The Lamplighters (Samhain), by Frazer Lee

What would you say if, in your hour of greatest need, you were offered a twelve-month job on the secluded tropical island of Meditrine, where your only duties would be to turn lights on and off,  run the appliances, cook, clean, and run the water in a posh mansion to make it looks as if someone were home?  Would you take it?  Would you be a Lamplighter?

Marla Neuborn, her life a complete mess and epic failure, jumped at it, and discovered, once on the island, that there was a downside, too.  For instance, the weird rules:  no smoking, no alcohol, no drugs, no swimming in the ocean, no books, no television, no lying on the beach, no phones or computers, either.  Oh, and she has no idea where the island she’s on is located.  Complete isolation.  Not only that, but the security on the island is run by a draconian paramilitary group and she’s seen a frightening figure on the property at night.  And just who are the owners of all these mansions?  And why are so many animals dying all over the island?  And if no one knows where the island is, that would preclude any random burglaries that the Lamplighters are supposed to be heading off; so what’s with the tight security?

It’s “Gilligan’s Island” meets the Gestapo meets Freddy Kruger.  And wait until you get a load of the Skin Mechanic.  Nightmare city, I promise you.

The Lamplighters is a wonderful first novel by Frazer Lee.  He handles the difficult and subtle building and maintaining of suspense like a pro.  From the day of her arrival, Marla’s intuition begins to tingle about something off about the island, and things slowly, but deliciously, go to hell from there.  She meets a couple of other Lamplighters, as well as Vincent, a most memorable lighthouse keeper; but this is really Marla’s story.  Her growth and transformation as the book spins out is most gratifying.  She begins as a weak-willed substance abuser and ends in a place of strength—always the sign of a well-told story.  I didn’t like Marla initially, but Lee managed to change my mind about her in a deft and nearly seamless way—difficult to do once an opinion about a character is formed.  Again, this addresses Lee’s formidable writing skills.

Lee so well orchestrates the progression to the climax that the end of the book will have you reeling.  In some ways, it seems to come out of nowhere; however, when you look back at the quiet clues sprinkled throughout, you’ll realize that it was the only ending that would make sense, and it was right in front of you all along.  All the loose ends are tied up in a bright, bloody package.

Frazer Lee is an author to watch.  His is a remarkable first novel, and I urge you to pick this one up.  I, for one, can’t wait for his second.

Buy it here.

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels. Stop by to view her scriblins.

Every House is Haunted (Chizine), by Ian Rogers

Every House is Haunted  by Ian Rogers is nothing less than a brilliant short story collection, exploring the area between the world we know and the supernatural—and how deceptively close the two are.  It’s been a long time since this reviewer has read anything remotely comparable; and that which was had sprung from the pens of Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson--with a little Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure.

The book’s organization is interesting, too.  The reader is taken, via the stories, on a trip through a house.  One begins in the Vestibule (including creepy photographs by Samantha Beiko), then on to the Library, the Attic, the Den, and finally, the Cellar—the usual locations for odd happenings in a haunted house.

Every single story in this 300-page volume is a stand-out—so much so that it is impossible to choose a favorite.  Or even several favorites. They all strongly remain with the reader days after turning the final page.

Rogers writes with all his senses, and his characters are deftly developed with an economy of language that is rare these days.  One feels as if one knew every single one of them. This reader smelled, tasted, touched, saw and heard every nuance…every subtlety.  Amazing.

There are also no weaknesses apparent to point out in this work.  It’s the strongest collection of short stories this reviewer has ever read—and though usually not one given to hyperbole, an exception must be made in this case.

Here is a little taste of the literary banquet you will indulge in should you read this masterful work:

"THE NANNY":  A kindly woman who does so much more for the children than any nanny every thought of.

"ACES":  Death and misfortune seem to following the wake of Soelle—a girl with a penchant for tarot cards and puzzles.

"CABIN D":  A lonely self-sacrificing man deals with an unorthodox killer.

"WINTER HAMMOCK": A tale H.P. Lovecraft would have been proud to call his own.

"THE DARK AND THE YOUNG": When experimentation with an ancient book spirals out of control.

I am so brief with these descriptions because I don’t want to spoil this for anyone.
I urge you to buy Every House is Haunted.  Read this book.  Buy one for yourself and one to give as a Christmas gift to your favorite horror fan.
You’ll thank me.

