new releases

(Review) THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY by John Everson

John Everson strikes again!

Ever since the Leisure Books Horror Club sent me his novel, The 13^th, I have been a huge fan of John Everson’s. His style is no bull, straight at ya, good old fashion horror. There’s always blood, guts, sex, monsters, and usually, beer.

With his latest THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (Flame Tree Press), Everson continues his run of fun horror novels that will get under your skin and make it hard to sleep.

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is about a haunted house where witches had sacrificed and sliced and diced folks back in the day. Now, a new owner wants to turn this haunted shell into a full-on bloody house of horror attractions for Halloween.

The main character in the book, Mike, is a contractor brought on to repair the rotting floors and secure the place to make sure it’s safe for the thousands of expected attendees.

But is the house truly empty? Or is there something patiently waiting for all that is coming.

You’ll have to read it yourself to find out!

While I did prefer the fantastic first half of the book ( and the end of the first part really had me on the edge of my seat and needing to know what was going to happen), the second half, while bloody and full of nice death scenes, lost a little of the momentum for me.

All in all, THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY is another solid effort in the Everson canon. There’s plenty of wicked fun for all you horror book lovers out there.

I give THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY 4 stars!

John Everson is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of the novels Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th, Siren and The Pumpkin Man, all released by Dorchester/Leisure Books in paperback and by Delirium, Necro and Bad Moon Books in limited hardcover. His sixth novel, NightWhere, was a 2012 Bram Stoker Award Finalist. The Family Tree, NightWhere and Violet Eyes, his “creepy spider novel” were released from Samhain Publishing. In January 2017, Redemption, the long-awaited sequel to his novels Covenant and Sacrifice was released. His 10th novel, The House By The Cemetery will be released in October 2018 from Flame Tree Press.

Grab your copy of THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY HERE

Find more on John and his books at his website JOHN EVERSON.COM

(BOOK REVIEW) BROKEN SHELLS by Michael Patrick Hicks

“He could only watch as a pasty arm jabbed at his face. His back arched as he screamed, the spiked forelimb spearing his eye. Warm jelly oozed down his face as the orb exploded…”

BROKEN SHELLS (High Fever Books, 2017), the latest by author, Michael Patrick Hicks (REVOLVER, MASS HYSTERIA), is a wild underground creature-feature. The story follows Antoine DeWitt, a man that is slugging his way through a paycheck-to-paycheck life. Antoine has a screaming, crying baby at home with his lady, and is tired of it all. He’s just been fired from work when he receives a Money Carlo winning ticket promising him $5, 000, he reluctantly decides to check out the to-good-to-be-true deal. The dealership has something for Mr. DeWitt, but it’s not exactly what he was expecting.

This is a fun and nasty little novella from Hicks. He shows his love for creatures-features, brings the gore and the terror, and his show-stealing creations (the Ba’is) are fantastic. Joe Dangle, the owner of the dealership, and his family have been responsible for keeping the creatures locked away, feeding them (bodies, of course), and keeping it all secret. Evil bugs with sharp claws that will poke your eyes out or rip your mouth apart, the Ba’is rule this story.

“Her lips stretched, her skin blanching under the strain, and then the corners of her mouth split, the flesh unzipping into a gruesome and jagged smile as her cheeks ripped apart.”

Personally, I disliked both DeWitt (who numerous times considers walking away from the stress of his wife and kid) and Dangle (car salesman + murderer =cretin), but LOVED the Ba’is and all the carnage they unleash throughout.
If you’re a big creature-feature fan (digging on works like Adam Cesare’s VIDEO NIGHT or Hunter Shea’s THEY RISE) you’re going to love this book.
I give BROKEN SHELLS 4 stars!

Thanks to Nev at Confessions of a Reviewer for supplying me with an Advanced Reader Copy of the book.

BROKEN SHELLS is available now in Print and will be released in eBook on Feb 8th. Get yours HERE

MICHAEL PATRICK HICKS is the author of a number of speculative fiction titles. His debut novel, Convergence, was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award 2013 Quarter-Finalist. His most recent work is the horror novel, Mass Hysteria.

He has written for the Audiobook Reviewer and Graphic Novel Reporter websites, in addition to working as a freelance journalist and news photographer.

In between compulsively buying books and adding titles that he does not have time for to his Netflix queue, he is hard at work on his next story.

