Hellrider by JG Faherty

Flame Tree Press, August 2019

ISBN: 978-1-78758-262-0

Availability: hardcover, paperback, ebook

Hellrider is a hell of a ride through the murderous revenge spree of 19 year old Eddie Ryder, a former biker gang member.  He tried to walk the straight and narrow path, but is burned alive in his own auto repair garage by his former gang members as payback for ratting out the gang leader.  Instead of a one-way ticket to the afterlife, Eddie finds himself as a spirit tied to his hometown, although being dead has given him some very special powers.  Needless to say, he has one thing on his mind: paying back all the gang members who helped to kill him, in as painful a fashion as possible.  The story become a whirlwind of beatings, stabbings, shootings, and explosions as Eddie thrashes his way through the town, destroying anyone who ever wronged him, or he perceives to have wronged him.  In between the havoc he wreaks, he makes a bit of an effort to help out the dying mother and sixteen year old brother he left behind, but his primary focus is revenge and mayhem.

The book starts off fast, and keeps the throttle wide open until the last of its 278 pages.  Eddie is killed within the first 20 pages, so there’s plenty of time for him to kill and maim.  If this had been just another story about a ghost killing the wrongdoers, it probably would have been a mid-level book in terms of quality.  Thankfully, it’s much more fun than a paint-by-numbers vengeance story.  Eddie has the power to jump into any body (male or female) and possess the person, making them do what he wants.  That’s where the creativity takes flight in this story.  Eddie doesn’t just take over a body and make the person kill himself or herself; he often wants to humiliate them before killing them, and he also takes great delight in scaring them by leaving little messages letting them know who’s responsible.  Whether he’s cutting off someone’s penis, making a tough biker appear like a lovesick puppy in front of people, or simply beating someone to death, Eddie is a creative as well as violent spirit, and it helps keep the book interesting.  You never know what he’s going to do next. He does have the limitation of not being able to move past the town lines, so he has to get inventive to trap one of his victims, who is in jail a few towns away.  This makes the character more interesting–  he can’t just do anything he wants and ignore the consequences.

As Eddie grows in his powers and becomes less discriminating about whom he kills, the other characters help flesh out the rest of the story and keep it from becoming one-dimensional.  Eddie’s younger brother Carson is the secondary focus, as he and his girl Kelli realize that despite family ties, Eddie has gone off the deep end and has to be stopped before he destroys the entire town.  Carson is a caring, intelligent bookworm– the complete opposite of Eddie– and he provides a nice contrast in character development.   All of the personalities in the book are well-drawn, and the few moments where Eddie shows some humanity towards his family add some shades of gray to an otherwise dark character.

Hellrider succeeds in its intention of providing a rip-snorting, 200 MPH thrill ride of a story that hits as hard as a power chord from the heavy metal music Eddie loves.  It’s a horror/thriller novel that should appeal to a wide audience, and is worth the purchase.  As Eddie Ryder himself might say, UP THE IRONS! Recommended.

Contains:  graphic violence, sex

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson