  I loved the cool names for the vampire society and the town that is lost in the swamp.  The vampires are quite creepy and nasty. I found myself in that room alongside Lawson at the climax of the story, surrounded by them and wondering what would happen. The plot has some twists that I did not see coming

The main settings of New Orleans and a swamp in the Bayou are rich and detailed and McCammon paints a vivid picture of the setting during the 1800s.  I love the significance of the title and while I don't want to ruin it for you, it gave a wonderful detail that lent itself well to the feel of the Western genre. Images of Bonanza comes to mind. I can see characters in this book in that show, with that production quality. The clothes, the settings, the action even the music.

I did like this book, a lot, but had some conflicting feelings for the main character Lawson.  I didn't feel as huge a connection to the main character that I'm used to with McCammon stories.  (Maybe it's because I read it right after another McCammon book and feel as if I know the main character of that series, Matthew Corbett, so well).  But on the other hand, this feeling also lent itself well to the "mysterious stranger" that he embodied.  The character I love is Anne "Remington" Kingsley, a trick shooter who arrives on the scene to assist Lawson.  I loved her courage and tenacity not to mention her resourcefulness. 

I do hope that Lawson prevails in the coming stories.  I would like to see him getting what he wants, his humanity and maybe he and Anne can have a happily ever after.

All in all: A fun and creepy addition to the Vampire Genre.

Challenges:

Enter, Night.

Title/Author: Enter, Night by Michael Rowe.

Genre: Horror.

Publisher: Chizine.

Source: Purchased.

Favorite character: Finnegan

Synopsis: Welcome to Parr's Landing, Population 1,528... and shrinking. The year is 1972. Widowed Christina Parr, her daughter Morgan, and her brother-in-law Jeremy have returned to the remote northern Ontario mining town of Parr''s Landing, the place from which Christina fled before Morgan was born, seeking refuge. Dr. Billy Lightning has also returned in search of answers to the mystery of his father''s brutal murder. All will find some version of what they seek - and more. Built on the site of a decimated 17th-century Jesuit mission to the Ojibwa, Parr's Landing is a town with secrets of its own buried in the caves around Bradley Lake. A three-hundred-year-old vampire is slumbering there, calling out to the insane and the murderous for centuries, begging for release - an invitation that has finally been answered. One man is following that voice, cutting a murderous swath across the country, bent on a terrible resurrection of the ancient horror... plunging the town and all its people into an endless night. ~Goodreads.com

My Thoughts:  Enter, Night is the kind of book that grew on me.  The novel takes place in the early 70s and it almost seems that the style itself is also from that era.  There is a long buildup giving the reader a lot of background, there are a lot of characters letting the reader become invested in them and there are thrills, chills and blood, giving a definite Horror stamp, but not too much that the story is a gore fest.  It's not the kind of book that jumps right into the action like so many stories today do.  It leads you around for a while showing you the scenery and just when you feel pretty safe, you realize you are heading for trouble.  It is subtle.  I liken it to walking down a slope.  It's slippery, but you think you can manage and by the time you realize you can't, it's too late. 

It takes a lot to scare me and Enter, Night included several very eerie scenes and one which made my jaw drop.  Literally.  If you like your vampires old school and terrifying, they can be found here.  The omniscient multiple viewpoints were not difficult to follow and gave the story a "thriller" formula and helped to build the tension.  Even while some people succumb to the horror of the vampire, there is still that feeling that you can turn a blind eye and not realize what's happening.  I think the seclusion of Parr's Landing helps to isolate the characters and the reader. 

There were several characters I loved as well, my favorites being Finnegan and Morgan, the young people in the story.  They have a very sweet friendship and as each feel that they are the loners in town, turn to each other.  I loved how the characters and events intertwined into each other creating a rich, dramatic plot.

Row's writing worked very well to put me in the moment.  He includes details that other other writers seem to overlook and takes full advantage of his own style and imagination.  There are a few scenes which take place in caves in the area and the way that the silence is described is so astute and worked so well. 

There are other horrifying elements in Enter, Night besides evil vampires.  The story also touches on the plight of Native Americans in the 1950s and how the church worked to "save"them as well as the view of small minded people on homosexuality and how they were "rehabilitated."  While not the main focus of the book, they are strong plot points that enriched the characters and gave me something to think about. 

I do feel that the beginning could have been edited down, unless Mr. Rowe was trying to lead us in one direction, only to surprise us when the story went in another.  Typos also pulled me out of the story and sometimes the dialogue just didn't work for me, but these were just moments within an epic story story not just of vampires, but of the history of Canada and it's people.  I think the backstory and mythology of this tale is rich and detailed.  In fact, there is even a sort of "epilogue" in the form of a letter that recounts events which lead to the present day story.  While a bit long, I appreciated the minute details and this could be held up as a novella in and of itself. 

All in all: A frightening, good ol' fashioned and unique vampire tale with lots of scares.

Challenges:

The Dead and Buried.

Title/Author: The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington.

Genre: YA/Horror/Supernatural/Thriller.

Publisher: Scholastic.

Source: Purchased.

Favorite character: Donovan

Synopsis: Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't.

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer? ~Goodreads.com

My Thoughts: The Dead and Buried is an easy book to fall into and one I didn't want to put down.  First of all the plot.  I loved how the death of the victim is recent.  It's not an old, buried secret.  This gives such a fresh perspective and spin on this kind of tale.  Another very interesting aspect is Jade's relationship with her step-mother Marie, and the family dynamic.  Jade lost her mother when she was younger and that tragedy echoes the more recent death of golden girl Kayla and also contributes to other plot threads. 

The haunting is very creepy and eerie.  I love how it builds up through the book until things get dangerous.  I also love how Jade tries to talk to her father and Maria about their haunted house.  Again, refreshing that she is including her parents and counting on them for help.  Unfortunately, this backfires and Jade has to face this alone.  However, she is not alone.  Kayla's ex-boyfriend Donovan is there to help her. 

Speaking of Donovan...I looooved him and I loved the romance.  Donovan is a bit guarded, a bit damaged and uber cool.  Yes, it may have seemed like insta-love, but I really didn't care.  Jade is attracted to him at first sight.  That's realistic right?  I also loved how she admits she wanted to fix him.  Now, I know a lot of people who like to "fix" others, but to me, this went a bit deeper than that.  I personally felt that Jade wanted to heal him, more than fix him.  I think Donovan is now one of my favorite literary crushes.  He's an artist, he's a gamer, he's sensitive.  I picture him looking like that tall guy who dances in the Microsoft Touch ad. 

There was maybe one time in the book that I felt Jade was a bit too good to be true, but overall I did like her.  I feel she is not only smart, but has a certain maturity and confidence as well.  She gives people chances but also is aware of their personalities and is careful of who she wants to be friends with.  I loved how Donovan saw her as a breath of fresh air and a person who is not afraid of being who she is.  We got to see her through someone else's eyes.  I also liked her hobby of gemstones and their meanings and the deeper reason of why she collected them.  Even though she sort of scoffs at the reality, she still wears them for the properties they give.

The reader also gets bits of inside information about Kayla not only from other people's accounts of her, but through her journal.  I have to admit, I found her fascinating.  Beautiful, athletic, smart and just plain mean.  She revels in her status at school and what she is capable of, but then towards the end there is a glimmer of what may contributed to her shortcomings.  We also get to see Donovan through Kayla's eyes which I really liked as well.  I think there were times I felt she realized that Donovan was too good for her.

I kind of knew who committed the crime and that was a bummer, but then there's always the thought in the back of your mind that you're wrong and maybe it's another person from the list of suspects.  That's all I'll say about that.  As for Harrington's writing and pacing, I thought it was clear and fun and moved.  There was nothing in the book that confused me and everything was resolved to my satisfaction. 

All in all:  A very fun thriller.  Well written, well paced with excellent characters. 

Other Editions:

Challenges:

Guest Review by Marie Sumner: Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories

Book Review: Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories by M.R. James

By Marie Sumner

Synopsis: The only annotated edition of M. R. James’s writings currently available, Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories contains the entire first two volumes of James’s ghost stories, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. These volumes are both the culmination of the nineteenth-century ghost story tradition and the inspiration for much of the best twentieth-century work in this genre. Included in this collection are such landmark tales as “Count Magnus,” set in the wilds of Sweden; “Number 13,” a distinctive tale about a haunted hotel room; “Casting the Runes,” a richly complex tale of sorcery that served as the basis for the classic horror film Curse of the Demon; and “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” one of the most frightening tales in literature. The appendix includes several rare texts, including “A Night in King’s College Chapel,” James’s first known ghost story.


If Montague Rhodes James could read Stephen King or Clive Barker, he’d probably be appalled. He certainly didn’t have many good things to say about their predecessors: in his essay “Some Remarks on Ghost Stories,” he called the stories in the anthology Not at Night (which was comprised mainly of excerpts from Weird Tales) “merely nauseating, and it is very easy to be nauseating… The authors of the stories I have in mind tread, as they believe, in the steps of Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce (himself sometimes unpardonable), but they do not possess the force of either.” If you could tell James, who decried the use of sex and graphic violence, that he helped pave the road for modern horror, which is no stranger to either, he’d most likely be downright mortified. Nonetheless, the ghost stories of M.R. James, which elicited great praise from no less an eminence than H.P. Lovecraft, provided one of the foundations of horror fiction as we know it today.

The stories in the 2005 Penguin release Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories come from James’s first two ghost story collections, Ghost-Stories of an Antiquary (1904) and More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1911). These constitute the main bulk of his achievement in the horror genre. Different readers will probably have their own favorite stories, but mine include “Number 13,” “‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,’” “Count Magnus” and “Casting the Runes” (which provided the inspiration for the great 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon).

Many of James’s stories follow the same basic pattern. A male scholar or researcher travels to some unfamiliar locale (it can be in another country or simply in some obscure English town). He comes to this place in order to work on a book, investigate some artwork or artifact or do something along these lines. Various little incidents occur that aren’t too creepy in themselves but build up in the mind of the reader. Finally, there comes the moment when something unequivocally frightening occurs (the occupant of the mysterious thirteenth room appears, the sarcophagus begins to open, etc.). A swift denouement follows, and the reader is left with lingering, delightful feelings of nervousness and dread.

A big part of the power of James’s stories comes from the dry, even tone that he applies to his narration. “Number 13” is a perfect example of this. James devotes much of the story to the mundane details of Mr. Anderson’s trip to a town in Denmark. You read about the back and forth between Anderson and the proprietor of the hotel he stays in, his findings as he goes about his scholarly pursuits and so forth. As written, it feels as if the narrator were just chatting with you over a cup of tea. That makes it even scarier when the characters run afoul of supernatural elements. By layering on all of these realistic details and by describing them in such a calm, conversational way, the story achieves what James says that all good ghost stories should do: it gives the reader the feeling that “If I’m not very careful, something of this kind may happen to me!”

That brings me to one slight misgiving that I have about James’s stories. If there’s anything to dislike about them, it’s their rather simplistic view of the world. Pretty much all of the stories in this collection boil down to a basic message: “Don’t cross the line or you’ll get punished.” Once you reach the end of Count Magnus, you may feel a little bit like a schoolboy or schoolgirl getting scolded by a likeable but strict clergyman or schoolteacher (which, judging from the various details of his life described in the introduction, is pretty much what James was). Still, there’s a lot to enjoy about these stories. The conversational tone of James’s narration makes them extremely easy to read, and he had a good ear for dialogue. Count Magnus also has an incisive introduction and informative notes by renowned scholar S.T. Joshi. Taken as a whole, this is a must-have for any serious horror fan’s library.


Marie Sumner has loved classic horror since she read Poe in junior high. She recently started writing for Costumesupercenter.com, which allows her to indulge her love of ghosts, zombies and everything else that goes bump in the night.

 

A Conversation with Stephen King.

~12/7/2012.
~Chancellor Series at UMASS Lowell. 
~Tsongas Center Arena.

Stephen King walked on stage to a standing ovation.

Of course he did.

His name is part of our vocabulary.  His stories part of our pop culture and the epitome of American Horror.  All these things.  All this notoriety and he exudes a comfortable  mannerism of just your average Joe who throws the f-bomb around with ease.  I think for a split second, that hey, I could hang out with him.  But no. I would never be able to keep up with his humorous patter and quick comebacks.

Fellow author Andre Dubuse III (Townie, House of Sand and Fog) and a faculty member at Lowell moderated the event and began to count off Stephen King's list of accomplishments, Mr. King interjected with one liners as if he were on a comedy tour.

Andre stated that he has outsold Charles Dickens...
"He didn't have e-books in his day." Stephen King reminded the audience.
Andre brought up his many movie adaptations.
"Some of which were good." Mr. King allowed.
Andre revealed that he and Mr. King met 25 years ago.
"You made dirty jokes and I, (insert dramatic pause), talked about literature."

