Over the last few years Flame Tree Press has undoubtedly become the new home-from-home for horror legend Ramsey Campbell, who have released a number of both new novels and repackaged a number of his older works, including Ancient Images, which was first published back in 1989. As a reader I have particularly enjoyed Campbell’s association with Flame Tree Press as the blend of the old and the new fiction is nicely pitched due to the fact that this author’s current output is so strong he does not need to rely upon past glories. However, mining one of the most outstanding back-catalogues in 20th century horror fiction for rereleases such as Ancient Images, The Influence (1988) and the much more recent Three Births of Daoloth trilogy is a smart move, hopefully bringing this unique author to a younger generation of readers.


I have been reading Campbell since I was a teenager, which was around the time Ancient Images was first published, but for whatever reason this was not a book I came across during my formative years, or any time since. The plot concerns a woman researching an obscure horror film, and since it was written in 1988 this makes it incredibly different to how one might conduct similar research in 2023. Back then there was no internet, instead there were telephone books, and in the case of this novel also hunting down telephone boxes, getting change for telephone calls, endless calls chasing down leads, hotel rooms with no telephones, and convoluted searches for contacts in address books or time-consuming dead ends. To younger readers this method of ‘research’ might come across as dated or quaint, but I found it both nostalgic and exhilarating. My favourite novel of 2022 was undoubtedly Paul F. Olson’s Alexander’s Song, which was similar to Ancient Images in that it included a long and complex search for a dead author. Olson’s book was also written in the late eighties (and largely dismissed or ignored at the time) before recently being revived by the publishers Cemetery Dance. If Ramsey Campbell has not read Alexander’s Song, I have a feeling he would enjoy it tremendously.


In the thirty odd years since Ancient Images was first published the cinematic landscape in the UK has had a major shift in that all of the films which were once labelled ‘Video Nasties’ in the early 1980s and were unavailable or banned are now legal and can even pop up on television. Ancient Images has an element of social commentary from this period, which has long since past into history and there is a funny scene where the researcher visits the home of the editor of a gory horror film fanzine which is vehemently against censorship. It was undoubtedly inspired by magazines I enjoyed in my youth, ‘Deep Red,’ ‘GoreZone,’ or ‘Fangoria’ with other more explicit examples springing to mind.


I am also old enough to remember the fact that in those days viewers had to put considerable effort into finding banned or films which were refused BBFC certificates. Imagine the excitement when I finally tracked down a bootleg VHS copy of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and sneakily imported it into the UK, this type of ‘hunt’ shapes the core of Ancient Images as Sandy Allan attempts to track down a horror film starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, made in England in 1938 and which was immediately suppressed. I absolutely loved being a back-seat passenger on Sandy’s journey, which turns into an obsession, to find a copy of the long-lost film ‘Tower of Fear.’ In the eighties there were a lot of genuine people just like Sandy trying to track down films which seemed forever out of reach, albeit from the seventies and eighties rather than the thirties.


Anybody with more than a passing interest in the work of Ramsey Campbell will undoubtedly know he is incredibly knowledgeable about film and his excellent collection Certainly: A Collection of Essays more than proves the point, as many of these pieces are cinematic in nature. In some ways Ancient Images is a horror film buff’s dream, as it is a fascinating take on the ‘cursed film’ trope, which throws in a lot of true facts, ideas about censorship and it even had me wondering whether Lugosi and Karloff actually did make a film together in the UK.


It was interesting that Campbell decided to build his ‘cursed’ film around actors more associated with the golden period of Hollywood, but this allowed him to build a fascinating backstory around the near-mythical Tower of Fear, the accidents which happened on set and the fact that so many of the actors and crew (including the director) had died prematurely. Screen legends Lugosi and Karloff might be from too far back in cinematic history for younger readers, but even now there never seems to be any shortage of books featuring them. Just in the last year I have reviewed two novels Julian David Stone’s It’s Alive and Kim Newman’s Something More Than Night which fictionalise both men in some form or another.


After Sandy witnesses the strange death of a media colleague, who had tracked down a copy of Tower of Fear which was then stolen, she sets out to recover the film and prove its existence. Along the way she falls foul of a newspaper film critic and the book illustrates the incredible power such print film reviewers had in the days before the internet. I enjoyed the numerous interviews Sandy has with those connected to the film, whilst she is seemingly stalked by bizarre creatures that sometimes look like dogs and other times like scarecrows. In the end the conclusion nicely fans out beyond the cursed film and has a strange Folk Horror vibe to proceedings. Interestingly, some years later Campbell was to have another stab at the idea of the cursed film with The Grin in the Dark, which ranks as one of my absolute favourites of his.


