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Sinister Pages - Horror Book Reviews

Sinister Pages is a page dedicated to reviewing the work of horror writers.

27/09/2023

Black Echoes by JB McLaurin.

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Black Echoes is a tough book to pigeonhole. There are many different genres at play in its 300+ pages. Sure, there are elements of horror, but if I had to slot it into a specific genre, I would probably file it under Crime/Thriller. A captivating page-turner of a Crime/Thriller.

I loved every single page of this beautifully written book.

The story follows a guy called Hank. Hank is a drummer for a semi-popular heavy metal band, the son of a former drug addict and thief turned BBQ chef, and a mother who died when Hank was just a baby. Hank lives with his devoted but no-nonsense talking girlfriend, Lisa, and occasionally, her disabled brother, Danny.

After winding up in a nasty automobile accident, Hank's life begins to spiral out of control. Unable to play the drums competently and becoming increasingly more addicted to pain medication, Hank finds himself heading down the same path as his father did many years prior.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the wonderful way in which each character felt so richly fleshed out. You grow to care about the characters quite quickly, and when the s**t hits the fan and things start going bad for everyone, you really feel it. And believe me, things go very bad indeed.

As a musician myself, I really identified with the character of Hank, and as a father who has had to step up and take care of my children through some very tough times, I could identify with Everett (Hank’s father). I wanted everything to work out for them, for them to somehow make it through the horrors that have enveloped them and come out the other side.

Sadly, this story, much like life itself, doesn’t play out the way we would hope.

I’m trying to avoid giving away spoilers and plot points, as I went into this book knowing nothing, and that it only added to my enjoyment.

Author JB McLaurin is a drummer himself, and his love of music and performing adds another dimension to his protagonist. It lends a sense of passion to the story you wouldn’t have had if it had been written by a non-musician.

By the time I finished reading the last page, I felt as though I too, had been through the ringer with Hank, Everett, and Lisa. The story sucked me in that deeply.

It wasn’t the conclusion I hoped for, but how often do we get what we want?

Black Echoes has found its way into my top five reads of the year, and it will take something spectacular to unseat it.

I highly recommend this book and will be reading more of JB McLaurin’s work.

29/08/2023

The Spread of Excession by Mark MJ Green.

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It’s not unreasonable to suggest that, as a species, we are pretty s**tty to each other. We’ve been evolving and growing for the better part of six million years, and we still can’t seem to live together peacefully. It will, in all likelihood, be our undoing.

You only have to flick over to a news channel to know that what I’m saying is a sad truth. It’s either reports of a warlord ordering his armies to blow innocent civilians to pieces in Eastern Europe or some lunatic gunning down schoolchildren in the US. Violence has become such a twisted part of our everyday life that we have become completely desensitised to it.

And I'm not talking about the cartoonish violence used to excite and titillate on TV and in movies and books such as this. I'm talking about the very real, sickening violence that is happening everywhere, all the time.

It’s this notion that is tackled so skilfully in The Spread of Excession by writer, frequent collaborator, and all-around good egg (I swear that’s not a bald joke) Mark MJ Green.

Viral outbreaks are nothing new in horror stories. Over the years, they have been done to death, to a point where I had started to wonder if anything new could be added to make it feel fresh and exciting again. A few weeks ago, I would have said, “Probably not.”
That was until this book dropped into my emails. It shows what I know, doesn’t it?

A disease is sweeping the land. The media have dubbed it Excession. This disease, unlike most other pathogens, doesn’t kill its host. Instead, it compels its host to kill others. Although, these murder sprees are not indiscriminate. It appears that there is both reason and motive behind each of the murders.

As the illness spreads and the bodies pile up, it’s decided that the perpetrators of these bloody crimes can’t be held responsible for their actions, as technically, they are not in control of their actions.
This plot point throws an interesting ingredient into the mix. As the virus appears to leave no detectable markers in its host, would/could people jump on the bandwagon and carry out their darkest fantasies or exact bloody vengeance on those who had wronged them in the past?

I like a story that pushes me to think about it long after I’ve finished reading, and The Spread of Excession is definitely one of those.

I Would have liked this book to have been a little longer. There is so much scope to the story and the ideas within that I would love for Green to revisit it some time and expand on it.