Get it here.

reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels. Stop by to view her scriblins.

LITTLE BOY LOST

By T.M. Wright
Published by Uninvited Books

WHY WOULD A DEMON WANT A CHILD?

When his six-year-old son vanishes, Miles Gale is suspected of having committed an unthinkable crime. He alone knows that the truth is even more unthinkable: his son has been taken by a creature out of time, a creature out of nightmare. The boy’s mother has returned to claim him…and Miles will have to go through hell to get him back. (back cover blurb of Little Boy Lost)

This 1992 re-issue of Little Boy Lost focuses on the ultimate parental nightmare—that of a child lost. So clearly does Wright’s surreal prose explain the unreal, “I must be dreaming because this can’t really be happening” world in which those who have lost a child live, that even childless readers are able to fully empathize with Miles’ desperation, anguish, and helplessness when little Aaron disappears. And to make it all the more realistic, the child disappears at a local mall, where these sorts of things happen with a fair degree of regularity outside of the pages of a novel.

We get most of the details of the story from CJ, Aaron’s older half-brother, who has an eidetic memory. During police interrogations (because, of course, the police think that CJ’s father, Miles, is responsible) CJ recounts every single detail of the day, down to the hairstyle of a woman at the far end of the parking lot. Being a child, CJ doesn’t yet know how to filter through everything his mind has recorded, and so he just plays back every second, whether relevant or not. A small detail, perhaps, but a crucial one, and it perfectly fit the character, as do all T.M. Wright’s subtle touches. He is truly the Da Vinci of literary horror, where God is in the details.

With his typical, always fascinating hallucinatory edginess Wright takes us on a frantic search for Aaron—in this world and…other places. There is nothing predictable about the searching, nor the way the book ends, for that matter.

T.M. Wright is truly an author for analytical adults who appreciate the more literary side of the horror genre. Younger people may find him frustrating, because little is spelled out and endings are not necessarily all neatly tied up and obvious. So if you’re looking for a cheap thrill, gratuitous gore, or hardcore horror, Wright is probably not for you.

But if you want something haunting, something that you will think about during the day, something that will quietly creep into your dreams at night…well, now you know just where to look.

Another home run, Mr. Wright…all the way from 1992!

Five out of five stars.

Buy it here.

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham’s first dark fantasy novel, HOME, will be released this Halloween and will be available on Amazon.

THE HOUSE ON BLACKSTONE MOOR

by Carole Gill
Published by Vamplit Publishing


The House on Blackstone Moor is this year's must read for the beach...or for late at night as thunder and lightning rage outside your bedroom window. It is a deliciously dark journey set in Victorian England and begins with a sweet young lady, named Rose, being orphaned as a result of a murder/suicide at her home whilst she was out.

Assuming that our heroine has been driven out of her mind by grief, those in charge employ a Dickensian solution to her devastation and Rose is transferred to Marsh House--an asylum.

But she isn't there long. An employee, one Dr. Bannion, takes an interest in her case and after a time, Rose is transferred once again--this time to his home to rest and recuperate. While there, she meets the Dartons, friends of the doctor's, who offer Rose employment, which she accepts, as a nanny for their two children, moving the story into The Turn of the Screw territory.

From here things darken considerably at the house on Blackstone Moor. Though she adores the children, there is something strange about them, as there is with their mother and father. By the end of the book, the reader is embroiled in a battle of good and evil that was, though somewhat predictable, most enjoyable.

This story is told in the first person, which is generally a pretty hard sell, but author Carole Gill handles it well and makes the reader feel like Rose's confidant rather than a nameless person attending a lecture--the usual downfall of most first person pieces.

My single complaint about this book has absolutely nothing to do with Ms. Gill's writing. It has to do with the construction of the book itself. It would seem that those at Vamplit Publishing are not terribly familiar with printing signatures of books and the way in which they ought to be set up. For example, though the book is touted as a "Collector's Edition," it in no way reflects what those words imply. The cover looks somewhat unprofessional, with the book blurb on the back printed in what looks like 22 or 24 point type--rather too large to look like a book for an adult. The front cover isn't a grabber, either; and when you consider that the cover art is what makes potential readers pick up a book, this falls pretty flat. And, again, the longish title is set too large. Also the title page is numbered page 1; the rights page, page 2; the Acknowledgments page, page 3; a blank page, page 4, and the first page of the first chapter, page 5! And throughout the book, one generally expects to see the author's full name at the top of each left hand page, usually centered; and the book title at the top of each right hand page, also usually centered. In this book, neither author nor title appears on the interior pages at all
.
But please don't let this keep you from buying this book! There is something about The House on Blackstone Moor that will keep you reading and be sorry when you turn the final page.