Although Ancient Images is a terrific book it is not one I would particularly recommend to a Ramsey Campbell beginner, try The Grin in the Dark instead for a significantly more contemporary story. But if, like I, this is a title you have previously overlooked it is highly recommended and is an unsettling read, where things often happen at the far edge of vision. Even though it is slightly dated, Ancient Images still holds up well as an entertaining supernatural mystery as the young woman digs deeper into the origins of the film and the bad luck which seemed to follow those involved in its making. As Sandy traipses around Britain looking for the film you will be transported back to Thatcher’s decaying Britain, enhanced by Campbell’s stellar grimy descriptions, and will be thankful you never need to ask a pub landlord for chance for the payphone again!


Tony Jones

This was my first encounter with the phantom that is Orrin Grey. A name I was familiar with from my skirtings with the weird horror end of town. That I admired for his ability to always seem to throw up a post about something near and dear to my younger self (who is still trapped in this achier, portlier me) and make me giddily go track down whatever it was. Now, even above that, his name goes to being synonymous with above par writing and delivering a sense of oft nostalgic, tweezed between dark and melancholy fiction. 


The collection opens with a brief intro from Silvia Moreno Garcia, a fantastic author. Read Mexican Gothic if you doubt me.


Then we jump of the ledge and into the first tale, “How to see Ghosts ( or Surely Bring Them to You) and it was this one that forced the tooth of the crowbar in, kept me from closing myself off to what this book was offering. This story is an exorcise (yes, I meant that) in the deepest wounds we find ourselves self-inflicting. Set in a Halloween attraction and where the spooky ooky is perhaps metaphor for the creepies and crawlies we haunt ourselves with, through inaction or decisions good or bad. 


“The Big, Dark House by The Sea” brings us face to face with a man and his prized, captive mermaid. If only it were that simple of a tale, at only a few pages it's miles long in the somber tone it nibbles at you with. Exceptional.


“Masks” is a crucial chomp from monstery teeth. It salts the wound with Bradbury and Fredric Brown and leaves it to seep and fester in you...on you.


“The House On Mars” is an absolute cracker of a story where in 3 strange bodies are found in an old house, complete with bonkers Mad Scientist Lab kinda set up. Then when they awaken, things get really wild. 


“The Double-Goer” is a nifty ratchet of the Doppelganger/Double tale but...so much more. 


“The Humbug” is another old tone tale of a child who captures a unique insect and the consequences from it.  “The Pepys Lake Monster” concerns a man, a special effects genius tasked to build a creature for a small town's lake. “The Split Foot Reel” is a folky horror tale of a strange and possibly cursed song.


“Prehistoric Animals” is a tale of revenge and giant statues of prehistoric critters possessed. If that sounds gonzo enough, just wait til you read it!


“Manifest Destiny” is a Russian Nesting Doll of a story, a tale told to a Seaman that harkens back to a war memory that is as unusual and horrific as war itself. This one was a strange one but great fun.


“The Drunkard's Dream” involved a unique computer game that is much more personal than expected. Tragically so.


There are several tales that I didn't call out and that has nothing to do with their quality and everything to do with word economy. Grey knows what and when to pull stitches tightly or let them dangle as eyelash. The voice is never harsh or hollering, never a whisper either. But sturdy and surgically sharp.


This was my first foray in the fiction of Orrin Grey. It will not be my last.




John Boden 

John Boden was mostly raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in the small town of Orbisonia. 

He is a bakery manager by trade and finds a regular sleep schedule overrated.

He currently resides with his beautiful wife and two sons, in a house sweetly haunted by the ghost of a beautician named, Darlene. He likes collecting lots of things and won't usually shut up about it. 

His writing is fairly well received and has been called unique of style.

His work has been published in the form of stories in several anthologies and as novellas.

He plays well with others as is evidenced by collaborative works with Mercedes M. Yardley, Bracken MacLeod, Kurt Newton, Brian Rosenberger, Chad Lutzke and Robert Ford. 

He's easy to track down either on Facebook or Twitter (JohnBoden1970) John Boden was mostly raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in the small town of Orbisonia. 