Andre told the audience that many years ago, his father was run over and basically crippled, Stephen King along with a few other authors, gave him money for his astronomical medical bills.  "This is like Steve King's greatest hits.  Let's play Freebird." King quipped without missing a beat.  Then Stephen pointed out that John Irving put together the fundraising for Mr. Dubuse.  Stephen King: Mr. Humble.

Andre and Stephen discussed his book On Writing and the subject of plotting. When Stephen found out the John Irving writes the last line in his books, Mr. King blurted out "That spoils the fun."  He writes by discovery.  The story takes shape, the characters take shape.  He starts with the "What If?" exercise that writers seem to carry in their back pockets all the time.  Case in point, Cujo.  Stephen was riding to a repair shop on his bike and an enormous St. Bernard came growling out of it's resting spot.  He described his eyes and mouth as if the event happened yesterday.  "Oh that's just Buster, he does that to everyone.  But he loves everyone."  The owner said.  Stephen put his hand down in peace and Buster was just about to spring when the owner clocked the dog, perhaps saving Mr. King from being mauled.  "Buster must not like your looks." He explained.  What if the owner wasn't there?  What if he was in a car that broke down?  What if he had a child with him?  The situation first, then the characters.  Little by little the characters begin to develop.  "Let it." Advises Mr. King.  "Don't try to push or manage them.  I make all these things up."

"I make all this shit up and you pay me!" He cried with glee.  "You guys put my kids through college and I scared the shit out of you!"

The conversation turned to how Stephen is one of the most recognizable writers of our time and he regaled us with different tales.  How people will just yell out from vehicles driving by.  "Yo!  Stevie!  Cujo!  Yeah!"  How a cook at Nathan's in Coney Island mistook him for Frances Ford Coppola and Stephen gave him that autograph.  But my favorite, (favorite, favorite) was when he had dinner with Bruce Springsteen in a restaurant in New York City.  A teenage girl was out celebrating her birthday with her parents.  She approached the table with her feet barely touching the ground.  "The Boss" started to take out a pen from his inside jacket pocket.  "Are you Stephen King?"  She asked in adulation.  "She never fuckin' looked at him!" Stephen exclaimed.   

Andre read a passage from On Writing. A beautiful passage that sounded like poetry and reflection.  It is common sense and revelation given with gentle power.  I read the book and don't quite recall the piece verbatim, but I'm making a mental note to re-read it. 

"Do you want to hear a story?" Stephen King asked and then proceeded to read Afterlife, which has never been published before.  It's a tale about a man who dies and finds himself talking to a bureaucrat about going back and doing it all over again.

The Q&A was much more organized that I ever would have thought and I applaud the staff at the Tsongas Center.  Or maybe it's simply because Stephen King fans are just so civilized.  (Well perhaps with the exception of the zealous fan who was screaming something about going down on his hands and knees if Mr. King would look at his manuscript.  Or maybe it was just a scrapbook.  I didn't catch it.)

One reader wanted to know why he didn't work more with the Halloween industry?  Such as work with Universal Studios? 

"They wouldn't want a ride I created because there'd be nooooo repeat customers." 

A student asked about becoming a writer, Mr. King encouraged college, and talked about finding what gives you a buzz, whether it be writing or playing an instrument.  "Tuition costs but dreams are forever." Stephen King: College advisor.

When someone thanked him for all his books, he replied. "I'm glad it was good for you.  It was great for me."

One woman wanted to know when he did get that first advance for Carrie, did he and Tabatha repair their car or buy a new one?  The Kings bought a Ford Pinto.  "We loved that fuckin' car!  It was brand new!"

When discussing the relationships in his books, he stressed that he sets out to tell a story and make the characters as believable as he can.  What you want is reader identification and confessed,  "I've got a reputation as a Horror writer, but I've really got a marshmallow for a heart."  Stephen King: Romantic.

"Did you ever terrify yourself?" Stephen doesn't have bad dreams.  He puts them in his writing.  But after he wrote Pet Semetery it scared him so much that he put it in a drawer and thought no one would want to read it.  The time he scared himself the most was when he was writing The Shining and counted down the days to the scene "...he knew was coming."  Danny going in room 217.  The room with a dead woman in a bathtub who's not really dead. 