To stay up to date on his latest releases, join his newsletter, memFeed: http://bit.ly/1H8slIg

Website: http://www.michaelpatrickhicks.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authormichaelpatrickhicks
Twitter: @MikeH5856

GET ROLFED FOR FREE THIS CHRISTMAS: WELCOME TO PARADISE

WELCOME TO PARADISE is free for Christmas. Grab yours today Click HERE

“….Joe R. Lansdale gone hair metal in tone…get Rolfed on a break from the daily grind!” —John Quick, author of THE JOURNAL OF JEREMY TODD

“WELCOME TO PARADISE is a fun and nasty read, and a rapid fire shot of alt-seasons greetings.” — Michael Patrick Hicks, author of MASS HYSTERIA

“Brutal, bloody, sexy and strangely sweet.” – Chris Kosarich, author of THE LAST CHORD

And don’t miss these 99 cent specials! (Click the covers to purchase)

SPLATTERPUNK FIGHTING BACK

(99 cents for a limited time join the Goodreads author invite group read, ask the authors anything)

VS: X : US vs UK EXTREME HORROR

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

(Review) Splinterlands by John Feffer and Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz

I’ve been a bit behind on my reading in the last six weeks or so, but… I did manage to fit in these two fantastic novels. SPLINTERLANDS by John Feffer and EXORCIST FALLS by Jonathan Janz

Up first, we have one of my surprise finds from the library. John Feffer-SPLINTERLANDS

Splinterlands by John Feffer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“The wolf is at the door. I don’t know why you can’t hear it. But I hear it. And I know how hungry it is.”

Am I glad that I’ve started using the library? Heck yes. Browsing the “New Arrivals” shelf introduces me to works I might otherwise never come across. Such as John Feffers’ SPLINTERLANDS.
Is it horror? Not genre-wise, but it is scary as Hell.

“Water boils fiercely just before it disappears. And so it is, evidently with human affairs.”

Its a short dystopian novel that is eerily tied in with far too many things actually happening right before our eyes in 2017. Hurricane Donald (very apropos), the result of our ignoring climate-change, wipes out Washington DC. The world is in flux under the ever-growing number of countries splintering into separate, self-governed states (see Brexit, or the increasingly popular idea of Cal-Exit), geo-paleontologist and author of “Splinterlands”, Dr. West, sets out to write his follow-up report, and also, to reconnect with his splintered family.
The journey is fantastic. I couldn’t put the book down.

This short novel is freaky with how close we are to following in its “fictitious” future’s footsteps.
I won’t give away any spoilers, but I would suggest anyone out there who loves good fiction, horror or otherwise, to track SPLINTERLANDS down. Hell, I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing this book become “mandatory reading” for high school kids and adults alike.

“Empires, like children, think they’ll live forever.”

I fear the future, especially these past few months of “Hurricane” Donald Drumpf with a too-large number of our country’s citizens eyeing immigrants as enemies. SPLINTERLANDS is scary, and it should be. Anything with an honest message of what-could-be, should be taken seriously and carefully considered. We the people should take a lot more things in our country seriously before they land us in this future.

“I don’t doubt that we still have convictions. We just don’t seem to have the requisite courage to follow them.”

I give SPLINTERLANDS 5 stars!

View all my reviews

And I got the chance to read one of my most-anticipated releases for 2017, Jonathan Janz- EXORCIST FALLS

Exorcist Falls by Jonathan Janz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was my most anticipated release of 2017, so my expectations were extremely high. EXORCIST FALLS did not fail to entertain.

This book starts with the original novella, EXORCIST ROAD, one of my favorite pieces by Janz. It was great to re-read it here and love it just as much.

That brings us to the follow-up, the short novel, EXORCIST FALLS.
This story was pretty great, overall.
I loved not knowing what was going to happen. Every time I thought (or hoped) I knew where Janz was going, he took my someplace else. He really did an amazing job of keeping you off guard throughout.

Father Crowder is definitely the star of the show, and you’ll be praying for Danny Hartman to get his. There’s a lot of great gore and wildly imaginative action going on that is also well balanced with the internal struggle between Crowder and his curse. Janz’s writing is on point.

There were a few characters that fell flat (Liz) or seemed to be a little inconsistent from start to finish (Father Patterson, for instance). That said, neither character ruined the experience for me.

The ending….I won’t give it away, but it was both REALLY awesome and somewhat disappointing. Sound confusing? Yeah, it’s a frustrating thing. I LOVE where Janz goes here, but I think he should have written about three more chapters and brought the story to an even more amazing conclusion. Oh well. Not everything works the way we, the reader, want it to.

