The First 18 Days by Trisha M. Wilson

August 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment

18
The First 18 Days by Trisha M. Wilson
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (138 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

I am in Hell.

Correction, Damnation.

I’m dead but I don’t care. What is this place I’ve fallen into with its neat rows of the pure white townhouses with a backdrop of more white? Where is the evil, the fire, the brimstone, the painful, agonizing screams of torture? Where is the Hell?
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The only thing remotely interesting about Damnation is the fact that we can’t go into Damnation Gardens. Why? What lurks behind those tall, imposing black walls? Will it be something truly hellish or will I spend eternity in this peaceful, too perfect place?

Not if I have anything to do with it. Hell shall rise with me.

How would you respond to an afterlife that wasn’t at all what you were expecting it to be?

The protagonist’s personal development was marvelous. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on with this character because the plot was written from a first-person perspective. This turned out to be an excellent decision, though, because it required me as a reader to think carefully about the clues the main character dropped about who they had been when they were alive.

The only thing I would have liked to see done differently had to do with which names of the characters were shared with the audience. A couple of their names were revealed. The vast majority were not. This is a very minor criticism of an otherwise chilling story, but I think it would have been more consistent for all of the characters to either mention their real names or keep them concealed.

There’s something to be said for letting a reader’s imagination run wild. Ms. Wilson struck a smart balance between describing what Damnation looked and sounded like and allowing me to imagine other key elements of it for myself. It was far scarier to come up with my own interpretation of what certain parts of this community were really like or why they operated the way they did than to have everything handed to me. Writing it this way was smart!

The First 18 Days was so frightening that I had to stop reading it well before bedtime. This is a fantastic choice for anyone who loves the horror genre.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Zombie Rapture by Stuart R. West

July 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment

SOMBIE
Zombie Rapture by Stuart R. West
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (266 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Life is good for Hunter Wright. He’s just about to graduate from high school and he’s found true love. Just in time to lose her. Because the Rapture’s begun and those in his path, living and dead, stand in his way of finding her. And it’s not the Rapture the faithful have been expecting either. Someone failed to tell the dead they’re not in Heaven.

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One of the things I like the most about zombies is how relentless they are. Other monsters can be outrun or outsmarted, but there’s almost nothing in the world that can stop these creatures. Mr. West’s version of them was particularly creepy because of how much time he took to describe the way their minds work. Those passages were really well done. I’ve read a lot of zombie fiction over the years. This was by far the scariest example of them that I’ve come across so far!

I would have liked to see more character development in this book, especially when it came to Hunter. He made decisions during the course of the plot that I didn’t always understand. What I did manage to figure out about his personality was fascinating, but there simply wasn’t enough information about it for me to form an accurate mental image of what it would be like to be in the same room as him or how the Rapture changed his personality.

The dialogue was short and efficient. Given the dangerous predicament they’d found themselves in, it made sense to me that Hunter and his friends wouldn’t be particularly interested in drawn-out discussions. I appreciated the fact that they showed their awareness of what was going on in part by choosing to stay quiet as much as they possibly could. It was a realistic response to their circumstances, and I liked that.

Zombie Rapture is a good choice for anyone in the mood for a fresh twist on this genre.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Rise of the Iron Eagle by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

July 8, 2015 By 1 Comment

IRON
Rise of the Iron Eagle by Roy A. Teel, Jr.
Publisher: Narroway Publishing, LLC.
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery, Horror
Length: Full Length (278 pgs)
Other: M/F, M/F/F, Voyeurism, Menage
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

Is The Iron Eagle a psychotic serial killer?

Or a new breed of Justice?

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Jim O’Brian and FBI Profiler Special Agent Steve Hoffman are hunting for a brutal serial killer; however, this case defies the profiling rules both men have been trained to detect. “The Iron Eagle” appears to only hunt and capture serial killers. Time is of the essence as with each passing day “The Eagle” gets more brazen. The deeper O’Brian and Hoffman dig into profiling the killer, the more they realize that this is more than a race against time – it’s a race laden with the realization that the killer may be one of their own.

If a reader is looking for a book that requires reading with the lights on and who enjoys a story about a criminal mastermind, then pull up a chair and get comfortable because Rise of the Iron Eagle is a wild ride and is sure to leave a haunting legacy in your dreams.
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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I decided to read this novel. I wasn’t bored, I wasn’t left unaffected and I sure as heck am glad I’m reading about the stuff that went on instead of seeing it for real. I think Mr. Teel, Jr.’s writing about criminals is like what Stephen King does for horror – leaves a lasting impression and horrifies while weaving a tale that one can’t step away from.

