Bec Zugor

I recently read Turner by Karl Drinkwater. This is a chilling horror novel about the sinister goings-on on a remote Welsh island. It was gripping. I had to keep turning the page to find out what would happen to each character, and there was a nice amount of splatter.

I loved the moment when Tom Stanley glimpsed Stawl Island for the first time:

 It surprised him, as if it had been lying in wait, a dark eye amongst the glittering, choppy waters.

You just know things are going to get bad...

Even Nature seems to conspire with the islanders to prevent the visitors from escaping. Scary stuff. As each scene unfolded, I could easily imagine watching it on a big screen. It would make a great film. This will do, for visiting remote islands, what Jaws did for swimming in the sea.

Available in print or as an e-book. More information about Turner here.

It’s great to get positive feedback, so I smiled this morning when I saw Craig Smith’s review of K in M is for Monster. Hooray, he liked my story! Check out the review here. You’ll also find some of Craig’s entertaining flash fiction on his website.

Some other stuff I’ve enjoyed reading lately...

Shock Totem #3, especially the stories Drift and Mr. Many Faces.

Stephen King’s Full Dark, No Stars, which contains some of his shorter stories. Loved the book.

Sorrow’s Breast, by Lee Thompson. Beautifully written. I also read this brilliant blog post by Lee. If you’re a writer, check it out.

Writing... I’ve got several pieces ‘out there’ at the moment. Way more than at this time last year, so I’m hoping I can keep up the momentum. I also wrote a brand new ghost story, which is my favourite out of all those I’ve written so far. No news about that one until the end of May. Fingers crossed.

An update: I’m not doing any book reviews for a few months, and here’s why...

It’s been a difficult year (I can’t go into details), which has led to stress-related health problems. It also means I’m way behind on all the stuff I’d hoped to do. So I’m going to spend time catching up on my own writing and other projects. Sorry to disappoint anyone who wanted reviews – but thank you for asking!

Even though I’m not doing ‘proper’ reviews until around April 2012, if I read anything I really like, I’ll give a brief mention on here. Which leads to...

Shock Totem’s special holiday e-book, which I read the other day. It’s full of holiday-inspired dark fiction and true-life tales. All the stories were well-written and entertaining, but I especially liked One Good Turn, and Streamer of Silver, Ribbon of Red. And the excellent Santa Claus Is Coming to Get You will stay in my mind for a long time, as will the unusual story Heartless. Good stuff. If you hurry, you can be in with a chance of winning a copy over at Lee Thompson’s blog.

Happy reading! I’m off to write a ghost story.

Published by Delirium Books
Artwork by Daniele Serra

From the back cover:

In the hills of Pennsylvania, phantoms from the past mingle with those of the present, all swirling in a dark maelstrom over Division. Haunted by the part he played in his brother Mark’s death, John McDonnell takes a midnight hike and stumbles across four dead girls upon the forest floor. Their severed limbs spell Repent. The coroner finds Mark’s onyx skeleton key inside one of the victims, right where her heart used to be. The last time John had seen the key it was clasped in his brother’s hand before they lowered him into his grave.


Torn between protecting his family’s name and giving the girls a proper burial, John digs into Division’s past. As lives shatter around them, and a strange woman tries to steal the key, John and his best friend, Michael Johnston, must find the tools to set things right or break beneath the pressure of these ghosts’ sudden weight.

I love Lee Thompson’s short fiction, so when a copy of his debut novel, Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children, came through the letterbox, I couldn’t wait to read it. Unfortunately I had to wait, because of other commitments. I finally got a chance to start reading it on October 11th... and saw that the story opens on October 11th! So far, so spooky.

Before long, I was hooked. It's a complex tale, and I was confused in places, but this is a well-written and gripping novel. Although things got a little surreal at times, I couldn't put it down. Characterisation is excellent, as you’d expect if you’ve read any of Thompson’s other work. The author does a great job of getting inside the head of these flawed characters, and he really seems to know what makes people tick. I particularly liked this line:  “We don’t know who we are until we dig through all the layers we’ve accumulated to protect us over the years.”

If you enjoy thought-provoking, well-written prose, put Nursery Rhymes 4 Dead Children on your ‘to read’ list. I highly recommend it.

Find out more about Lee Thompson here.