I still give EXORCIST FALLS 4 stars! Entertaining as hell.
I look forward to seeing it on many, many year end lists.

View all my reviews

I should have some new reviews for Hunter Shea, Patrick Lacey, William Meikle, and Jason Arnopp coming up…..

STAY TUNED!

03.03.17. Do you wanna Get Rolfed?

Simple but So Damn Cool! A Tweet from Jack Ketchum

Friday afternoon my friend Max Booth III (I cal him MB3) messaged me…. I clicked the link

And this popped up:

#FridayReads: Glenn Rolfe's THINGS WE FEAR, summer fun and psychopaths…

— Jack Ketchum (@JackKetchum) March 11, 2016

#FridayReads: Glenn Rolfe’s THINGS WE FEAR, summer fun and psychopaths…

It’s no Glenn Rolfe is amazing and makes me want to be a better writer…but it’s pretty damn cool!

I met Jack Ketchum in 2014 at the World Horror Convention in Portland, Oregon. He was super cool and we actually had a pretty great conversation earlier in the day. He was excited to find that I was working with Don D’Auria and had nothing but nice things to say about Mr. D and wished me well with my then first novella (Abram’s Bridge).

Fast forward a little less than two years and BAM! I get that Tweet!

Ketchum’s influence is apparent in my latest piece, Things We Fear. We all know about his ability to scare the shit out of us with a group of creepy people living in a cave down by the water…but the stories that really get to me out the ones where Ketchum paints monsters out of the people we run into every day. In Red, he gave us a family of assholes. In Cover, we get a vet who slips too far over the edge, in The Girl Next Door…well, that one takes the cake, doesn’t it? The horrible woman who puts innocence in harm’s way without a glint of remorse.

In TWF, I made a monster out of the gym teacher from high school with the perfect smile and pile of muscles. Mr. Too Good to be True. I take our Perfect Smile and turn him into a cold, sadistic killer. A trick I learned from one of the masters.

At the end of the day, I am uber-plussed by this shout-out from one of my heroes. I hope to continue busting my butt, challenging myself to writer better, and trying to follow in his massive footsteps.

Thank you, sir!

I also learned how to NOT look at the camera from him….

Pick up an eBook copy of THINGS WE FEAR today at any of the following links:

AMAZON Barnes and Noble Google Play Samhain Horror

If you prefer reading Print, TWF also appears in my new novella collection, WHERE NIGHTMARES BEGIN alongside ABRAM’S BRIDGE and BOOM TOWN, available in print edition at the following links:

AMAZON SAMHAIN HORROR

(BOOK REVIEW) Twelfth Krampus Night by Matt Manochio

twelfth-krampus-night

Samhain Horror author, Matt Manochio, author of Sentinels, and last year’s winter treat, The Dark Servant, returns to the world of Krampus!

Twelfth Krampus Night is a fun, bloody, and captivating novella that proves to be Manochio’s most horrific offering yet.

Krampus and an old evil lady with an affinity for knives (Frau Perchta) descend upon a Bavarian castle and its two young Lords, Karl and Wilhelm. A peasant couple from the nearby village find themselves caught up in a battle of deliverance. Chaos ensues!

I found myself caught up in all of Manochio’s main characters. I wanted to punch all the bad guys in the face and hoped for the best for the innocent lives along the way. The story grabbed me right from the start and was a pretty quick read. And even though Krampus gets his name in the title, the title of “Most Terrifying” goes to Frau Perchta. Get ready to have your entrails wrapped around a tree! That’s all I’m saying. Some great, descriptive scenes involving the old hag and her knives.

The action gets a little to crazy in a few spots, but its just too fun of a ride to get derailed.

I give Twelfth Krampus Night 4 Stars. A fun novella for your Christmas (or just after Christmas) reading.

Twelfth Krampus Night

Print Length: 121 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (December 1, 2015)
Publication Date: December 1, 2015

Dark servants clash!

Medieval maiden Beate, who’s grieving over the mysterious evisceration of her best friend, Gisela, must escape a Bavarian castle under siege by sadistic creatures.

Standing in her way—beyond towering walls and crossbow-toting guards—are Saint Nicholas’s demonic helper, Krampus, and Frau Perchta, a belly-slitting hag who prowls the countryside during First Night festivities to punish naughty teens.