If that is not to be, then The Spread of Excession works perfectly as a stand-alone story.

The Spread of Excession is available now from the lovely folk at shadowhousepress.com. At the time of writing this review, I think it’s only available on eBook, but I know that a paperback will be available soon.

21/08/2023

Triptych: Three Tales Of Frontier Horror by Richard Beauchamp.

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I'm ashamed to say my experience of wild west horror is pretty limited. Somehow, I’ve missed out on this subgenre, only really being exposed to it through films like ‘Bone Tomahawk.’ However, I fully intend to change that as this book was a 'rootin-tootin' good yarn. (Was that convincingly cowboy enough?)

I do have a passion for Westerns, however. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Rio Bravo and The Unforgiven all rate highly on my list of favourite films, so I was intrigued as to how well the two genres would mesh. The answer is incredibly well.

This book contains three short stories. The first of which is ‘The Courier’, which tells of a highly reputable… well, courier (the clue is in the title) who finds himself hired to deliver a package to a well-known occultist. The job comes with a set of strict conditions. The courier must not open the package and must deliver on time, on pain of death. This was by far my favourite of the three stories. As the hero of the tale plods on, growing increasingly drained and weighed down by the negative toll that the package is taking on him, physically and mentally, yet striving on with tenacious determination to complete the job, I couldn’t help but think of Frodo's struggle in The Lord of the Rings. Now, I’m not comparing this story to Tolkien’s classic as this is a very short tale and therefore unable to match the epic scope of those three books, but that’s just where my mind went while reading this.

The second story is ‘Blood Gulch’. Maylene Baker tools up, shotgun in hand, and sets off to navigate a frontier overrun by parasitic worms that have the ability to infest and control a host. Blood Gulch kinda reminded me of a wild west version of the movie ‘Slither’, from 2006, but without the gross-out humour. I liked that, as a reader, I was dropped right into a body invasion epidemic, where the creepy critters had already seized control of much of the local human population. The story is so well written, and the situation is so beautifully described and fleshed out that it doesn’t require a lengthy backstory to explain the origin of the invasion. Everything you need to know is painted perfectly in these few short pages.

Lastly, we have ‘It Comes For Us All’, which I have to admit was my least favourite of the three, although it was still an enjoyable, well-told story. I should mention that Beauchamp co-authored this tale with Korey Dawson. It Comes For Us All tells the story of a bounty hunter, hauling his captive across a harsh and unforgiving frontier, determined to keep him alive and therefore collect the maximum bounty. As their journey continues, it becomes apparent that something is a little off with the bounty hunter's bound prey. When the captive's secret is finally revealed, all hell breaks loose, leading to a night of bloody carnage.

I enjoyed this book immensely and will definitely be reading more Western Horror, and for that matter, more of Richard Beauchamp’s work. Each story exists in a superbly described world, allowing the reader to feel immersed in the dusty plains of the old west, where danger lurks around every corner. Adding the horror twists of each story into the mix is the icing on the cake.

10/08/2023

Live-In Carer by PK Baker.

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According to PK Baker, in her ‘About the Author’ section, she was unsure whether or not to dip her toe into the world of writing horror, as she usually writes in a different genre. Based on the strength of this book, (her horror genre debut), she should be penning more creepy tales.

I enjoyed the hell out of this book. Those hoping for a dose of splatter or something of an extreme nature will be barking up the wrong tree. This is a good old-fashioned haunted house story, and it’s been a while since I read one of those.

Leah accepts a job as a live-in carer, having recently ended her long-term relationship and hoping to start life anew. The position seems perfect, as not only will she be provided with a place to live rent-free, but she gets to take her pet house rabbit Pixie.

As the old saying goes, “If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is,” and Leah begins to find this out the hard way.

From night one onwards, Leah begins to experience some genuinely freaky paranormal activity, which grows more disturbing with each passing night. Leah and John, the guy she is charged with caring for, should be alone in the large house, but something sinister seems to be lodging with them, unseen but ever-present. Could it be Mia, John’s daughter, who passed away years before, or something darker and more menacing?

A good hair-raising scare can be tricky to pull off effectively when writing, but Baker achieves this effortlessly. Each fear-inducing scene is perfectly paced, meaning the reader experiences the growing feeling of dread along with our protagonist.