Darkside Digital (ebook)

Amazon (paperback)

All Souls College is about to celebrate its annual midwinter feast, but this is no ordinary feast. Those adhering to the long-held traditions are hiding a terrible secret, and they’d do anything to stop it becoming public knowledge.

Andy Hughes, a violent ex-con, is offered a job, one which will lead to him confronting an evil beyond his wildest imaginings. The strange goings-on – missing people and a boar that won’t stay dead – could be connected. And asylum inmate Jason Franklin, who tried to destroy the college almost a year ago, is hearing voices again...

I’ve enjoyed reading Adrian Chamberlin’s short stories, and I wondered how he’d make the transition to a novel length tale. Wow. This guy knows how to hook readers from the beginning and keep them turning the pages until the end. At one point I stood in the kitchen, stirring the dinner whilst holding the book in my other hand, so that I could carry on reading. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next!

The Caretakers (Dark Continents Publishing) combines ancient mythology, suspense, and gory horror, with interesting, flawed characters you can care about. It’s complex and thought-provoking; I like the way the book shows how evildoers can have the best of intentions, and how even Society’s “no-hopers” can have a vital role to play – and all “for the love of humanity.” Good stuff.

Settings are well-described, so it was easy to imagine myself at the scene, witnessing the events unfold. Chamberlin tells the tale from the viewpoint of several characters, and cleverly weaves the different strands so that they come together nicely at the end. There was a bit of repetition in places – I was distracted by the repeated use of the word clunch – but not enough to spoil the story. And it has a satisfying ending.

I’d love to see this gripping horror mystery made into a film, although I’d have to look away during the eyeball scenes!

Find out more about The Caretakers here

The Spectrum Collection serves as an introduction to the writing of the authors of Dark Continents Publishing. Ten tales and three poems spanning the spectrum of dark speculative fiction lurk inside this book, and with the foreword promising that the stories would pump up the reader’s adrenaline, I couldn’t wait to get started.

The Elms, Morecambe (Simon Kurt Unsworth) kicks off the collection. Unsworth has chosen a great setting in which the main character, Wisher, relates his unsettling, gloomy story – a seaside cafe, normally seen as cosy and cheerful. Next time I visit such a place for a cuppa, I’ll remember these ghostly goings-on.

Wild Goat Curry (John Irvine) is about a goat hunter out on the hills alone, and being watched... Although I enjoyed the build-up of tension in this one, I felt it could have done with tighter editing. Wicked Appetites (Sylvia Shults) is about Michael, a struggling writer. But he’s not like any writer I’ve ever met. This post-apocalyptic tale has a delicious twist at the end. This is followed by a dark poem, Tooth Fairy (Tracie McBride). That is one scary fairy!

The Bodymen (Adrian Chamberlin), a well-written, creepy tale of the undead, was one of my favourites. Luke buries his dog – for the second time. And then he relates what happened when he worked as one of the Bodymen, collecting dead animals for the pet crematorium. Nicely paced and gripping.

Lemminaid (Carson Buckingham) is an entertaining ghostly revenge story. I guessed how it would end, but that didn’t spoil the enjoyment at all. (Note: Lemminaid does not appear in current versions of the book). Lost (Maureen Irvine) – about a couple taking a wrong turn – was a bit predictable, and the occasional point-of-view switches were distracting. I liked the oppressive setting though.

Archi’s Story (David M Youngquist) is a well-written and (mostly) gripping zombie tale. Great pacing, although the end seemed a little quiet. It felt like part of a novel, rather than a complete short story. I wanted to read more. This is followed by a poem, Gift from a Vampire (Maureen Irvine). The post-apocalyptic The End (Serenity J Banks) is next, about a group of survivors and what they are prepared to eat in order to prolong their bleak existence. There was good characterisation and scene-setting in this. The only gripe I have is that I didn’t discover the gender of the main character until having read a sizeable chunk. Apart from that, I loved it.

A Dawn Parade with a difference is the setting in Lest We Forget (Tracie McBride). A man attends with his young son, and starts praying. And he really needs to pray. Chilling. My favourite poem in the book is My Sister Doesn’t Live There Anymore (John Irvine). The postman delivers mail to the house, even though nobody has lived there for years...

The anthology closes with The End of Leonard Bangston (John Prescott). Leonard reluctantly goes along with his mother’s idea of showing kindness to the strange old lady in the creepy house. Prescott starts slowly, with lots of atmospheric scene setting, but it’s worth reading on. Despite it being predictable and needing tighter editing, I enjoyed it, especially the second half.

The book is nicely laid out, but I’d have liked the authors’ names on their stories, because I had to keep checking the Contents page to see who had written each one. This is a good collection of diverse tales. For me, the highlights were The Bodymen, Wicked Appetites, Archi’s Story, and The End, but there are several other gems here, and I look forward to reading more from all of these authors.

NOTE: I understand that The Last Rose of Summer (Dave Jeffery) is included in the latest edition of the book. I've already had the pleasure of reading this brilliant tale about a serial killer stalking Rose Delaware. You are in for a treat.

Available in paperback or e-book formats: from Dark Continents Publishing or Amazon.
Amazon (UK) here.

What if you can’t control your cravings? In the twisted imaginations of horror writers, the consequences could be beyond your wildest nightmares. Damned If You Don’t contains nineteen cautionary tales of addiction.

Aftertaste (John Shirley) kicks off the collection, and we find out that death isn’t necessarily the end of one’s cravings. This story took a while to get going, but the second half was very entertaining. Topsy (F Paul Wilson), about a baby-talking, morbidly-obese hospital patient, was fun to read and had a great ending.

Easy to Digest (Scott Goriscak) is another food-related tale, but this is one eating disorder I’d never read about before! I’d have liked some dialogue, but it was still enjoyable even though I read most of it with one hand covering my mouth. This is followed by Smokin’ (Ken Goldman), which has a nice twist.

Think rehab is safe? Think again after reading Big House (Carole Gill). This was peopled with some interesting characters, and I wanted this story to go on longer. Taper (Keith Gouveia), about the unforeseen effects of steroids, was another one of my favourites. The Seal (Lee Pletzers) is a brilliant tale about cutting, and I loved the twist at the end. This is followed by another good one, Showdown with Deacon Blues (K K), which features an unexpected visitor to an AA meeting.

Plastic (Joseph Pinto) is a gripping story about sex addiction, with a satisfying ending. Cosmetic surgery is the addiction in the horrifying and heart-breaking Skin Deep (Carson Buckingham). This is followed by Shredded (Blaze McRob), about an exercise addict. An unusual addiction is featured in Obsessed with a Song (Armand Rosamilia), another favourite tale.

For me, the best story in the book was the last. If you don’t have long to live, why settle for just one vice? That’s the attitude of the character in the awesome Doomsday Diary (Scott Nicholson), which was well-written and a pleasure to read.  I’ll be checking out more of Scott’s work – and also the work of some of the other authors in this book.

A few of the stories not mentioned here were disappointing – partly because they could have done with tighter editing – but they were still interesting. There are nice touches like the Unstable of Contents, and at the back, a helpful section on overcoming one’s vices. There are some real gems here, and I can recommend this book to horror fans!

Damned if you Don’t is published by Triskaideka Books, and the Kindle version is available from Amazon. The paperback version is due out in May. More information here.

Last week I was chuffed to hear that I’d won an ebook copy of Lee Thompson’s As I Embrace My Jagged Edges in the contest over at Bookhound’s Den (Thanks again, Neal!). I’d wanted to read this novella for some time, having been lured by the intriguing title, and having enjoyed Lee's writing before.

The story is about Boaz, whose family is always on the move in order to prevent a powerful bronze relic from falling into the wrong hands. When his beloved Uncle Jack is brutally murdered, Boaz realises he’ll have to face his inner demons alone as well as deal with a dangerous opponent.

The prose – sometimes poetic - quickly pulled me in, and I had to keep reading. Each sentence was a pleasure to read, and it’s obvious that the author has a great love of language. The story is beautifully crafted and well-paced – a real page-turner. It’s written in the first-person, present-tense, which I like, because the reader is easily immersed in the tale, experiencing events along with the main character. Characterisation is good; it’s easy to empathise with Boaz, who is full of self-doubt but is likeable. A deep sadness pervades the story, and stayed in my mind long after reading. Settings are believable and well-chosen. For example, the old lighthouse – which reminds us of both isolation and protection – reflects Boaz and his loneliness as he comes to terms with both his sexuality and his responsibility for protecting others from harm.

I’ll definitely be looking out for more of Lee Thompson’s work.

As I Embrace My Jagged Edges is available here.