He is a bakery manager by trade and finds a regular sleep schedule overrated.

He currently resides with his beautiful wife and two sons, in a house sweetly haunted by the ghost of a beautician named, Darlene. He likes collecting lots of things and won't usually shut up about it. 

His writing is fairly well received and has been called unique of style.

His work has been published in the form of stories in several anthologies and as novellas.

He plays well with others as is evidenced by collaborative works with Mercedes M. Yardley, Bracken MacLeod, Kurt Newton, Brian Rosenberger, Chad Lutzke and Robert Ford. 
​
He's easy to track down either on Facebook or Twitter (JohnBoden1970) John Boden was mostly raised in the mountains of Pennsylvania, in the small town of Orbisonia. 
He is a bakery manager by trade and finds a regular sleep schedule overrated.
He currently resides with his beautiful wife and two sons, in a house sweetly haunted by the ghost of a beautician named, Darlene. He likes collecting lots of things and won't usually shut up about it. 
His writing is fairly well received and has been called unique of style.
His work has been published in the form of stories in several anthologies and as novellas.
He plays well with others as is evidenced by collaborative works with Mercedes M. Yardley, Bracken MacLeod, Kurt Newton, Brian Rosenberger, Chad Lutzke and Robert Ford. 
He's easy to track down either on Facebook or Twitter (JohnBoden1970) 

Like any epic worth its salt, Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger begins in medias res, right in the heart of the battle: Melinda never missed, not in her twenty-eight years of gunslinging. But then again, she had never dealt with giant, flying scorpions before. KC Grifant’s horror western hits the road at top speed and never takes its foot off the accelerator, making the book a perfect fit for readers who like their horror weird and their action plentiful.

Grifant’s heroine is a delicious amalgamation of Ash Williams in wise-cracking bravado and Ellen Ripley in triumphant fearlessness, two creature-battling icons who would feel right at home in West’s world. Here, “edge creatures,” mutant versions of our everyday baddies (such as rats, centipedes, and hornets) plague humankind, poisoning their victims with their venom and in some cases, stealing their very souls. After taking out a nest, Melinda and her faithful sidekick Lance bunk at an old friend’s house but are ambushed by a swarm of particularly gruesome arachnids. Believing herself responsible for a serious injury that befalls one of her companions, Melinda sets off to retrieve the soul that the creatures snatch, setting in motion an even more dangerous quest.

One of the most difficult tasks a speculative fiction author undertakes is creating a world that is simultaneously believable and escapist by balancing the realm of the fantastic with the mesmerism required to make a reader believe it to be true. Grifant does this in spades, allowing her prose to flow as easily as a hot knife through butter, and it’s difficult not to become attached to Melinda and invested in the adventure from the get go:

Melinda kept her pistol trained at Eloise’s chest and leaned to the right. Lance went behind her to the left so they’d both have a clear shot. Something about Eloise giving up was too easy. Maybe another bluff.

“Awful calm for someone who’s going to jail for a long time,” Lance called from behind Melinda.

Eloise smiled, her eyes calculating despite her cocky shrug. “What can I say? Even the best have to face the music sometime.”

“Stop, outlaw!” A voice shouted behind them.

Before Melinda could turn, a noise exploded, making them instinctively duck.
A gun shot.

They weren’t alone.

It’s the author’s smart pacing that keeps the reader cemented to the page; I found myself putting off going to sleep each night just so I could continue on to the next chapter.
​
Grifant, known for her shape-shifting skills beneath the speculative fiction umbrella—she’s previously penned winners in feminist dark fiction, gothic horror, Lovecraftian fantasy, and science fiction, masters the hybrid of shoot ‘em up Western and creature feature like an old pro. I went into Monster Gunslinger already an ardent fan of the author’s writing style but not an aficionado of the Weird West, but Grifant quickly warmed me to the genre. Demons, take heed: there’s a new boomstick in town, and something tells me we haven’t seen the last of her.

I love coming-of-age novels and Tim McGregor’s superb Wasps in the Ice Cream ranks amongst the absolute best of them. It took me right back to being bored and sixteen, living in a small town where there was not much to do, with episodes of underage drinking, video games, loud music, sporadic acts of violence and unobtainable visions of the opposite sex. I grew up in the north of Scotland and although this novel is set in Canada, the feelings of alienation and disaffection are identical, with Tim McGregor absolutely nailing what it was like to be sixteen and not giving a f**k what your parents and teachers say.


Although the excellent Raw Dog Screaming Press are undoubtedly promoting Wasps in the Ice Cream as an adult novel it had a vibrant and convincing Young Adult (YA) feel to it. The protagonist is sixteen and has issues with his dad and stepmother and since it is narrated in the first person by Mark Prewitt it becomes even more teen driven. Mark’s developing infatuation for the enigmatic Georgina (known as George) Farrow was pure YA and I found the scenes around their developing friendship/relationship to be perfectly pitched. There was a scene near the end of the book where the cult science fiction Robocop was showing on the cinema that almost had me in tears it was so powerful. Mark, you bastard. If that moment had been captured in an eighties teen John Hughes movie it would have had a very different outcome! I will most certainly be buying this book for my own school library as I am certain it will find an audience amongst genuine teen readers.


Wasps in the Ice Cream is set during the long hot summer of 1987 and I guess another reason I loved the book so much was the fact that I was about sixteen in the same year and also saw Robocop on the big screen! But I had to blag my way in, as it was rated ‘18’ in the UK! The eighties name dropping of films, pop culture and raiding the local video-shop for gory and gaudily boxed horror films was also spot on, as was the obsession with what was going to appear at the cinema the following week. As their fleapit only showed reruns, their long and frustrating wait for the appearance of Robocop for really funny, as in those days it really did take a year or longer for films to appear on home video.


Ultimately Wasps in the Ice Cream is about what happens when you fall for the girl everyone hates (or at least don’t understand) and the weird peer-pressures teens feel around standing out, with the story taking its time getting around to introducing the spiky George Farrow. Mark has had the same best friends for years, Eric and Kevin, and he is no longer sure he even likes them anymore. He works two parttime jobs and is in a rut, whilst trying to save enough cash to restore an old car he has sitting in the garage. He spends his time fooling around with Eric and Kevin, doing a combination of dumb stuff and rewatching their favourite films whilst trying to stay out of the way of his dad who has married a much younger woman whom Mark is dismissive of and unpleasant to, even if he has no real reason to be so.


In small towns everybody knows everybody else’s business and rumours are known to get blown out of all proportion, none more so than the stories surrounding the three Farrow sisters. The Farrow family live in a dilapidated house outside of town and if the rumours are true are down on their luck after losing money at some stage in the past. The girls were withdrawn from the local school after the suspicious death of a fourth elder sister and there are idle and unfound rumours that the family dabble in witchcraft. Although the Satanic Panic phenomenon is never mentioned, this story is set during a period were many Americans (okay, this is set in Canada) believed Devil worshippers walked amongst us in plain sight.


Through the bored troublemaking of Mark and his two friends Eric and Kevin he eventually meets George, at which point a very good story becomes a truly excellent one. Mark is totally torn, as he cannot let his friends know he is interested in a girl who is effectively a pariah in the small town where he lives. The story cleverly explores these internal conflicts, taking in lust, infatuation and the lengths he will go to keep his dream girl a secret. How he keeps this hidden from both his friends and family is both a key and important part of the story and anybody who has ever sneaked a girl or boy into their family home will feel and identify with Mark’s pain.


The support characters were drawn outstandingly well and how they interacted with Mark, I particularly liked his stepmother and his unfound casual unpleasantness towards her. Also, how his two best friends reacted to change and the possibility that Mark might have a life beyond them and rewatching the same old flicks or playing the same arcade machines to death. And in the background we have the largely symbolic wasp nest close to the ice cream parlour where Mark works and his casual obsession with the gorgeous older girl who works in the cinema kiosk across the road. All these factors contributed to a beautifully drawn small town and the relatable characters who inhabited it.


You might ask what makes Wasps in the Ice Cream a horror novel rather than a nostalgic coming-of-age drama? The use of the supernatural is used very subtlety and is beautifully restrained, you will have to read the novel yourself to decide whether it exists at all. I adored the manner in which ambiguity was used by the Farrow sisters and their interactions with each other. George makes witch-bottles (and Mark helps) to keep their property safe and she also believes the ghost of her dead sister is not so far away and not such a fan of Mark. I loved this part of the story and it naturally flowed with the development of their relationship.


I have read Tim McGregor before, but Wasps in the Ice Cream is significantly better than everything else I have come across, this powerful story impressed me so much I have already cued Taboo in Four Colors on my kindle and am going to take a closer look at his back catalogue. Mark does some crappy things, but his voice is so authentic I guarantee you will forgive him. The ending was also both outstanding and reflective and not dissimilar to any of us looking back upon a pivotal part of our own teenage years. Simply outstanding and sure to be one of the books of 2023.


