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Book Review: The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich

cover art for The Madness by Dawn Kurtagich

The Madness

Dawn Kurtagich

Graydon House, 2024

ASIN: B0CKFHZTLR

Available: Hardcover; paperback; Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

Mina is often called to the psychiatric facility where she cares for women suffering from extreme trauma. She has contempt for how male doctors treat female patients and persistently tries to understand the roots of the problems she confronts in her practice. She is also troubled by something that has happened in her past, something bad enough to cause OCD, a move from Wales to London, a break-up with a man she loves, and estrangement from her best friend and even her mother. But it isn’t until she is faced with the mysterious illness of her childhood friend Lucy that she begins to face her own demons and slowly reveals the horrific event that has shaped her.

 

Unfortunately, from Mina’s perspective, helping Lucy will require going back to her home town and seeing her mother, whose belief in the dark and bloody myths of Wales suddenly begins to seem like useful information instead of annoying old stories. As the search for the cause of Lucy’s quickly worsening symptoms continue, some characters’ names (linking this book to a classic that readers will quickly recognize) shed light on the  direction of the plot, as do other elements such as a creepy black car, a black business card, and an exclusively secret gentlemen’s club. Lucy is not the only one in trouble.

 

The author of The Madness, Dawn Kurtagich, delivers non-stop suspense as the action takes us from a small Welsh town and its most luxurious mansion, out to an ancient castle on the coast where there are evil monsters preying upon women. However, these violent killers soon become the target of the group of women who have figured out how to get rid of all of them.

 

The way this book begins with a very brief, cryptic scene and a nameless character immediately draws the reader into the action, which continues at a quick pace as the author seamlessly shifts between times, places, perspectives, and emotions. There are subtle plot twists sparked by the unexpected decisions some characters make along the way. The Madness stands at the supernatural intersection of horrible crimes known– but left unsolved– and Mina’s revelations about the mythic evil that exists in never taking the past for granted.

 

Reviewed by Nova Hadley

Posted on June 10, 2025 by , Reply

Book Review: The Eris Ridge Trail by Larry Hinkle

 

 

Cover art for The Eris Ridge Trail by Larry Hinkle

The Eris Ridge Trail, by Larry Hinkle

Four Winds Bar Publishing, 2025

ISBN: 9798992454215

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

The trail in The Eris Ridge Trail is not a friendly one for thru-hikers!  Instead of the serenity of nature, the four unfortunates who end up on the trail find themselves in a confusing alternate dimension with frequent landscape shifts.  The setting shifts frequently, with little explanation for the hazards encountered by the characters.  Does it work for this story?  Yes.  Readers who want entertainment and aren’t concerned with a story where all ends are tied up neatly will find this quite enjoyable.

 

The book wastes no time getting down to business, as Wayne, Shelley, Craig, and Erik each get a quick chapter that tosses them right into the other dimension.  This is also the only part of the book that feels like it could have used a bit more fleshing out, to lead into the main story.  Two of the characters simply give a quick recounting of their arrival to their companions later in the book, while the other two protagonists get a very quick narration chapter.  It would have been nice to make all the lead-in to the main plot part of the third person narrative, as it sounded very intriguing.  There’s a car ride with a very odd individual, and a tunnel crawl through the basement of the Stanley Hotel (yes, THAT Stanley Hotel) but little detail is given.  That might have helped build up some anticipation for the main story, which only Shelley’s opening chapter did.

 

That minor quibble aside, the story takes off at a run, as the four of them (and two lovable dogs) find that their new home almost is like an LSD-laced dream.  One minute they can be in a desert, take five steps and PRESTO!, they’re in a desert.  A bit further, and SHAZAM!, it’s a prairie.  It could be confusing, but the author writes well enough that the transitions don’t seem jarring or random:: they flow with the story and are believable.

 

Although this is an adventure story, the real core of the story is the character interactions.  Craig, Shelley, Erik, and Wayne are four strangers tossed into a reality that makes no sense, but they have to survive and maybe find a way out.  That requires teamwork and trust, which develops over the course of the story, and is done very well.  The author clearly has a flair for writing characters, and he does an excellent job having them overcome their foibles and gel together into a cohesive unit.  Their new reality throws all sorts of fun stuff at them: weird skittering sort-of humans, six-legged freak squirrels called Squixells, and DINOSAURS!  (can’t go wrong with those!)  It’s all well-imagined and written in a style that keeps the reader turning pages quickly.  Sure, there is little to no explanation given for why or how these things happen, but who cares?  Much like the classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Eris Ridge Trail works better leaving explanations to the reader’s imagination.  The ending is excellent.  It doesn’t resolve things, but does wrap the story up perfectly.

 

Bottom line: take a hike along the unique Eris Ridge Trail, it’s a brain-tweaking journey.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on June 6, 2025 by , 1 comment

Book Review: Counted with the Dead by Peter O’Keefe

Counted With the Dead by Peter O'Keefe cover art

Counted with the Dead by Peter O’Keefe

Grendel Press, 2024

ISBN: 978-1960534118

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

Set in the 1990s, Jack Killeen, working in the dirty Detroit underbelly, is the mob’s hired gun. He hates his job.and wants to make a change. Victor Moravian, art collector and businessman, will be his last kill. However, things do not go as Jack plans. A mad doctor has created a monster using body parts from Jack’s victims, and animates it with Victor’s brain. Jack, accompanied by his brother Marty, has to stop the monster Jack is partially responsible for unleashing in the city.

 

DeRon is the assistant to Dr. Drettmann, a mad doctor, working in a secret lab. He initially believes in the professor’s mission, but a mishap with an experimental surgery on DeRon’s mangled leg, and Drettmann’s new project, have him questioning his role in everything.

 

After Victor’s transformation into the beast he is, he retains his own memories as well as of those parts of whom he is composed. Angry and lost when he escapes the lab, he leaves a trail of blood and gore wherever he goes. Lonely, and with memories of the love of his life, he goes back to the doctor and demands a mate.

 

Marlene, beautiful Marlene, was the love of both Victor and Jack’s lives. Married to Victor, she has an affair with Jack, who refuses to tell her the truth about Victor’s disappearance. She inevitably becomes a target of the beast’s desire for a bride. He takes vengeance on the other women in Jack’s life to obtain other pieces for his new companion.

 

This was a surprisingly fast-paced story. To be honest, I was not sure that a modern Frankenstein story would meld well with a mobster crime story, sprinkled with a bit of tech horror and body horror, but O’Keefe made it work. The action reads very much like it is would be easily adapted for the big screen. The characters, while not particularly likeable, are distinct and memorable. Something that I found particularly interesting was the way Jack put together a team to confront the beast. It felt more like the building of an adventuring party. In fact, other works that did this well, such as Lord of the Rings, are mentioned in tongue-in-cheek ways. O’Keefe does an amazing job with making Detroit looming and oppressive at the same time. This will be a good read for those looking for a different interpretation of the typical Frankenstein story. However, readers who do not deal with animal death to approach this with extreme caution, as it does happen in this book. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on May 21, 2025 by , Reply
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