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Storm-Star (Storm-Star Lore Book 1) by I.N. Morgan

Heavy Rush Media, September 2020

ISBN: 9781732876514

Available: Paperback, Kindle

Storm-Star is a decent horror debut from rookie author I.N. Morgan.  It’s a werewolf story (well, sort of) with a touch of sci-fi added in.  The elements in the story are nothing new, but they are combined in the right proportions to make the story fun.  The book won’t blow casual readers away, but they will probably find it enjoyable enough to be worth the time.

Set in 1997, Ash Jagerhund is a down-on-his-luck 23 year old with no family, relatives, or future.  He receives a letter from a lost uncle, Jasper, who invites him to live with him, in an effort to rekindle old family ties.  Ash does so, and they reside in the Midwest town of Rust Springs, a town recently plagued by a series of gruesome pseudo-ritualistic murders.  The nature of the murders suggests they may not have a human source.   Ash makes two new friends, Attila and Daisy.  The three of them are unwillingly pulled into the search for the killer, who has ties to the Loupcroix family, a bunch of meth dealers on the outskirts of town.  The Loupcroixs believe that the world will end when a creature called the Storm-Star comes across the galaxy and trashes the Earth for the benefit of the Loupcroixs, who will of course then rule the world.  Add in Ash’s later revealed family history, and you have a fair amount of plot elements, which the author manages to fit into all the right places.

The writing is solid enough and keeps focused on the plot without detours, but there are times when a bit of detail would have helped connect the plot dots better.  Example: the cops somehow find a website all about the Loupcroixs and their beliefs, but there was no one to give them any hint of the site.  Besides, how many meth dealers maintain a website?  The characters are developed well enough, and are interesting, although the reader may get a few of the secondary characters mixed up on occasion, as the character cast is around 10-12 people.  The plot is nice and linear, and has enough action (and just a touch of gore) to keep the reader flipping pages.  It’s not a breakneck thriller, but it’s enough to make it worth reading.  One annoyance is that a good editor should have corrected is the grammatical and sentence structure errors that crop up from time to time.  It’s not enough to pass on the book, but it is aggravating.

Reading this, you can tell it’s written by a first-time author with talent, but who is still learning the craft.  As long as the reader is willing to tolerate the minor problems, Storm-Star is worth a look.  The author did leave a tractor-trailer sized opening at the end of the book for a sequel, and it would be great to see a sequel that focuses on the most exciting characters (Ash, Attila and Daisy) and whittles down the number of secondary ones.

Contains: violence, gore, profanity, drugs

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson