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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

Book Review: Cure by Kali Metis

Cure by Kali Metis

Running Wild Press, 2022

ISBN: 9781955062312

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

Cure is an entertaining, fresh take on werewolves in today’s world.  It isn’t the standard “bite and claw” wolf-fest, but focuses more on their place in the present.

 

The plot is the best part, due to the nature and overall scope.  Luna Auber is an expert confectioner at a specialty bakery.  She has a normal life, except for the nerve problems and shaking she occasionally experiences.  Her brother’s suicide and last request lead her to Sweden, where she learns of her lycanthropic heritage, which explains her shakes– they’re the first step of her transformation.

 

The tale expands into a country-wide story involving two different werewolf societies, and that’s a big part of the book’s appeal.  This isn’t just one wolf or pack running wild, decimating an area.  Instead, the focus is the competing philosophies of the two groups, and how they believe werewolves should behave in the modern age.  Luna is the lens the reader sees both groups through as she learns more about them, and she  eventually has to choose a path.  This is a bit like a political thriller: it’s an unusual and intriguing way to write a werewolf story.

 

Luna’s character, with her unpredictability and her own doubts, drives the story effectively, She isn’t an anti-hero, but isn’t a fighter for justice either– at least not all the time.  She is emotional, impulsive, and makes some stupid decisions with her newfound abilities, like most people would probably do.  She sometimes uses her powers for her own benefit, without respecting the gift (or curse) she has been given.  This goes a long way towards making her a realistic character, and fits well with the overall narrative.

 

Some minor quibbles: the chapters are VERY short, and there is a lot of back and forth between two timelines in the first half of the book.  That might be good for the short attention span that so many younger people seem to have, but I found it frustrating.  There are also times where the sentences seem fragmented.  Tweaking that would have helped the flow of the reading.

 

Cure is a good story that takes the old  ‘howl at the moon’ model of werewolves and does something different with it. It’s worth reading. Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

 

 

Posted on December 22, 2024 by , Reply
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