In my opinion the best question of the night was from a young boy named Vaughn.  (I may be totally crucifying the spelling.)  "I'm talking to Stephen King." He said in wonder.  He then said he was 11 to which the author replied, "You go on with your bad self!"  Vaughn wanted to know what were some of his best writing moments.  Stephen told us how the idea for The Stand germinated from a radio show he listened to in Boulder, Co where an evangelist talked about a plague. 

The evening was over in a flash.  Where did the time go?  As the audience prepared to depart, Mr. King warned that 7% of people forget to lock their car and to be wary of maniacs hiding in the back seat. 

His stories, not just the ones that come out of his head, but his personal stories, his struggles, his thoughts, grant us a view into the mind of the most iconic writer of our time.  His writing represents his love for the craft, story telling and exploration.  His openness is a testament to his generosity, his thoughtfulness and wisdom. 

I may have teared up once or twice.  Of course I did.

Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen, and the Criminally Insane.

Title/Author: Psychos: Serial Killers, Depraved Madmen and the Criminally Insane.  Edited by John Skipp.

Genre: Horror.

Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal.

Source: Received from Publisher.

Favorite character:  n/a

All in all:  Fantastic & Frightening!

Synopsis: This collection of thirty-five terrifying tales of serial killers at large, written by the great masters of the genre, plumbs the horrifying depths of a deranged mind and the forces of evil that compel a human being to murder, gruesomely and methodically, over and over again.

From Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) to Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), stories of serial killers and psychos loom large and menacing in our collective psyche. Tales of their grisly conquests have kept us cowering under the covers, but still turning the pages.

Psychos is the first book to collect in a single volume the scariest and most well-crafted fictional works about these deranged killers. Some of the stories are classics, the best that the genre has to offer, by renowned writers such as Neil Gaiman, Jack Ketchum, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Harris. Other selections are from the latest and most promising crop of new authors.

John Skipp, who is also the editor of Zombies, Demons and Werewolves and Shapeshifters, provides fascinating insight, through two nonfiction essays, into our insatiable obsession with serial killers and how these madmen are portrayed in popular culture. Resources at the end of the book includes lists of the genre's best long-form fiction, movies, websites, and writers. ~Goodreads.com

Favorite Quotes: "Right or wrong, the loser of any argument is the one who broods on it after the last word." ~Life Coach. "...standing inside the stained-glass confection of the old church was like being imprisoned inside a kaleidoscope of jewels." ~Neil Gaiman, Feminine Endings.

My thoughts:  This is quite a collection of horror, and the scariest part?  It could all conceivably happen.  There are no vampires, werewolves, ghosts or witches.  There are only people.  Horrible, twisted people.  From lunatics you meet on the road, to intruders who invade your house not necessarily to harm you, but to victimize you all the same. As John Skipp states, "We are obsessed with our crimes."  I think this shows in our television programming, cinema and the plethora of thrillers on bookstore and library shelves.  Crimes, or rather why people commit crimes fascinate people.  I know they fascinate me.  By reading these stories, you may not get all your answers and they may in fact, bring up more questions, but still fascinate. 

There are quite a few familiar re-printed stories along with a few new ones.  Some had a familiar ring, as if I'd read them for a class, but I can't quite remember.  Some of my favorites are Joe Lansdale's Incident On and Off a Mountain Road in which the protagonist had more than a few surprises up her sleeve.  I think my favorite was The Shallow End of the Pool by Adam-Troy Castro, because it did give some insight into the main protagonist.  In the story she gained insight and learned and I felt empathy for her, although I don't think I could ever have gone through what she did.  Life with Father by Bentley Little is a sad story of recycling gone over the edge and don't make the same mistake I did by eating lunch while reading that one.  Life Coach by Cody Goodfellow impressed me with it's prolific writing and astute observations.  In Mannerly Man, a kind of Dystopian Horror, it seemed to me that the "killer" was simply a victim of circumstance, behaving in a way a new society taught and condoned.  Intruder put me in mind of a lunatic with OCD and as disgusting as it was, it still made me laugh. 

What I also love are insights.  Phrases of philosophy that are gems.  "Paradise can be nothing more than a Hell not quite as bad as a Hell you've already known." from The Shallow End of the Pool. and another favorite from Now Hold Still by David J. Schow with the comparison of good memories versus bad ones.  "Good ones tend to shrink on the shelf, while bad ones swell up to absorb more space."  How sad, yet true in a lot of cases.  Perhaps if people could transpose the two, stop dwelling on the bad ones and focusing on the good ones, the world may be a better place.

I appreciated was Skipp's intro to each story, the reasons he included them in his anthology.  However, they read more like he was discussing them with me.  Sort of like when a friend gives you a book or story with the reasons you should read it. 

The only issues I had were a few typos that made sentences grammatically awkward and pulled me out of the story when I tried to puzzle out a meaning.  However, it did not make the stories less enjoyable or less horrific.  Of course, there are always a few stories that grab you more than others with Sensible Violence being one in the collection that I didn't connect with as it just read too long for me and took place too much in the protagonist's mind. 

However, don't skip any of the stories, they make a complete package, kind of like a music cd.  Experience the entire project and be repelled, fascinated, and be thankful that you have never run into any of these characters.

Also check out Darkeva's review of Psychos HERE.

Challenges:

Seed.

Title/Author: Seed by Ania Ahlborn.

Genre: Horror.

Publisher: 47North.

Source: Received at BEA 2012.

Favorite character: Charlie.

All in all: Creepy.

Synopsis: With nothing but the clothes on his back — and something horrific snapping at his heels — Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was still just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in a trucker's rearview mirror, he thought he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever. But years later, the bright new future he's built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead. When Jack, his wife Aimee, and their two small children survive a violent car crash, it seems like a miracle. But Jack knows what he saw on the road that night, and it wasn't divine intervention. The profound evil from his past won't let them die, at least not quickly. It's back, and it's hungry; ready to make Jack pay for running, to work its malignant magic on his angelic youngest daughter, and to whisper a chilling promise: I've always been here, and I'll never leave. ~Goodreads.com

My thoughts:  I have been following author Ania Ahlborn on Twitter for a while and even bought the e-book version of her book.  However, it wasn't until the Horror Aficionados on Goodreads decided to read it that finally pushed me to start Seed.  (I read the physical book that I received at BEA.) 

Seed was a fast read for me and I looked forward to each time I could pick it up again.  It is a tale of good and evil...wait, maybe I should say "normalcy" and evil.  There is nothing astounding about this family.  They are normal people just trying to get by.  It has never occured to them that they would have problems larger than trying to make ends meet. Then strange things start to happen revolving around their youngest daughter Charlie.  Is it something mental, emotional,  physiological or does it go beyond that?  The story brings up a lot of questions but in the end the answer is there and it is very satisfying to me. 

I liked the mystery of the tale, the way it jumps between Jack's childhood and his present day adult life.  It gave me ideas to ponder and then it built up to an event that I wasn't sure was going to occur.  There are little hints throughout that made sense to me later in the book, or after I thought about them.  And I did think about them.  The events are memorable and the people believable. 

The scary parts are so eerie I found myself giggling in glee because they creeped me out.  It's hard for a book to do that.  Although some of the scary events had been done before, Ania took me into the world and had me experiencing them for myself.  There were truly some horrific parts and I remember the author taking some heat for it a while back on Twitter, but in my opinion, they are done well.  Some with just hints of the violence that has occured and some with gore that is not overdone.

***SPOILER ALERT: I thought it was interesting and unique to read Charlie and Jack's point of view when they behaved in certain ways.  They explain that they couldn't help themselves, much like a compulsive person.  One of the freakiest parts for me was when Charlie stood over her sister's bed while she slept.  Not just the fact that she did it, but why she felt she had to do it.  :END SPOILER ALERT***

If Jack confused me and contradicted himself, I feel it was because he himself was confused and conflicted.  On the one hand he wants to protect his family from his secret, on the other hand he would do anything to keep them from finding out his secret.  So just how far does he have to go?  Part of me wondered what he really wanted and who he really was.  I didn't particularly think of him as a strong character, just the protagonist that perhaps turns his back on the truth. 

This is a simple story, yet there are many complex layers to it.  I feel Seed is a clean tale, with enough mysteries and questions to keep the reader guessing and questioning.  And may I say, I was thrilled to read a straight up Horror story!

The tension builds and builds until the end, which didn't happen quite the way I expected.  (Which I loved.)   I think it could have gone in several different directions, but I applaud the authors choice.  It made my wicked smile appear. 

Actually, most of the book made my wicked smile appear. 

Other editions:

Challenges: