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Book Review: The Keepers by Tan Van Huizen

The Keepers, by Tan Van Huizen (Bookshop.org)

Black Rose Writing, 2022

ISBN: 9781684339525

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition 

 

The Keepers  has a frustrating ending: it becomes clear towards the end of the book that there are way too many questions to be answered in the remaining pages.  There is a sequel coming, which is a good thing, as ending the story where it is would be a crime. You’ll want to read The Keepers, and the sequel as well.

 

Set in a small rural town on the edge of a swamp in western Massachusetts, the Keepers are certain members of the local police force charged with upholding a pact made between the Indians who lived there in the 1600’s and the settlers that wiped them out.   The details are intentionally vague in the book, but the gist is, if anyone dishonors the Indian spirits or ancestral land, there will be hell to pay for the town, even if it’s hundreds of years in the future.  People do disappear from the town from time to time, but as for exactly why, and what that has to do with the pact…that’s for the sequel to explain.

 

To be clear, this isn’t a case of an author slapping together a ho-hum book and saving all the big guns for a future story: t’s a solid, exciting read by itself.  The cast of characters is fairly large, but each group connects to the plot.  For the juvenile delinquents, the father of one of them survived a disappearance incident years ago and won’t discuss it with anyone, but it has something to do with the cops.  The cops (only some of them Keepers) are supposed to maintain order, but that’s secondary to maintaining the old settlers’/Indians pact.  There’s also an investigative news crew in town, trying to solve some of the cold case disappearances.  It’s quite a few story threads, but they are slowly drawing together by the end of the book.  However, there is clearly a lot to come in terms of further plot.

 

Despite the lack of plot answers (for now) there’s plenty to keeps readers entertained.  High speed chases, an axe murder or two, people blowing themselves up in the swamp, some dark creature from hoodoo-land that rides the wind across the skies…you know, the usual.  The author clearly knows how to write a page turner, keeping most of the plot details vague until it’s time to reveal them.  Let’s hope that the timeframe for releasing the next book is not on a George R.R. Martin time scale!  

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on August 2, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Toadstones by Eric Williams

 

Toadstones by Eric Williams

Malarkey Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781088017302

Available: paperback, Kindle ( Bookshop.org )

 

If you thought you’d read all the possible plotlines available for short stories, think again.  Eric Williams’s Toadstones obliterates that notion.  The book relies wholly on originality and a deft touch with the writing, no gore or sex needed.  For horror fans, this is a can’t miss.

 

It’s only the beginning of the book that runs flat; of the first three stories, two are easily forgettable.  After that, in terms of imagination, all the stories are loaded with enough horsepower to redline a Peterbilt freight truck.  You can catch traces of the author’s influences (a touch of “The Mummy” and  “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” here, a trace of Lovecraft there) but he’s managed to create something entirely new with them.  The closest to a theme for this book would be ‘ordinary dudes running into REALLY weird things.’  Some examples:

 

1.  A man on a nature hike in Utah happens upon one of the Greek gods, and shares beer and conversation with him.

2.  A showing of a crime noir film turns all too real for some of the theatre viewers.

3.  A corrupt cop robs corpses of their limbs to sell for voodoo charms.

 

If that isn’t enough, there are also two bus-obsessed students tracking a phantom bus on an abandoned route, an oil rig crew drilling a seemingly pointless hole for an eccentric billionaire… the list goes on.  All these stories are very creative, and highly entertaining.  A special mention is needed for “Doomstown”, the best story in the book.  It involves two crazy grad students on a quest to locate one of the mock-up towns left over from the days when the military tested high powered bang-bangs in the Nevada desert.  This story has the highest scare factor of all of them: it’s off the charts.  If you thought mannequins were even remotely creepy, read this story.  You’ll never walk past a department store window again.  “Doomtown'” should win every award available for best horror short story this year, it’s that good.

 

All the stories are well written; they flow fast and smooth like the Jack Daniels at a Kennedy family party on Cape Cod.  There’s a nice touch of humor thrown in on occasion, and the characters are well sketched and feel authentic; there are no cardboard cutouts anywhere.  The author does have a mild touch of Dickens-ism (aka using too many overblown words) on occasion, but that’s easily overlooked, as it only shows up a few times.

 

The bottom line?  Just read it.  One of the best of 2022 so far. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson.

Posted on June 25, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Welcome to the Splatter Club, Vol. 2 edited by K. Trap Jones

Welcome to the Splatter Club, Vol. 2, by various authors, edited by K. Trap Jones

 

Blood Bound Publishing, 2021

 

ISBN: 9781718170278

 

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Bookshop.org |  Amazon.com)

 

If you are tired of the “same old, same old” with horror stories and are craving something original,  Welcome to the Splatter Club vol.2 is your passport to madness and mayhem of the highest order.  Want a good dose of blood and pain, such as someone getting their balls smashed with a hammer?  You got it.  How about really weird erotica, straight out of freaky-deaky sex land?  It’s in here.  Best of all, if you want truly original stories that are so off the wall they make mind-bending substances seem like a good idea, then you need this book.  It’s the best, wildest collection I’ve come across in a couple of years.  Kudos to editor K. Trap Jones: he clearly knows how to pick ’em.

 

The overall story quality is exceptionally strong: there’s only one dud out of thirteen stories.  The rest graded an average of B+/A-, with one C+ and five solid A’s.  About the only unifying themes are taking an ordinary situation and making it beyond strange, and there are a few revenge stories of sorts.  

 

In “War of the Wildflowers”,  two apartment neighbors are squabbling.  Sounds standard, but one of them has a fishbowl for a head, and the two fish inside provide eyesight for the human. The story has real sadness built into it, and is the closest you get to a tearjerker in the book.  

In “The Sack Cutter”,  a young lady has the guy who used her and tossed her aside captive in a deserted cabin.  Contrary to the story title, this is NOT the usual “physical torture for revenge” plot.  The lady has a much more clever and less physically painful idea in mind to make him pay.  The story also does a nice job blurring the lines between vengeance and a desire to help improve people.

 

Take the opening scene from the movie Natural Born Killers, and substitute in crazed vegetarians who want to make a statement and get their 15 minutes of fame, and you have the basic story of “Hell Comes to Burger Hut”,  a cautionary tale about how far people will stoop to become social media darlings.

 

“Igloo Made of Flesh” is possibly the strangest two pages ever written.  A city apartment with an Eskimo who grinds up people to make igloo blocks?  Yes, you read that correctly.

 

In “The Long Winter Ahead”, two buddies on a cross-country trip run into the world’s weirdest cult in a hicktown bar.  How many stories feature guys having forced sex with trees animated by spirits?  This is a very unusual take on the Gaia mythos.

 

If that isn’t enough, there are also lycanthropes, undead pizza parlor owners, and flesh-chomping gators hopped up on meth.  Need I say more?  Bottom line: for horror fans, this collection is a can’t miss.

 

 Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on June 14, 2022 by , 1 comment
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