We all have a George in our past, whom we probably think about more than we would care to admit.


Tony Jones

​What happens when you fall for the girl everyone hates?


Summer 1987: Mark Prewitt's only priority is to avoid his dad's new wife and waste time with his friends, but idle nights are the devil's playground. When his friends decide to pull a cruel prank on the reclusive and strange Farrow sisters, Mark regrets caving in to peer pressure.


Wanting to make amends, Mark is drawn into the mysterious world of the Farrow girls, finding a kindred spirit in the middle sister, George. She is unlike anyone he's ever known; a practicing witch who uses folk magic to protect her family. They bond over books, loneliness, and homemade spells. She even invites Mark to join a séance to contact her dead sister, who died under mysterious circumstances.


Keeping their relationship secret, Mark learns that living a double life in a town this small is impossible. When the secret is exposed, and his friends plot to punish the witch sisters for stealing one of their own, Mark is forced to choose between these two worlds.


"Filled with evocative and captivating scenes, strong female characters, and an engaging narration, readers will become engrossed immediately, while the threat and fear at the heart of this story, satisfyingly, sneaks up on them." -Booklist, starred

The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz

Soon no one on Earth will have a place to hide in this novel about fears known and unknown by #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Thomas & Mercer (24 Jan. 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1662500440
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1662500442


A Horror Book Review by Yvonne Miller 
​

It’s been so long since I’ve had the delight of reading a Dean Koontz novel and when the opportunity arose to read his new release hitting the shelves in January 2023, to say I jumped would be an understatement. I like what this author consistently brings to the table – original plots, memorable characters, and a writing style that doesn’t fail to draw you in with a few words. I didn’t think that his brand of storytelling could get much better, but The House at the End of the World exceeded all my expectations.

Have you ever found yourself wanting to escape from life? I know I have. Sometimes it all just gets a bit too much, doesn’t it? The daily grind of work, sleep, cooking, and cleaning – it’s all so predictable that you just want to do something spontaneous. This is exactly what Katie does after something catastrophic happens in her life. She has a promise to keep, and she fully intends to do just that. She buys the Island known as Jacob’s Ladder, it’s a haven, and she’s completely isolated from everything and everyone. It’s exactly what she needs, the wildlife and the vista doesn’t exactly bring her back to life, but it certainly helps calm her.

The neighbouring island of Ringrock harbours a secret – a life-altering and destructive government research facility that if their true intention were to be leaked would impact the islands, the continent perhaps even the world. A concept that unleashed upon the residents would be a nightmarish hellfire. This isn’t usually my immediate go-to genre, but it left me feeling unseated and questioning what goes on these little islands that are scattered around the world.

If I was to try and sum up The House at the End of the World it would be – You might want to shut your eyes, but Koontz prises it open with hooks, and the terror is forced upon you without any escape plan.

The story dips in and out of Katie’s past and the event that shaped her becomes clear. It’s more than any person should have to deal with. It would kill the strongest of people and yet she’s still standing albeit with a metaphorical hitch in her step. It’s the worst kind of reality check but she won’t ever be a vulnerable victim again. Katie believed that Jacob’s Ladder would be her opportunity to hide away but what if she was more at risk on the island than she ever was on the mainland?

I loved Katie’s character. She’s a badass that is determined to get to the bottom of the suspicious goings-on Ringrock. She’s angry that her peace is being shattered and has the means to protect herself and her property if push came to shove. A strong and resilient character that has the will to see through her intentions.

As always with a Koontz novel, he writes animals so incredibly well. You fall in love with them – Michael J. was one of them (had more than one chuckle with the aptly named fox). The story is served with a pacing that immediately has you engaging the seatbelt and doing three hail marys. The narrative is as sharp as a rough-cut diamond, ready to tear apart the wearer. An incredible exploration of grief, secrecy, and redemption.

Hi there, I’m Yvonne. Book Reviewer/ General all-round Nerd
​
Well, what can i say about me? I’m a 32 year old married woman and mum to 3 crazy boys, aged 12,5 and 3. My eldest has a genetic condition that causes a visual impairment so as you can imagine life can be very chaotic and provides many challenges along the way but I would 100% never change any of them. They fulfil my life beyond measure.
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I Adore Books – I adore shouting about books! I’m a reviewer of all genres, whether that be Epic Fantasy, Gothic Horror, a historical romance or a race-to-the-end thriller. I will read them all.

Since appearing on the scene in the mid-nineties Christopher Golden has been incredible prolific with a wide range of fiction which confidently crosses the genres. Although I have read a relatively small selection of these, I was a fan of his Ben Walker trilogy, in particular Ararat (2017) and Red Hands (2020) and also thoroughly enjoyed his previous novel, Road of Bones (2022). If you have never read Golden these recent releases are terrific places to start, with All Hallows being another absolute beauty which had me on the hook from page one to the last.


I do not know how many horror novels take place entirely on Halloween night (probably hundreds), and that is exactly what occurs in All Hallows, with the terrifying events playing out deliciously over a twelve-hour period. However, I was surprised by the lack of concrete examples my brief session of brainstorming uncovered, Something Wicked This Way Comes, by Ray Bradbury is set in the runup, Scott Thomas’s Kill Creek takes place on the big night and two cool examples, and there are hundreds of short stories which use the spooky season as inspiration. Coming from the UK, I always enjoy the extravagant manner in which the USA goes so far over the top for 31st October, and All Hallows captures this exuberant mood beautifully. It really comes across as a huge deal and perhaps I should put ‘celebrating Halloween in the States’ on my horror bucket list!


Considering events play out over a single evening Golden goes to town with a substantial cast of characters, some of which have more considerably page time than others who are little more than bit players. In the mix, we have: Tony Barbosa, Vanessa Montez, Barb Sweeney, Charlie Sweeney, Rick Barbosa, Alice Barbosa, Julia Sweeney, Zack Burgess, Ruth Burgess, Donnie Sweeney, Billie Suarez, Sarah Jane, Chloe Barbosa, Brian Sweeney and Steve Koenig. Fifteen is a hefty number of points of view, but it never feels cumbersome and helps present a panoramic view of how things go down on this special 1984 night, in the small Massachusetts town of Coventry. Even before we get to the supernatural element of the story, a couple of complex family dramas convincingly playout, giving an authentic slice of behind-the-curtains small-town life. The supernatural spin concerning ‘The Cunning Man’ is kept on the backburner until the second half of the story and this pacing is balanced nicely with the family drama and atmosphere of the big night.


The fifteen different characters and their plots (which overlap in both small and large ways) are wide ranging and include a LGBTQIA+ teen story, marriage infidelity, marriage breakups, small-town gossip, possible child abduction, local feuds, trick-or-treaters, teen partying, underage drinking, and at the centre of it all, the local Halloween attraction ‘The Haunted Wood.’ This is gleefully staged every year by one of the families, but due to various problems they intend to make 1984 their last blast and go out in style. As they prepare their attractions there is a certain level of melancholy that change is in the air and that things will never be the same again. How right they were, but not in the manner they were expecting.


Like Richard Chizmar and his Chasing the Boogieman, Christopher Golden beautifully recreates an authentic eighties smalltown and his Halloween descriptions are so rich they can almost be touched and smelled. Things start out as you might expect with the trick or treaters having fun knocking on doors before things begin to go down south. Even though this happens, the manner in which the breakdown occurs over a single evening was a gripping read, as it takes an age for anybody to join the dots due to the fragmented nature of Halloween and the fact that nobody sees the big picture until it was much too late made it all the more convincing.


I do not want to say much about The Cunning Man part of the plot which is barely hinted at in the first half of the book, expect that when it begins to motor is terrific fun. Mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who nobody recognises as locals are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup and strange mannerisms. They seem terrified, and beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, but they have their own hidden motives. As things moved on Christopher Golden brings everything together nicely and the mythology he creates for The Cunning Man was very well thought out and cleverly tied to Halloween. Neither would I call this a feel-good Halloween novel as he is brutal to several of the major characters and pulls no punches.


It is too bad All Hallows is being released in January as it is seriously out of season! However, it is such an entertaining page-turner it will be enjoyed at any time of the year. If you are after some eighties nostalgia and want something significantly more ambitious than another film featuring Michael Myers then All Hallows does not disappoint and ensures you can enjoy Halloween more than once a year and well out of season.
​
Tony Jones

​Perfect for fans of Stephen King and the 1980s nostalgia of Stranger Things. A gripping suburban nightmare from the New York Times-bestselling, Bram-Stoker Award-winning master of horror fiction.

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unravelling. The Barbosas have opened their annual Haunted Woods attraction in the forest behind their house―the house they’re about to lose. The Sweeneys are fighting about alcoholism and infidelity on their front lawn. Up the street, high-school senior Vanessa Montez is about to have her secrets exposed during the violent end to the neighbourhood’s block party, while down the street, the truth about Ruth and Zack Burgess turns out to be even more horrifying than the rumours ever were.

And all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. Children who seem terrified, and who beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. There’s a small clearing in the woods now that was never there before, and a blackthorn tree that doesn’t belong at all. These odd children claim that The Cunning Man is coming for them...and they want the local kids to protect them. But with families falling apart and the community splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road?
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New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christopher Golden is best known for his supernatural thrillers set in deadly, distant locales...but in this suburban Halloween drama, Golden brings the horror home.

In 1968, a minor television commercial director helmed a low-budget black-and-white production in the pastoral American barrens outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and irrevocably altered the course of entertainment history. George A. Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead--with its stark survivalist plot, graphic gore and uncompromising ending--was unlike anything seen on the silver screen and became the forbearer of a wave of socially relevant horror untethered from the old-world monsters of previous generations. The undead gut-munchers assailing that backwoods farmhouse weren’t suave vampiric counts from some far-off land or melancholy noblemen afflicted by a loathsome lycanthrope curse--they were us, humanity reduced to its ravenous primordial impulses, a mindless mass, capable of crushing our fragile civilization with the sheer weight of their ghastly numbers. Indeed, the driving idea behind Night’s continued importance--the ‘zombie apocalypse’, has become a creative cottage industry in its own right, begetting innumerable cinematic iterations, television shows, video games, books and graphic novels; the notion of an undead overthrow has permeated contemporary culture even to its uppermost echelons: no less a force than the U.S. Department of Defense has a contingency plan for the spread of an actual zombie contagion. And while some would argue the subgenre has reached its saturation point, like any good revenant, just when you think the creature has perished it rises hungrier than ever.
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One of the most successful modern interpretations of an undead end times scenario is Danny Boyle’s 2002 tour de force, 28 Days Later. Romero-esque in essence yet featuring a far more realistic threat in the form of ‘infected’ individuals rather than actual reanimated ghouls, it popularized the concept of a zombie outbreak spreading via viral contamination, a set-up that clearly influenced authors Denver Grenell and Ian J. Middleton with their recent collaborative Beware The Moon literary release, Red Ruin.

Like Boyle's celluloid counterpart, the novel begins with a prologue detailing the animal origin of a curious rapid-onset affliction that causes extreme homicidal aggression in its victims that extends post-mortem. The plot focuses thereafter on twenty-something Carla Gallo, freshly fired from her cushy cruise ship job, as she begrudgingly returns to her hometown of Christchurch, New Zealand. Having left prior to the 2011 earthquake that devastated the city, Carla feels adrift amid the rebuilt metropolis, and after a somewhat disappointing reunion with her brother Antonio (‘Ants’ to those near and dear), Carla feels the reawakening doomy pall that initiated her departure years earlier.  
           
Carla’s humdrum anxieties about job stability and reuniting with her parents, however, end once an injured Ants, having been attacked on his way home from work by a crazed homeless man, quickly mutates into a blood-drooling engine of destruction. After he's put down (twice) by law enforcement, Carla’s existence becomes one of pure self-preservation: escaping the city just as the new plague destabilizes civil order, she wanders the countryside until coming upon a farmhouse occupied by a no-nonsense father willing to defend his kin at all costs…

While epic in scope, the world-building in Red Ruin wisely never overshadows the main narrative; throughout the novel, we earn snatches of what's happening around the rest of the country, but unlike Max Brooks' equally impressive undead-Armageddon classic, World War Z, the emphasis here is less on global calamity or the ramifications of societal collapse. At its heart this is a personal tale, spotlighting characters, their motivations, thoughts and inner drives. Until arriving at the farmhouse, the storyline feels purposefully disjointed; reeling from the transformation and subsequent death of Ants leaves Carla with recurring post-traumatic stress; far from being some cookie-cutter action star, she is instead portrayed as a real person with faults and unique disadvantages (unused to navigating without the internet, she struggles to read regular paper maps), and her city-girl attitude sharply contrasts (and conflicts) with the rural clan who eventually grant her shelter.

As the other primary protagonists, that family--hard-nosed patriarch Phil, Maori wife Ana, teenaged Tia and younger daughter Manaia--are as tight and self-sufficient a unit as can be. Like with Carla, Grenell and Middleton spend much careful time crafting each relative into fully-realized, three dimensional figures; Phil, for instance, initially portrayed as gruff, authoritarian and unyielding, is revealed later to be loving, friendly and as uncertain about his choices as anyone else. Similarly, Ana, seen early on as little more than a frightened housewife, soon takes her place in the story as Phil's equal, just as outspoken Tia sides with Carla to upset her father's often stubborn outlook regarding their new situation.

While both writers possess considerable individual skill (Grenell’s previous short fiction collection, The Burning Boy and Other Stories, and Middleton’s evocative sci-fi horror novel Ghosts of Gion are equally entertaining reads), Red Ruin thrives mightily on their collaboration. Unlike many co-authored works, a cohesion exists that renders each storyteller’s separate footprints invisible; Grenell and Middleton’s minds are enthusiastically conjoined, and their combined energy propels the narrative with a viciously vivid velocity. Fast, hypnotic prose bolsters furious set pieces--the sequence detailing the family's exodus from their barricaded abode is both riveting and flawlessly thought-out--yet they never trade characterization for gratuitous violence. As the novel progresses and the circumstances becomes bleaker and the stakes of failure higher, it's that strong emotional depth that snares a reader’s attention: we care, and deeply so, about the fate of Carla, Phil and his family, which ratchets up the tension during displays of menace.

If there’s any weakness to Red Ruin, it’s a sense of overfamiliarity. One consequence of the subgenre’s zeitgeist overload is that so many permutations of Romero’s initial premise now exist that innovation has become increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Like the aforementioned 28 Days Later--itself steeped in homage to 1979’s Dawn of the Dead--the structure of Red Ruin will be recognizable to anyone even casually acquainted with zombies: the bewilderment at the first infections, Carla’s flight to the countryside, being trapped with strangers at an isolated locale, finding sanctuary only to have it ultimately overrun. On the whole, however, this isn’t the fatal setback one might assume; many a modern rock band has been inspired by The Beatles, but does that make the efforts of those current musicians any less enjoyable? The same logic applies here: Red Ruin may revel in its influences and hit some expected story beats, but the overall delight remains undiluted. Buttressed by those powerful characterizations and an unstoppable intensity, Grenell and Middleton have created one of the best zombie outings yet written. The setting itself offers a singular strength; wielding the backdrop, customs and slang of New Zealand with rapier precision, the native-born Grenell and longtime Welsh expat Middleton lend a distinct Kiwi flavor to the shenanigans that unabashedly sets this novel apart from both its predecessors and other ghoul-centric fare.

Exciting, thought-provoking, expertly written and dangerously addictive, Red Ruin earns the full 5 (out of 5) stars on my Fang Scale. Highly recommended for those horror fans needing a fix of pure adrenaline. And the best part? A sequel is already in the works. May there be many more!

Kia Kaha. Stay Strong. Two simple words that together are worth more than the sum of their parts. Forever entwined with the New Zealand city of Christchurch, they meant little to Carla Gallo, until now.As one chapter of her life closes, Carla reluctantly returns to Christchurch to find a city she doesn’t remember, filled with more strangers than friends. Estranged from her parents, and a brother who is more drinking buddy than sibling, she once again has to make it on her own.When a sudden and violent outbreak sweeps through the country, she finds herself running for her life, and fighting to survive against a sleepless, merciless threat that turns its victims into savage killers. Taking refuge with a family living on the outskirts of the city, her priorities become tested as they’re forced to trust each other in this cruel new world.A terrifying, emotional, and at times brutal journey that sends Carla across the vast Canterbury Plains and deep into the New Zealand backcountry, where she must come to understand who she really is, if she is to see the last thing she holds dear ever again.Stay Strong. Stay Alive.

Exposed to the weird worlds of horror, sci-fi and comics as a boy, Damascus Mincemeyer was ruined for life. Now he spends his time doing lurid book cover illustrations and publishing fiction in various anthologies. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and has one volume of short horror stories, Where The Last Light Dies, and a forthcoming horror novel, By Invitation Only, to his credit. He spends his spare time listening to music nobody else likes and wasting far too much time on Instagram @damascusundead666