I ended up classifying this book as an erotic based on the three way relationship between one of the characters and two women. Also, the fact that a few of the deviants in the story got off on voyeurism while they did what they did was another reason I labeled it thus. However, this is first and foremost a mystery, and a murder mystery at that. And, this is a novel about one man on a crusade against the vilest of the vile, the most heinous and inhumane of human beings, and reading about them kept me on the edge of my seat.

The one thing that the author wanted to make crystal clear, and was abundantly successful, is making a reader believe that the method of death meted out by the Iron Eagle was warranted. Sure, Steve, the FBI guy, wanted the investigations of the crimes done by the book but, there’s a gray area that he sort of teeters on. Then there’s Jim, who actually is more open about accepting that what the Iron Eagle is doing isn’t such a bad thing, even when he duplicates the horrors done to victims onto the perpetrators themselves. It was extremely difficult to read because the author was highly graphic in his details. There is rape and torture and other extremely violent behaviors but it’s recounted in a manner to get the reader on the Eagle’s side. And, for me, it worked. Yes, I cringed a lot, and took a lot of breaks, too because some descriptions were horrendous and uncomfortable to read but that’s the point. Those creeps were under the radar, killing with seeming impunity, and until the Iron Eagle put the clues together and acted, no one was going to stop them.

What I liked were the surprises. I thought that I was going to be left with the mystery of trying to figure out who the Iron Eagle was but that was actually shared with the reader part way through. And I asked myself, why? Turns out there’s a cold case that is the whole impetus for the book. That’s the real mystery and eventually, although I wasn’t too keen on the cold and precise manner in which retribution was delivered, I ended up being very sympathetic to the Iron Eagle. I didn’t expect that.

Dialogue was dark, dangerous, powerful, gritty and incredibly effective. The characterization of both Steven and Jim were not written as touchy feely, getting to know you and your emotions type of detail, but were written as hard bitten, professional and driven. They are men who are extremely fallible with vices, profanity laden speech and yet take pride in the jobs they do. They really are the good guys, with a dark edge. But no one is as dark as the Iron Eagle. I eventually find out why and it broke my heart.

The ending was profound. As much as the author went into great gory detail with the initial few serial killers, when the final moment of reckoning came it was just a tiny teensy bit more anti-climactic than I expected. And you want to know why? Because I wanted the bad guy to suffer more, to pay harder for what was done to all the victims, and in my estimation, he wasn’t. In that I guess even I have a little bit of vigilantism in me. Imagine that.

Rise of the Iron Eagle is dark, gritty, compelling and powerful. It’s not a comfortable read but it’s potent, gripping, exciting and any other word you can think of to describe a book that makes a person read through their fingers because they alternately want to hide but can’t help but continue to read all at the same time. Believe it or not, there might even be a romance relationship coming out of this horror. Talk about unconventional. It’s not the focus but it sure made me happy that even with all this death and atrocity, love could still be found. Yet, even as one case comes to a satisfying closure, the author dangled a surprising carrot. I might need to fortify myself with cotton candy and fluff, but I definitely would read the next book in the series. Mr. Teel, Jr. has a commanding story-telling voice and Rise of the Iron Eagle is proof. Check it out and see, if you dare.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

B Is For Broken Anthology

June 12, 2015 By 1 Comment

BROKEN
B Is For Broken Anthology
Edited by Rhonda Parrish
Publisher: Poise and Pen Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical, Action/Adventure
Length: Full Length (296 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Broken people, broken promises, broken dreams and broken objects are just some of the ways these 26 fantastic stories interpret the theme of ‘Broken’. From science fiction to fantasy, horror to superheroes the stories within these pages cover a vast swath of the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Featuring original fiction by:

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Science fiction has a creepy side. You can read about it here.

The titles of these tales give away major spoilers about what happens in them. Ms. Parrish used this same creative technique in her previous anthology, A Is For Apocalypse. Once again I will be referring to the author’s name in this review instead of the titles of their contributions so that other readers will remain just as surprised as I was by what happens in them.

Ms. Cleto caught my attention immediately. It was fun to figure out what a Snow Queen with a rare, magical gift could possibly have in common with an ordinary teenage girl like Gwyn. I enjoyed jumping back and forth between their timelines as I attempted to piece all of the clues together. The ending worked particularly well for the short story form due to how quickly the plots were sketched out.

This doesn’t happen very often when I read anthologies, but I enjoyed every single selection in this book. Some of them would have worked much better as novellas or full-length novels, though, due to their complicated plots. Ms. Simon and Mr. Fosbury’s piece of fiction was a good example of this. It showed what happened to a village midwife named Hessura after she made a difficult choice for one of the pregnant women she had helped. The premise was fascinating, but the plot simply didn’t have quite enough time to fully develop.

