​You know the movie Smokey And The Bandit?  Reading Sam W. Anderson's The Nines is like remembering  it but instead of Jerry Reed as the Snowman, replace him with a middle-aged, steroid-abusing, muscle-bound beast named Artimus.  Instead of humping a trailer full of Coors across the state line, he's ferrying a much more sinister cargo on a stretch of American highway known simply as The Nines.  This is the arterial thoroughfare of the country, all the bad shit, the stuff that is everywhere but no one seems to know how it got there...this is how it gets there.

Artimus just hauls and drops, no questions asked.  His "Bandit" is a the less-than-sane Baily.  She's stern and all-business and she talks the her hand.  This book starts out with our man Artimus about to embark on what should be just another run.  But his twin brother, Henry has another idea. See, Sheriff Henry has an addiction to meth and Asian porn...and he likes to be naked.  Sheriff Henry is feeling real bad about leaving his woman and daughter in Vietnam after the war. So he's decided that doing the right thing for once might just cause all the dominoes to fall in a line and put him of the path to happiness and a good life.  Boy, is he wrong.

The Nines is every bit as enjoyable as Anderson's American Gomorrah omnibus. I love the dark and gritty noir and the hyper-fucked up characters that weave the fabric of his work.   The one's mentioned above along with Sister Dazy, the nun who could drink the late Oliver Reed off his stool and have no problem blowing him at the same time.  David Howard the film-obsessed young man with the mail-order bride and the sinister agenda.  The burn-scarred Deputy Bear and Deacon Rice (one of the most vile villains in modern fiction) help carry the load of this twisty turny story.  It's equal parts Lansdale and Coen Brothers on the set of Movin' On. It's the great green gobs of greasy grimy guts that America keeps in it's ever-puffed out chest.
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The Nines is fast-paced and fun.  The populace so deeply flawed and fractured yet inherently human and funny all at the same time.  I enjoyed the ride. And what a ride it is.
 
The Nines is available from Rothcopress.

Normally non fiction and in particular tomes dedicated to one subject have normally bored me to death, I have problems with keeping focused on one topic at a time. To that I have never really been a fan of books that look at and dissect films, however having said that, after reading Jez Conolly and David Owain Bates excellent entry in the Devil's Advocates series of books that look at classic horror films, I am now a convert.  

Dead of Night was one of those films that if you asked me I couldn't tell you if I had watched it or not from the title alone.  It was released a mere matter of days after the end of World War II. It was the prototype portmanteau horror film and featured some of the finest directors and writers to work in British films.  

For those of you who don't know,  in Dead of Night, architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at a country house party where he reveals to the assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream. He appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but he is able to predict spontaneous events in the house before they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining each other with various tales of uncanny or supernatural events that they experienced or were told about. These include a racing car driver's premonition of a fatal bus crash; a light-hearted tale of two obsessed golfers, one of whom becomes haunted by the other's ghost (cut from the initial USA release); a ghostly encounter during a children's Christmas party (another tale cut from the initial USA release); a haunted antique mirror; and the story of an unbalanced ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) who believes his amoral dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a twist ending.  

This really is an archetypal film (not least that it has an architect in it) and Conolly and Bates have honoured the importance of this film with with a beautifully researched, passionately presented and captivating read that delves into the darkest corners of British film making to present a book that never fails to be entertaining.  


Before delving into the film proper, they set the scene wonderfully with a "road map" to the film which sets the scene by referencing some of the themes and plot devices used by the film and contextualising them postulative thoughts on the country at the time. It also gives us an informative history of the film and its relationship with film TV and DVD.  

It then moves on into a fascinating detailed look at each of the stories, including the interlocking story that bookends the film.  From reading this book it is clear that the writers have a huge love of not just this film, but of British filmmaking as a whole.  The passion that they both share is evident in every single sentence of this book.  It was a joy to read such a detailed and informative deconstruction of a film. This is an intelligent well researched book that looks past the basic plot of the film and shows us how this film tapped into the zeitgeist of the time. Unlike some books of this nature, the links to cultural themes never feel like they are clutching at straws for something to say, and end up being very enlightening.  Dead of Night is a must read for all fans of supernatural cinema.  

John C. Foster has delivered a truly unique thing with his novel, Dead Men.  A severely dark and gritty supernatural noir mural, painted in broad strokes of blood and ash and fear, probably using a torn scalp for a brush.  It's a feral book, skittish and baring teeth and probably disease in its frothing drool.  A fistful of quarters connecting with your jaw is what Dead Men is.

John Smith wakes up after dying in the electric chair.  Clad in a slit-back suit he is paired with another John Smith (nicknamed Alice) who is the British mirror image of himself. And a third John Smith who is the most fiendishly sketched psychopath I've read in a long time.  John Smith I and Alice roar off in a black caddy looking for a girl, this is their mission.  During which signals will get crossed and double crosses are common currency.   They need to find and kill this woman, that was the order.

If only the mission ere that simple. When Smith slowly starts to assemble the chunky pieces of his memory and realize what kind of mess he's been placed into, that is when the book really catches. The sizzle of the fuse you've been holding pops and crackles into a full blown flame, chugging its way to the keg of powder that promises to be the follow up. Wait? Did I neglect to tell you this is only the first of a series. I'm sorry.

Dead Men: Libros De Inferno/Book One.  The writing is razor sharp and scalpel thin. Held deftly between thumb and forefinger it creates clean wounds that sting and heal nicely.  The language and imagery are shadow pitch on the sole of your boots as you walk the streets at Midnight. That dark.   Foster is a force to be reckoned with, a voice to be listening to and a writer to be reading. 
I mean it.

Dead Men is available from Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing.

And from Amazon UK

John Boden 

 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough, or a lot of school girls do nasty things to each other all in the name of popularity, might seems like the stuff of Sunday afternoon movie fare on Channel 5, a means girls for the damp and dreary UK, however 13 Minutes  is so much more than that.  It is a deeply layered book that keeps the readers second guessing the truth of the mystery, while at the same time giving us a brutally honest and sometimes bleak look into the hearts and mind of a modern teenage girl. 
 
 

A recent Facebook conversation reminded me that I never got around to reviewing Splatterpunk #7, which is borderline unforgivable. So let’s get to it, shall we?

The Chomper by Kristopher Rufty - A nifty little tale of that perfect suburban location, and the lengths a couple is willing to go to keep it. I really enjoyed the tension between the husband and wife in this, and I couldn’t quite see how the story was going to pan out, which was gratifying.

Awakening by Jeff Strand - My flash fiction piece of 2015. Gross, twisted, and hilarious, all at once, it’s worth the cover price for this one alone. Seriously, note perfect. The dialogue is a special triumph. Like if Douglas Adams did splatterpunk horror comedy. Gold.

Pas de Deux by Garrett Cook - Yeah, this one is twisted. An exploration of a relationship that goes way beyond the bounds of S&M play, I found this one compelling and repellent in equal measure. Genuinely dark, intelligently written. Haunting, and pulls no punches.

Readings off the Charts by Adam Cesare - Someday, this cat will write a bad story, Today is not that day. Cesare’s grasp of character, ability to sketch relationships and a sense of place are as keen as ever here, and he recreates well the horror movie experience of wanting to yell at the protagonist to NOT DO THE THING, even as we’re unsure what, exactly, it is about doing the thing that will turn out to be bad. This story will be included in ‘Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Vol.1’ edited by Randy Chandler and Cheryl Mullenax. The economy of the story telling, always a Cesare strength, is especially at the fore here. Cracking conclusion to the Zine.

Chuck in a spirited defence of Eli Roth by no less a legend than Jeff Burk,and the usual round up of horror fiction reviews, and it’s another superb outing from editor Jack Bantry. Splatterpunk is 100% the real deal, and if seedy-but-brilliantly-written hardcore horror is your pleasure, guilty or otherwise, I’d say this zine is essential reading.

Purchase a copy here 

 
The Village Witch is the seventh novel from writer, Neil Davies, and the second of three books he’s published with Omnium Gatherum. It follows the (mis)fortunes of Tim Galton, ex-special forces soldier, when he returns to his old hometown of Byre. There he encounters and saves Professor Alexander Hall and the professor’s daughter, Susan, when they are attacked in the car park by a band of youths. At first he thinks this to be nothing but a violent yet unpremeditated assault. However, the Professor and his daughter are paranormal investigators, and all three of them soon find themselves drawn into the dark and diabolical deeds that are happening in Byre. They discover that many of the inhabitants of Byre are under the sway of The Village Witch, Katrina, a woman with whom Tim finds he is still in love. And Katrina has a very powerful ally, growing in strength and just waiting to be released.

This novel started out very promisingly indeed. Davies gave an evocative description of the feelings you get upon returning to childhood place. He eloquently describes the essence of the place while at the same time detailing the changes, and how they’re viewed by Tim.

He also managed to get across the politics, power struggles and general charm of a small country town. I could visualise Byre and it’s people so easily in my head, and it takes a great writer to build a landscape so effortlessly.

The pacing of this novel is adept; I never lost interest and had all the information I needed without any obvious plot dumps. I felt that Tim’s grand statement towards the end that he started it so he had to end it was a bit over dramatic and didn’t really fit with the plot that went before it. But the deaths of some of the characters were handled well and were not meaningless. The ending was a satisfying blend of gore and suspense, with a hint towards possible sequels.

If I had to summarise this novel, I’d say it was like an episode of “Midsomer Murders” directed by M Night Shyamalan: there is the small town crime angle suffused with full and brutal witchcraft.

However, as much as I enjoyed it, I found two main flaws with this novel. Firstly, I had issues with the character of Susan. Generally I liked Davies’ characters; they were diverse and had a great vitality to them that made them leap off the page. They have endearing character traits; I chuckled at the way the professor lectures himself in own head.  The exception to all this was Susan, who just didn’t seem credible or consistent – a bit of a problem when she’s one of the protagonists. What irked me the most was her apparent hostility towards Tim: I found it quite baseless and I got irritated when she failed to change her mind about him. Even when she did change her mind, she sniped at him in a way that made me dislike her as a character.

Secondly, with so many viewpoints at the beginning, that it took me a while to connect with or empathise with any character in particular. As the novel progressed, naturally I got a stronger sense of the individual characters (and, as noted above, I loved their little quirks), but still held at a distance by all of them. It didn’t help that Davies occasionally shifted viewpoint for a couple of sentences mid-scene, which broke my mental connection with the character.

In fairness, the reason that there were so many viewpoints is because there is so much going on that it needs multiple viewpoints to keep track of it all. And after a while, when I’d gotten to know and love the characters, it didn’t bother me at all.
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These small flaws are just me being picky; I loved this book. If there was a sequel, I’d be paying my money over for it now. The Village Witch would especially appeal to commuters since the chapters are divided into conveniently small sections, just perfect for a bus or train ride.
Go and buy this book. But don’t blame me if you can’t look at statues in the graveyard the same way again…

CHARLOTTE BOND 

No matter what our age, we all love fairy tales.  There is something primal about their nature, they hint at the world beyond the pale, a world that despite the logical way of our adult brain still has the power to haunt and chill us on cold winters night.  They make sure we still keep all of our arms and legs safely tucked up in bed, they stop us from staring into the mirror for too long, and they make us watch  the dancing shadows with fear and trepidation.  

Snow from Paul Kane is a modern reworking of the classic fairy tale Snow White is a clever, well written adult version of the much loved classic story.  

Angela's life has been a lonely one, kept secluded from others by her cruel mother and wicked Uncle her family life has never been a happy one, and when she starts to have suspicions about the death of her father, she is taken into the forest with the sole purpose of being disposed off,  but when she manages to escape the clutches of her evil uncle and falls into an old discarded mine she finds allies to her plight in the most of unlikely of allies.  


With Snow, Paul Kane has delivered a unique take on a classic fairy tale, while the over all story will be apparent as it unfolds Kane cleverly weaves in the tropes of the original story in modern and deft way.  A fast paced narrative that barely stops for breath will keep the reader enthralled throughout as the story unfolds, aided along by some strong characterizations and brilliant spin on the Dwarf's of the original story.  

While the overall story will be familiar, Kane has injected enough original ideas of his own to ensure that the Snow reads like a fresh new story.  There is a nice layer of dread that resides over this story, one connects to the primal part of your brain that is still susceptible to things that go bump in the night, making this a fast paced and chilling story.  

You won't be whistling while you work after reading this, you'll be whistling to keep the darkness away.    

Glenn Rolfe has certainly impressed with his previous releases - Abrams Bridge, Boom Town and more recently his debut novel Blood and Rain. I particularly enjoyed Boom Town; a Sci-Fi tinged read about a mysterious ooze threatening a small town. It was a quick but thoroughly entertaining read that made me sit up and take notice of Glenn Rolfe and mark him down as an author to watch.

I have always found the novella form to be the most enjoyable, within the horror genre. Characters need to be established and fleshed out quickly, dialogue needs to be crisp and there is not much time for world-building so the pacing needs to be quick and to the point. This brings us to Things We Fear-the latest novella to be released by Rolfe through Samhain publishing. Maine is the setting for this latest novella. The faculty of Farrington Elementary School are relieved of their duties for the summer-Emily Young and Aaron Jackson are becoming closer and closer but Emily is being stalked by psychotic Phys Ed Teacher Matt Holmes. Holmes is a serial rapist and a despicable character that you will soon discover a strong loathing for and credit to Rolfe for making me despise this character in such a short amount of time. Holmes develops an infatuation with Emily and will stop at nothing until she belongs to him. These three main characters form the backbone of the novella and are fleshed out well. There is a great connection between Aaron and Emily that make the scenes with Holmes all the more cringe worthy as he stalks the couple.
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There is a definite old school feel about this novella. It isn’t an over the top gore fest. Instead, what we have is a tense, psychological thriller that builds steadily towards a fitting climax. I would like to see Rolfe push things a little bit more with his next release. As much as I did enjoy this novella, upon finishing it I did feel as though he played it a little safe. It’s a slow burner of a book that’s very enjoyable but just misses out on delivering the knockout punch to make it a five star read. Rolfe’s confidence with writing grows with each release. The characters are good, as is the pacing and the dialogue is crisp. It is another tick in the box for Glenn Rolfe – a writer whom I know I can rely on to deliver a great story. I will certainly be looking forward to his next release.