However, rumor has it that a sequel is in the works…

Four stars.

Buy it here.

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels.

HOUSE OF FALLEN TREES

By Gina Ranalli
Published by Grindhouse Press

If you find yourself despairing of the condition of literature today and if you sorely miss Shirley Jackson and M.R. James, you're in luck, dear readers.

We now have Gina Ranalli.

Ranalli's House of Fallen Trees begins with the enigmatic sentence, "Two men have the carcass."

How can you not immediately love a book that begins like that?

The story is about Karen Lewis, a young reclusive writer who inherits half a Bed & Breakfast in Fallen Trees, Washington when her brother, Sean, missing from that same town and is presumed dead. The other half is owned by Rory, Sean's openly hostile partner.

Karen flies across the country to visit this B & B, only to find that she must hike in to get to the place--there is no passable road.

For a Bed & Breakfast?

And that is only the beginning of the strangeness. In this book, peopled with beautifully drawn three-dimensional characters and rich description, there are beasties, ghosties, and some downright freaky happenings--all of which Ranalli handles so deftly that reading her words is to the mind what fresh chocolate fudge is to the palate. I never wanted it to end, and read many paragraphs multiple times, just to enjoy their dark beauty repeatedly.

Creepiness abounds, incidents escalate, and Lewis begins to feel that she's losing her sanity. She very well could be. Ranalli keeps the reader from knowing without seeming to withhold and so we are all as on edge and as off balance as the main character. Delicious! She packs so much story into such a brief book that it is nothing short of amazing.

The characters are voluntarily isolated by visiting the house. But when they try to leave, isolation becomes enforced and they must find a way out.

Will they?

I'll never tell.

Haunted house stories abound. Good ones are hard to find. Brilliant ones are as scarce as Spock ears at a romance novelists' convention. Aren't we all fortunate that House of Fallen Trees adds one more to the megaclassics of the genre--Ghost Story, The Haunting of Hill House, "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You My Lad," and The Shining.

This is one you'll want to add to your "favorite books" shelf--I promise you.

Rating: 5 stars out of 5

Buy it here:

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels.

Dawn to Dusk: Cautionary Travels

by Ray Bradbury
Published by Gauntlet Press

This book is a bit of a departure from Mr. Bradbury's previous books.

The first 139 pages will be familiar if you've read Something Wicked This Way Comes--or even if you've only seen the movie. As a matter of fact, the story began as a screenplay treatment entitled, "Dark Carnival" and was written for, of all people, Gene Kelly! It is this screenplay that is included in Dawn to Dusk. Unfortunately, Kelly, though excited about "Dark Carnival" was unable to secure production financing, and so the screenplay was eventually fleshed out into a novel entitled, Something Wicked This Way Comes--which eventually did get financing, a screenplay was written again, and now we also have the movie.

Are you with me so far?

Dawn to Dusk is rather like visiting an archeological dig, in that you can clearly see the skeletal system upon which the flesh of the novel was hung. You will notice that certain characters' personalities and relationships changed from "Dark Carnival" to Something Wicked --but even if you haven't read SWTWC, Dawn to Dusk is still most enjoyable.

There is a single short story, right in the middle of the book, entitled, “You Must Never Touch the Cage," and it appears in print for the first time anywhere in Dusk to Dawn. It is a story of the circus and the strength of belief. Masterfully written, as usual for Bradbury.

Next, we have another screenplay entitled, "The Catacombs." This is a thoroughly depressing tale of a doomed relationship centering around a married couple trying to patch things up with a trip to Mexico. It is a story of neediness, bullying, cruelty, humiliation, and co-dependence so profound that it will make your skin crawl. I read it twice.

A third screenplay, "The Black Ferris" is the last piece in Dusk to Dawn, taking us back to the SWTWC archeological dig, where we see that Bradbury eventually changed a black ferris wheel in Dawn to Dusk to a carousel in SWTWC. This story is a bit closer in the telling to SWTWC, too.

I highly recommend this book--to all Bradbury fans for the literary history interest, and to anyone else who just enjoys a great read!

Buy it here.

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels.

Slights

by Kaaron Warren

Published by Angry Robot

Slights is the story of Stevie Searle and begins when she is eighteen. At first blush, this book appears to be a coming of age novel, but it isn’t long before the reader, with a sickening feeling in the pit of the stomach, realizes that this is a memoir of madness; a tale of living and love replaced by an obsession about what happens after we die, and a deftly written one at that. Stevie is a serial killer, but unlike Bundy and Gacy, she's more of a "mad scientist" type. She seeks information she is not meant to have, and will do whatever is necessary to get it with no regard for the consequences.

Her first unsuccessful suicide attempt provided a glimpse into her own afterlife--a small gray room crammed with all the people in her life that she'd slighted up to that point--and she's slighted many, and goes out of her way to do so. Subsequent "controlled" suicide attempts allow her to revisit her "gray room" several more times just to see who's there--to see the new people whom she slighted between visits. Her theory is that every time she slights someone she takes a little piece of their soul--and that's what ends up in her gray room… her personal hell.

Once she has this information about her own afterlife, she sets out to see if everyone else's is similar to hers, and the killing begins. She tries to kill her victims softly so that she can revive them in order to find out what they saw, not often successfully. Luckily, she has a large back yard…

Stevie is a hard character to like. She's even hard to feel sorry for. She's so disconnected from the rest of humanity that it's alarming how she goes out of her way to be rude and nasty to everyone she meets. She makes plain her desire to be distanced from humanity, then is illogical enough to believe that someone will remember her birthday. In many situations, she will tell you "Here's what should have happened" and detail that; only to follow it with, "Here's what happened" and describe that. Both descriptions are equally dispassionate. It is her creeping, relentless, and gradually worsening disturbed mind and distorted life that glued the book to my hands, even though it caused me more than a moment or two of queasiness.

Aside from Stevie, there are few likeable characters in this grim debut novel. That being said, it's also a brilliantly written book that will not allow you to walk away from it. This is psychological horror at its very best.

If you're a fan of horror that's so well written and flows like a symphony, you'll want to pick up a copy of this book.

And I dare you to put it down!

Buy it here.

Reviewed by Carson Buckingham

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels.

PELLUCID LUNACY An Anthology of Psychological Horror

Edited by Michael Bailey
Published by: Written Backward



Though Pellucid Lunacy is a slim volume, it nevertheless packs a wallop! This gem of a book is a collection of 20 short stories--and the operative word here is “short.” They average less than ten pages, making this collection perfect when a little time is all you have. I actually read one of them at a stop light--of course, where I live, you could probably read War and Peace before the light changed. But I digress.

There is something for every taste in this book. The stories run the gamut from speculative horror to the more traditional to mind-melting guilt. I read the entire book in a couple of hours and was quite sorry when I turned the final page.

All the stories were very well written, but I found a few that stayed with me. They were:

“I Wanted Black” by Michael Bailey, the editor of this tome. The story is an exploration into guilt, death and the horrific consequences of being unable to let go. Michael Bailey is someone to keep an eye on. He will find his way to the top of the genre in short order, and it’s a place he deserves.

“Sometimes They Hunt” by Chris Hertz, is a chillingly crafted story of revenge, decades-planned and completely mad. It haunts me still, and it will haunt you, too.

Having worked in retail many years ago, I found myself sympathizing with the poor store clerk in Dan Piorkowski’s “Sweaters” and I will never be able to look at that garment the same way again.

A.J. French’s “Creature” is another one that still makes me shiver--a confession to a dying mother that made me believe that she’d have rested much better not knowing--and that I would have, too.

The raison d’etre for this collection seems to be: Think you know someone? Better think again.

Good advice.

If you’re a horror fan, I highly recommend you give yourself a great gift this holiday season and pick up a copy of Pellucid Lunacy and under your favorite quilt, in front of a roaring fireplace with your beverage of choice, shiver the night away.

Visit: http://www.amazon.com/Pellucid-Lunacy-Michael-Bailey and buy it now.

Carson Buckingham is a writer living in the great American Southwest and she reviews horror/paranormal suspense novels.