As soon as I started reading Mr. Phillips’ entry, I couldn’t wait to discover out what happened next. He described a little girl named Adina who born with an unusual birth defect. Her mother soon figured out how to turn this anomaly into a steady source of income for the family. The character development was incredible, especially considering how quickly the author needed to work in order to pull everything together. I never wanted to stop listening to what Adina had to say.

I’d recommend B Is For Broken to anyone who loves contemporary science fiction as much as I do. There is a lot of great material to explore in this collection!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Outsiders Anthology

June 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment

UT
The Outsiders by Stephen Bacon, James Everington, Gary Fry, V.H. Leslie, and Rosanne Rabinowitz
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (98 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

a Suspense Thriller / Horror featuring the gated community of Priory, with its cult leader Charles Erich and his followers, including those who want to overthrow him, and those who’ll do anything for him. Is that which they worship the true evil, or does evil reside in them?

Inside Priory awaits a lot more than meets the eye. The people might seem friendly, but only because their enigmatic leader Charles Erich accepts nothing less.

The cottages within this gated community seem simple enough, and even though what lurks beneath them is more ancient than mankind itself, can anything be more evil than the people worshipping it?

If you dare follow this UK invasion of five prime authors as they each tell their own story of the people living behind Priory’s steel gates and high walls, you’ll quickly find yourself an outsider, as well.

Stories by Stephen Bacon, James Everington, Gary Fry, V.H. Leslie, and Rosanne Rabinowitz.
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The Priory. A community of one mind and purpose. A place of order, commitment, peace, and service. A perfect world, building on mind shattering secrets from beyond the pale. Enter…if you dare.

Anything can happen behind a security wall, especially when what lurks behind it is so well-hidden.

Lee introduced the reader to this secretive community in “The Subprime.” As a man stuck in a job he finds morally objectionable, he was ready to turn in his resignation when his boss invited him to Priory for an sociable evening. While I figured out the twist early on, it was still worthwhile to see how everything unfolded because the author spent so much time setting it all up precisely.

“Impossible Colours” followed a police officer named Michala Bruce as she attempted to find out what happened to a man who had recently moved to Priory. Her perspective as someone who lived elsewhere was fascinating, although the inclusion of more than one narrator was distracting for something this length. Had it only been written in Michala’s voice, this would have been my favorite tale of them all.

What I found most intriguing about “Stolen from the Sea” was how much time it spent on character development. No one is entirely good or evil, so it was interesting to get to know certain characters from a point of view that I hadn’t considered yet. It’s hard to discuss this in any detail without giving away spoilers, but I was pleased with how much time the author spent showing why and how these individuals made certain decisions.

Petra and Bernard’s shifting relationship as a newly retired couple in “Precious Things” piqued my curiosity. It could have easily been expanded into a full-length novel, although it worked equally well as a short work. I also liked how the plot provided a few more hints about what was going on, especially since some of them were introduced so subtly.

There were a few things about “Meat, Motion, and Light” that I had trouble understanding. Claudia grew up in this community and has begun to question some of the things she experienced during those years. Some of the memories she shared with the reader seemed to contradict what we’d been taught earlier. I was never quite sure if I’d misunderstood the rules earlier or if Claudia’s interpretation of them was supposed to catch me off guard. It would have been helpful to have more details about this as I was otherwise fascinated by her account of what happened.

All of these stories are set in the same universe and involve the same general group of characters. I should note that the introduction to this anthology, “Welcome to Priory,” contained some spoilers. While it provided valuable information about how and why Priory was first formed, I probably wouldn’t have read it until I’d finished “Stolen from the Sea” had I known ahead of time that it would giving me so many hints about what was to come.

The Outsiders is a mystery that knows how to flirt heavily with science fiction. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys either genre.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Lesson by Joyce Ward

April 29, 2015 By Leave a Comment

LESSON
The Lesson by Joyce Ward
Publisher: Champagne Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (62 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A rebellious, young woman and her stoned boyfriend learn an important and frightening lesson after behaving badly in a mortuary.

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Including basic backstories for the two main characters was a smart decision. Early on in this tale they make a decision that I would have otherwise found hard to believe. Knowing what kind of people they were made it easy to understand how their minds work and why they would consider this kind of choice to be a good one.

There was one plot hole that I would have liked to see addressed in this tale. It was something that I definitely would have expected at least one of the characters to notice right away, so figuring out why it wasn’t being mentioned was distracting. Had this not been the case, I would have selected a much higher rating for this story as I really enjoyed everything else about it.

Horror doesn’t always have to include blood. There are plenty of ways to frighten an audience without getting gory, and Ms. Ward spooked me with quite a few of them. I was so interesting in discovering what would happen to Kevin and Pamela next that I read the whole thing in one sitting, and I made sure to keep the lights on for a few hours after I finished it. Some images really shouldn’t be rattling around in my mind in the dark!

The Lesson made me shudder. It’s something I’d recommend to both longterm and brand new fans of the scary side of science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon by Roma Gray

April 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment

GRAY
Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon by Roma Gray
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Holiday, Contemporary, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (117 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The path into darkness begins here…

How often have you read a short story and wished you could see what happened after the big ending? In this book, the ending is just the beginning as each short story represents a chapter in an upcoming Roma Gray novel or novel series.

SECTION 1: A collection of six Halloween-flavored short stories. The stories are a mixed assortment of spooky, action adventure, and horror tales.

SECTION 2: Interviews with the fictional characters giving the reader the inside scoop on their upcoming novels.

Never let the adventure end…

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1. FEAST ON FAT TUESDAY: At Mardi Gras, a vampire realizes he has become the prey.
2. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED: The discovery of Atlantis changes the world in ways no one could have ever anticipated…or wanted.
3. SUMMER VACATION: A teenager discovers that not only is black magic real, it’s also very unpredictable.
4. THE INVISIBLE CARRIER: A deadly plague is spreading through the Pacific Northwest, but no one can figure out how. It might just be the truth is too strange to believe.
5. UNNATURAL DISASTERS: Governments are isolating disaster sites from the rest of the world. What are they trying to hide?
6. WILL THE REAL MONSTER PLEASE STAND UP? A rampaging mummy, two insane cats, and a secret government agency. For archeologist Alistair Black, it’s turning into a very strange night.

Expecting the unexpected isn’t as easy as it looks.

The interviews with certain key characters were incredibly well done. They provided information that I found both entertaining and completely necessary in order to fully understand what was going on for some of them. I ended up scrolling down to read the interview immediately after finishing each tale, and I was glad I made that decision. They worked much better together, although it’s difficult to go into any specific details here without giving away spoilers.

It took me a little while to settle into some of the plots due to their unique formats. Because each one is part of a much longer work, the pacing was nothing at all like what I would usually expect from a short story. A great deal of time was spent introducing characters and describing the worlds they lived in, and the main sources of conflict were sometimes a little slow to arrive. This makes perfect sense for something full length, but it was occasionally jarring for short fiction.

With that being said, I am eagerly anticipating all of the books that the main characters will be featured in. Every single one of them included something that surprised or intrigued me for completely different reasons. I’ve never seen anything like this done in the science fiction genre before and was impressed by how the author tied it all together. Ms. Gray took a risk here. It paid off quite well.

Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon has whetted my appetite for more. If you’re in the mood for something incredibly original, give it a try!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense by Don Sloan

March 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment

 

SISTERS
The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense by Don Sloan
(Book One of the Dark Forces Series)
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Horror, Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (266 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In this book, written in the style of Stephen King, two young people on vacation in a small New England seacoast town battle unspeakable horror and solve a hundred-year-old mystery. Fourteen Victorian mansions whisper dark secrets among themselves, and a dangerous shadow roams up and down the wide, wintry boulevard in search of new prey.

Imagine what old buildings would say if they had a way to share what’s really happened behind their closed doors over the years.
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There’s something slightly eerie about owning a house that has been passed from one family to the next for generations. Stories that explore why this can be so potentially creepy are among my favorite ones in the horror genre. Having so many of these homes included in the same tale, then, was a real treat for me. I was able to explore multiple histories instead of only one.

I had some trouble warming up to the beginning of this novel. The pacing of the plot was slow and uneven due to the inclusion of multiple flashbacks to things that happened in and nearby the houses many years ago. It also took me some time to figure out what was happening when the narration temporarily switched over to the houses’ perspectives. I found the writing styles of those sections confusing even after I knew how to interpret them because of how informally they used punctuation marks.

Wow, the antagonist was seriously frightening! One of the reasons why I was so freaked out by this villain is that the plot danced around the topic for such a long time. Wondering who or what Nathan and Sarah might be facing took up a great deal of time because there were so few clues about what was really going on.

The narration regularly switched between the present and past tense. The past tense was used for the contemporary scenes, and the present tense was used for events that happened in the houses a long time ago. While it was an interesting way to differentiate between various points in history, I did find it distracting to switch between the tenses so often. Sticking with one of them would have made my reading experience more comfortable.

Sometimes dreams feel like they’re actually happening. At other times real life can be as hazy as a dream. One of the things I appreciated the most about this book was how easily it was able to capture this uncertainty. It worked well for the premise and kept me on my toes as the characters continued to try to figure out what was happening.

The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense is a good choice for anyone who likes the dark, gory side of science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Pendle Curse by Catherine Cavendish

March 13, 2015 By Leave a Comment

CURSE
The Pendle Curse by Catherine Cavendish
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Horror, Paranormal
Length: Full Length (202 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Thistledown

Four hundred years ago, ten convicted witches were hanged on Gallows Hill. Now they are back…for vengeance.Laura Phillips’s grief at her husband’s sudden death shows no sign of passing. Even sleep brings her no peace. She experiences vivid, disturbing dreams of a dark, brooding hill,and a man—somehow out of time—who seems to know her. She discovers that the place she has dreamed about exists. Pendle Hill. And she knows she must go there.But as soon as she arrives, the dream becomes a nightmare. She is caught up in a webof witchcraft and evil…and a curse that will not die.

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Laura Phillips is grief stricken over the loss of her husband. As she grieves she is stricken by strange occurrences and dreams that make her question her sanity. She researches landmarks from the dream and is drawn to the mysterious Pendle Hill, a site well known for long ago witch trials. She knows she has to go there but when she does, she steps not into the pleasant and restful vacation she craves but into the arms of an ancient evil waiting for their chance.

This book took off from the get go for me. I’ve read Catherine Cavendish’s work before and have enjoyed her brand of storytelling. In this story, you feel the grief of a woman who has lost her husband and the desperate grasping at anything that gives her life meaning once more. When she begins to dream of a stranger and a very particular hill, she finds out about the place and books a trip. Unfortunately for her, the past is very much alive in Pendle and the witches won’t go quietly.

The historical aspect of the story appealed to me immensely and as Laura got in deeper and deeper, I couldn’t put this book down. It was a bounce back and forth between contemporary and historical settings, with changes in POV as the change occurred. I much prefer third person as the historical portions were done in, but the first person didn’t distract too much from my enjoyment of the book. It was a wonderful horror novel that took all the best elements of the genre and brought to life a time in history that we don’t often think about.

If you love a great story with witches and things that go bump in the night, you need to try this one!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Doppelgänger by Sean Munger

March 9, 2015 By Leave a Comment

MUNGER
Doppelgänger by Sean Munger
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Historical, Paranormal, Suspense/Mystery, Horror
Length: Full Length (208 pgs)
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Thistledown

The house of madness!

Transplanted from her native Sweden to the drawing rooms and gas-lit parlors of Gilded Age New York, Anine Atherton will want for nothing in the lavish row house her rich new husband bought for her. But Anine’s house doesn’t seem to like people. The caretaker hangs himself in the entryway. The maid drops dead her first day on the job. Anine herself is becoming anxious and terrified, and not just because of the ghostly laughter she hears in the middle of the night. Her gentle, charming husband is slowly turning into a domineering brute. And whatever shadowy entity lives in her house, it can read Anine’s mind and use her darkest secrets against her. The last woman to live in the house went insane. Will Anine be next in line?

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Anine Atherton marries a wealthy American and he whisks her off to New York in The Gilded Age. She will want for nothing. Money is no object but when the couple arrives at their newly purchased home they discover something is terribly amiss. The caretaker hired to spruce up the house is found dead and hanging from the stairs, leaving nothing behind save a cryptic diary filled with nonsensical gibberish and self-incriminating information. What drove him to suicide and what is the terrible history of this cursed house?

Their first night there at their new home, Anine is uneasy and thinks she hears movement and laughter coming from the hall outside her room. The next morning another servant turns up dead and thus begins a descent into madness. Every sound is suspect. No servant will apply for the vacant positions until a negro woman takes a chance, much to the anger of Anine’s husband. He begins to change in violent and negative ways and little by little her perfect new world begins to crumble all around her. Snubbed by polite society without a reason why, she despairs of ever fitting in. Her house, she is certain, is haunted and there is not a moment’s peace to be had.

When Anine learns how her husband acquired the house she is mortified. She begins to take steps to counter the growing aggression in the man she thought she loved and attempts to get him to sell the house back to the original owner with some unforeseen consequences that will rock her world to the core.

This book was a page turner from the first. From the ghost story in Sweden to the haunted New York property, author Sean Munger does an amazing job of capturing the feeling of the time and the characters. The psychological aspects of the story were amazing. What is a dooplegänger and what does it have to do with the Athertons? You must read on and see for yourself.

If you love horror with a touch of the past, then this is the bedtime story for you. I just wouldn’t recommend turning out the light.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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