I was especially fond of the downbeat ending that reminded me (without trying to give too much away) of the film ‘Skeleton Key’ starring Kate Hudson.

I’ll happily be looking out for future releases from PK Baker. She has a natural talent for storytelling of the spooky kind.

I should mention that the book includes a story written by Baker’s ten-year-old son, titled ’66 Smith Road’. It’s a nice addition to the book, and the kid certainly has a future ahead of him as a writer. Clearly, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

09/08/2023

Twentieth Anniversary Screening by Jeff Strand.

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This was my first foray into the world of Jeff Strand, and I loved every page of this 2021 Bram Stoker Award winner for Long Fiction.

With a heady mix of violence and dark humour, Twentieth Anniversary Screening is a knowing wink/love letter to the slasher movies of old. The book itself is written as though it were an article that you would find on any number of online movie sights such as 'Bloody Disgusting' and 'IHorror'. It’s a novel approach to writing that I haven’t come across before, and while I’ll admit that, at first, I was a little deterred by this style, it really worked, and I'm glad I stuck with it.

The story focuses on a movie titled The Roofer (and no, it isn’t a film about a sleazy dude who goes around slipping something into people's drinks). The Roofer is a fictitious slasher movie from the early 90s.

The Roofer isn’t a particularly memorable or well-made movie. Its legacy owes more to the fact that, while on its initial run, an unhinged moviegoer attempted to murder the audience using the exact same tools as the onscreen psychopath.

Two decades later, the movie theatre where the attempted massacre occurred is in rack and ruin. In a shocking display of bad taste, the owner decides to sell tickets for the twentieth-anniversary release, hoping it will raise enough funds for him to restore the theatre to its former glory. This being a slasher story, it does not go well.

The townsfolk, especially those related to the incident's victims twenty years prior, are outraged by the publicity stunt. Meanwhile, a couple of shady characters set about planning a reboot of the tragedy that struck all those years before.

Just when you think you know how the story will play out, Strand throws a spanner in the works with a twist that I genuinely never saw coming.

As a middle-aged fan of the 80s slasher craze and the straight-to-video awesomeness of the 90s, there was so much for me to enjoy here. I loved the references to the films that remain firm favourites of mine to this day. We schlock horror fanatics are more than aware that the quality of some of the movies we grew up adoring could sometimes be somewhat lacking. We don’t care, and we can have fun with it.

I look forward to reading more from Jeff Strand in the future. Given my enjoyment of Twentieth Anniversary Screening, I’m sure that many a treat lies ahead.

07/08/2023

July’s book of the month goes to Ronald McGillvray for ‘Tales From The Parkland: Stories For Late At Night’.

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Ronald McGillvray delivers a spinetingling collection of horror shorts and throws in a (bonus) novella for good measure.
The back cover blurb describes the book as a collection of horror stories that will keep you up at night. Reminiscent of The Twilight Zone, and that sums this assembly of twisted tales up perfectly.

McGillvray is an incredibly talented writer and crafts worlds with the same flare as the likes of Dean Koontz and James Herbert.

Of the eleven short stories on offer, my favourites are ‘The Garbage Collectors’ - A tale of a small town with an insidious secret. ‘Typo’ – A story about a man whose lack of care while surfing the net leads to a night of terror. A cautionary tale about the dark web, if ever there was one, and ‘Acid Rain’ – A deadly weather story that will sear the very flesh from your bones.

As I mentioned, the book also includes a bonus novella titled ‘Harmony’, which tells the story of an ex-military sniper roped in to help contain a viral outbreak at a research facility called Fort Harmony. Harmony is a fresh and interesting take on the zombie contagion genre, with a twist that you wouldn’t guess if I were to grant you a million guesses. I won’t reveal it here, though, so you’ll have to buy the book to find out.

There is something for everyone in this anthology, as each story is wildly different from the rest.

I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of ‘Tales From the Parkland.’ Each story is worth investing your time in. Every character is fleshed out wonderfully, which is something that can be tricky to pull off over a limited number of pages.

I’ll be happily picking up a copy of McGillvray’s latest novel ‘Cutters Deep’ based on my enjoyment of this.

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