Beate wants out. Krampus and Frau Perchta want in, determined to breach the castle to snag their prey. Beate has no idea why these monsters want her, but she must use her wits to save herself from horrors both human and inhuman—lest she wind up like Gisela.

Matt Manochio, Biography~

MattHeadshot Matt Manochio was born in 1975 in New Jersey and graduated from The University of Delaware in 1997 with a history/journalism degree. He spent the majority of his 13-year newspaper career at the Daily Record in Morris County, New Jersey, where he won multiple New Jersey Press Association Awards for his reporting.

He wrote about one of his passions, rock ‘n’ roll giants AC/DC, for USA Today and considers that the highlight of his journalism career. He left newspapers in 2011 for safer employment.

His debut novel, The Dark Servant, was published with Samhain Horror in November of 2014. His second novel, Sentinels, was release November 2015, just prior to Twelfth Krampus Night in December 2015.

He currently lives in New Jersey with his son.

Praise for Matt Manochio~

“This is a macabre, dark tale with a timeless quality about it. An atmospheric landscape, complete with Bavarian castle; characters that could have stepped out from your worst nightmares. It kept me thoroughly and enjoyably entertained in a dark, scary way. Full marks!” –Cat Cavendish, Author of The Dark Avenging Angel

matt with krampus

“The Dark Servant is everything a thriller should be–eerie, original and utterly engrossing!” — Wendy Corsi Staub, New York Times bestselling author

“Beautifully crafted and expertly plotted, Matt Manochio’s The Dark Servant has taken an esoteric fairy tale from before Christ and sets it in the modern world of media-saturated teenagers–creating a clockwork mechanism of terror that blends Freddy Krueger with the Brothers Grimm!” — Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author

“Matt Manochio is a writer who’ll be thrilling us for many books to come.” — Jim DeFelice, New York Times bestselling author

“Matt Manochio has taken a very rare fairytale and turned it into a real page-turner. Matt has constructed a very real and believable force in Krampus and has given it a real journalistic twist, and he has gained a fan in me!” — David L. Golemon, New York Times bestselling author

“In The Dark Servant, Matt Manochio has taken the tantalizing roots of Middle Europe’s folklore and crafted a completely genuine modern American horror story. … I fell for this story right away. Matt Manochio is a natural born storyteller.” — Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author

“Could there be a dark side to Santa? And if so, what would he do to those kids who were naughty? Matt Manochio provides the nail-biting answer with The Dark Servant.” — John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author

“If you want some pure escapism on a quiet afternoon and you don’t mind a little–okay, maybe a lot–of blood, SENTINELS is exactly what you’re looking for. Manochio is a talented author with a bright future and someone who’s work I will follow with great interest.” –Shotgun Logic

Purchase Twelfth Krampus Night~

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Samhain Horror

Giveaway~

Test your luck and enter to see if you’ll win a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a print copy of The Dark Servant (Matt’s Krampus book from 2014). Anyone can enter and you can enter multiple times per day in various ways.

Also, if you review Twelfth Krampus NIght and send the link to Erin Al-Mehairi, Publicist, at hookofabook@hotmail.com, and click you’ve done this on the Rafflecopter section for it, you will get 5 extra entries!! Any questions, defer them to Erin as well. Click on the Rafflecopter daily to enter!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/MjMxYWEzMGI1ZDE2MGYyYTgzYjk4NzVhYzhmMTdmOjI4/?

THINGS WE FEAR! WHERE NIGHTMARES BEGIN and THE HAUNTED HALLS…. Coming from Samhain in 2016!

Last week I revealed the covers for my next two Samhain Horror releases, THINGS WE FEAR and WHERE NIGHTMARES BEGIN.

and

THINGS WE FEAR is an all new novella coming in March in all eBook formats.

WHERE NIGHTMARES BEGIN is a collection of all three of my Samhain novellas in one print edition. That’s Abram’s Bridge, Boom Town, and Things We Fear all in precious paper! This one also comes out in March.

In November of 2016, Samhain Horror will also be re-issuing my first novel, THE HAUNTED HALLS. I’m extremely happy to have all of my babies under one umbrella. Thanks to my editor, Don D’Auria, for making this all happen.

I have another finished novella sitting with another publisher (no official word yet on that one) and another currently in-progress. My next two novels, BECOMING and WINDOW, are both coming along, as well.

