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Book Review: Night Shadows by Stephen L. Brayton

cover art for Night Shadows by Stephen Brayton

Night Shadows by Stephen L. Brayton

Black Rose Writing, 2024

ISBN: 9781685134143

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

 

Night Shadows fits perfectly in the B level ranks of horror fiction.  There is nothing really new or unique in it, but it’s sure entertaining, and enough to keep the pages flipping.  It’s a decent one for a few hours of horror escapism.

 

The ingredients that make up the story are all ones you’ve seen, many times.  Weird, killer creatures?  Got it.  Two mismatched law enforcement agents?  Yep, it’s here.  A book of black magic styled after the Necronomicon, and an eccentric professor to explain it all?  Check.  Plot twist at the end that can be guessed?  That’s here too.  All the usual elements, but still fun when used well, which the author does.  There’s enough go-juice in the writing to keep the reader’s interest and the pages moving, just not at the “up all night” (sleep all day) level.

 

The best parts of the book are probably the night shadows (the book’s antagonists) and the cop on cop interplay.  The shadows are nasty fun and do a good job wreaking bloody havoc around Des Moines, Iowa, as they multiply the city’s homicide rate exponentially over the course of a few nights.  The book is messy enough for the gorehounds, especially when the strip club gets trashed. The mismatched cops bit works well, with Detective Reznick’s sarcastic, everyday-joe attitude paired with Agent Campisi’s Vulcan-like demeanor.  Everything goes smoothly in the story, until it purrs comfortably across the finish line of its 236 pages.  If a bit of touch-up could have been used anywhere, it would be with the mystery element.  The idea of a house being present that has no business existing was excellent, and could have used some more elaborating.

 

Bottom line, In the Night Shadows is not a must-buy, but it is a fun read. if you have the spare cash, give it a look, and enjoy watching the city’s darkness tear apart its inhabitants.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on June 16, 2024 by , Reply

To Hell and Back: An Anthology of Horror edited by Joe Mynhardt

Cover art for To Hell and Back edited by Joe Mynhardt

To Hell and Back: An Anthology of Horror edited by Joe Mynhardt

HellBound Books, 2024

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1953905871

Available: Paperback, Kindle Edition

Buy: Bookshop.org  |  Amazon.com

 

 

Horror anthologies continue to be very popular, maybe because they provide a good showcase for both known and unknown authors trying their hand at the short story form, which, in my humble opinion, is a harder challenge than novels.

 

Here are my favorite stories in this particular book.

 

“Fix Her”, by Jeff Strand, is a fabulous mix of horror and humor, starting with a corpse on a bed and ending up  in a general mess, while “Bunny”, by Gregg Stewart, is an offbeat tale featuring two babysitters fighting about their right to take care of a strange little girl. Kenneth W Cain contributes “Steel Horses”, a tense piece of fiction inspired to the famous “Duel”, but with a distinctive horrific outcome. The offbeat, very enjoyable “Get John Flagg”, by James Aquilone, features a man whom suddenly everybody is trying to kill. Guess why…

 

“The Copper Thieves”, by Nick Roberts. is a strong example of graphic horror, set in a cemetery where a family mausoleum hides more secrets than expected. “Our New Church”, by James H. Longmore, is a well-told yarn that revolves around the arrival of a new pastor in a small town and the unexpected, surrealistic consequences.

 

This is not just any horror anthology, it is a very good one and provides excellent reading material to genre lovers.

 

Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

 

 

 

Posted on May 8, 2024 by , Reply

Book Review: Those That Pursue Us Yet by Kyla Lee Ward

Cover art for Those That Pursue Us Yet by Kyla Lee Ward

Those That Pursue Us Yet by Kyla Lee Ward

Independent Legions Publishing, 2023

ISBN: 9791280713797

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy:  Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com

 

Those That Pursue Us Yet is a pretty well-written but frustrating novella.  The wording is very good, and the descriptions and settings are well-done, but the plot feels like a bit of an afterthought, and the minimal dialogue doesn’t help move it forward.

 

Almost the entire book takes place in dreams, which is both good and bad. The good is that it allows the author to get away with some pretty wild things that aren’t possible in reality, but the bad is that it makes the whole story seem disjointed.  There are a lot of good set pieces, but it starts to seem like the story is done more for that purpose, as opposed to driving a narrative forward.

 

In the story, Wander and Madeline, patient and shrink, are two women caught in a weird kind of dream hell whenever they fall asleep, as they are pursued by an entity, Phobetor,  Unfortunately, there really isn’t any information given to flesh out Phobetor as a character. It’s simply there.  Both Madeline and Wander can manipulate their dreams to some extent, although they aren’t supposed to pass beyond some sort of metaphysical barrier, as that puts them in Phobetor’s range.  They have safe areas, symbols to link to different dreams, and so on. If it sounds kind of confusing, it is. The whole story is focused on brief moments of wakefulness spaced among numerous dream sequences, and it just doesn’t feel cohesive. More dialogue and keeping focused on the plot would have helped.

 

The author has talent: many of the dream sequences are really well written.  The beach scene of skulls was well done, and the sections in the catacombs beneath Paris were also excellent .  The story just needed the same amount of attention paid to the characters and the narrative as to the descriptions and settings.  This might have been something pretty impressive.  As it is, it feels more like an art piece that a select few will get blown away by, and everyone else will just not understand.

 

Bottom line: This will probably find a niche audience that regards it as brilliant, but other readers may want to skip this one.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

Posted on April 30, 2024 by , Reply
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