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Book Review: The Last Breath Before Death by Alan Golbourn

cover art for The Last Breath Before Death by Alan Golbourn

The Last Breath Before Death by Alan Golbourn

Gelbs Publishers Ltd, 2924

ISBN: (Hardback) 978-1-03690245-2, (Paperback) 978-1-9993795-9-9,                  (eBook) 978-1-9993795-8-2

Available: Hardback, Paperback, eBook

Buy:  Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

The Last Breath Before Death is the fourth horror novel by Alan Golbourn, who is of British and American descent. The principal character is Jimmy Cochran, a freelance writer and graphic novel illustrator. Jimmy lives in New York City but spent his early life in England. He has personally experienced paranormal phenomena but is skeptical of public claims of hauntings and other paranormal events. He investigates some of these and publishes his findings in newspapers and magazines.

 

His mother, who lives in England, tells him that his estranged half-brother and a friend have gone missing during a camping trip in Germany. Jimmy agrees to travel to England and investigate after a psychic tells him that the pair are in danger. Jimmy learns that they were investigating the provenance of a mysterious relic. Jimmy eventually learns that the relic is integral to the resurrection of a powerful cult of vampires and revenants, called “Nachzehrers”. The cult has ties to the Serbian “Black Hand” terrorists, who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, the event that kicked off World War I.

 

Jimmy and a few local policemen from a town in northern Germany find a site in the mountains where the cult plans to torture and eat Jimmy’s brother and other captives to gain strength and immortality during the “Blood Moon”. The last few chapters describe the violent and gory battle with the cult in detail.

 

The plot’s first half moves along slowly as it progresses through lengthy and stilted dialogue. Although readers will learn some British slang and idioms, it is difficult to believe that people speak so formally. There are a few gratuitous digressions, such as the urban legend about cat and dog meat in Chinese food and rants about being dumped in dating apps. Once Jimmy arrives in Germany, the plot advances at a nice pace. The dramatic ending is worth waiting for. There is moderately intense, casual sex with a tattoo artist and mild use of profanity.

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on July 1, 2025 by , Reply

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
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