For more on my latest novel, BLOOD AND RAIN, check out these cool reviews and links.

Guest Post with HUNTER SHEA

Interview with THE EXAMINER

Review from CONFESSIONS OF A REVIEWER

Interview at DUANE’S WORLD

Check out a new flash fiction story and enter to win a free copy of Blood and Rain—- FLIES

NEW RELEASE ALERT: GOD BOMB! Get the Brand Spankin’ New Release from Kit Power.

So, this is the land of “virtual” friends…

I met author Kit Power sometime last year or earlier this year (I forget which) via some back and forth commenting on a mutual friends Facebook post. If I recall, we were aggressively discussing the merits of…oh, hell…probably self-publishing or something. Regardless, after some back and forth verbal nonsense, we settled down and found a common ground: music!

Since then, we’ve talked Oasis (and how brilliant their b-sides are) and partaken in the 2015 Author Lip-Sync Battle (you can witness Kit’s fantastic tribute to the mighty Skid Row HERE).

Anyways, Kit and I also have new releases coming out within a week of one another. Me, with Blood and Rain, and Kit, with God Bomb!

Somebody wants answers.

North Devon, England. 1995. A born-again revival meeting in a public building. The usual mix of the faithful, the curious, and the desperate. And one other – an atheist suicide bomber. He’s angry. He wants answers. And if God doesn’t come and talk to him personally, he’s going to kill everyone in the building…

Kit is a super rad dude. I bought God Bomb! at Midnight and have it locked and loaded on my Kindle right now. I implore you to do the same.

For more fun and info on the author and the book (which is also available in Print), check out this link:

Kit Power: The Deep End (Crystal Lake Publishing Guest Post)

And Grab a copy of the book by clicking the amazing cover above or going to AMAZON

Good luck, KIT!

Early Sunsets and Secrets in the Dark: Samhain Horror Delivers with these New Releases

NEW RELEASE DAY FROM SAMHAIN HORROR!

This month we get some new Hunter Shea, Brian Moreland, Mark Rigney, and an introduction to a newcomer that has a lot more to come, Patrick Lacey. All of these titles are available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, iTunes…etc. Wherever you shop online, you can find these babies…go get ’em!

The Dover Demon is real…and it has returned.

In 1977, Sam Brogna and his friends came upon a terrifying, alien creature on a deserted country road. What they witnessed was so bizarre, so chilling, they swore their silence. But their lives were changed forever.

Decades later, the town of Dover has been hit by a massive blizzard. Sam’s son, Nicky, is drawn to search for the infamous cryptid, only to disappear into the bowels of a secret underground lair. The Dover Demon is far deadlier than anyone could have believed. And there are many of them. Can Sam and his reunited friends rescue Nicky and battle a race of creatures so powerful, so sinister, that history itself has been shaped by their secretive presence?

It’s all fun and games until…

Marty Weaver, an emotionally scarred poet, has been bullied his entire life. When he drives out to the lake to tell an old friend that he’s fallen in love with a girl named Jennifer, Marty encounters three sadistic killers who have some twisted games in store for him. But Marty has dark secrets of his own buried deep inside him. And tonight, when all the pain from the past is triggered, when those secrets are revealed, blood will flow and hell will rise.

Nowhere to run!

Gillian Foster is desperate. She received a very strange letter in the mail not long ago. Since then, she’s been seeing shadowy figures everywhere. Coming for her. Frantic to find a safe place, she leaves home with her daughter Meg, only to find there is no way to outrun her pursuers.

Twenty years later, Gillian has been admitted to Hawthorne Psychiatric Facility. Meg receives a similar letter and is hunted by an unseen force. Is Meg also mentally ill, or are these creatures real? And if so, was her mother right all those years ago? Is there no place to hide?

Bones on the run!

When Reverend Renner’s mentor gives him a brass rubbing of a skeleton, nick-named Bonesy, a chain of calamity ensues. Bonesy breaks free from its frame and begins a violent, chaotic search for––what? It’s up to Renner and his investigative partner, ex-linebacker Dale Quist, to uncover Bonesy’s spectral motives. Bonesytakes Renner & Quist on their most treacherous, rollicking supernatural adventure yet, a journey that will lead them from the ghost of Carole Lombard to the fens of Tudor England. And the books they find along the way are not the sort you can judge by their cover.

Find all of these titles in all available format at a limited time discounted price at Samhain Publishing. Click the picture below to go direct to the Samhain Horror website!