Review of The Darkening (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a bit of a hybrid when it comes to a horror novel. It reads more like a tom clancy with supernatural players in it not to mention some Lovecraft.The story centers around a man named Dylan that is plagued by awful dreams that he can't remember and he wake's up in a different part of his house not knowing how he got there.The other central character is Lucy who feel's as if she is missing something but doesn't know what.

The villains in this book are none other than lovecrafts old ones and the cult that worship them. Opposed is a group called rex deus who try to thwart them at every turn. Both groups want to get there hands on lucy and dylan. The old ones are trying to break through and only lucy and dylan can put a stop to them.

This novel is good but lacks genuine scares and relies more on action. Not that that is a bad thing but when i read a horror novel i want to be a little creeped out so that is my main complaint. Also the ending was abit of a let down when you consider where your being led throughout the book. I reccommend to most out there and i look forward to reading some more by this author.

Product Description
IT BEGINS WITH A BLACKOUT.

All electrical power ceases to run. Even the sun seems a little dimmer. Cities come to a halt. And then their inhabitants vanish.

But a small, clandestine group of warriors has been preparing for this moment for centuries. Their hopes rest on two strangers, a thousand miles apart, who hold the keys to the world's salvation: Dylan Barnes, a martial arts instructor who teaches his students the art of inner balance but is plagued by shadows only he can see and voices muttering in a language only he can hear; and Lucy Devereau, a private investigator who earns a living by prying into the lives of others but is haunted by her own birthright-and the mystery of her true parents.

The world around them-our world-is slipping into darkness. Now, as fate and blood push them to the front lines of an extraordinary battle, Lucy and Dylan must stare into the face of something ancient, something impossible, something that has come to blot out the light-forever.

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Review of I Am Legend (Paperback)

I am Legend is arguably the greatest short horror novel ever written, and its influence on the horror genre has been profound.Stephen King and many other of today's masters rank this book highly in their personal top ten lists of favorites.It is a short novel that can be read in one sitting; it is hard to put down, building in intensity from start to finish.Matheson creates an entirely new type of vampire fiction herein.Transcending the traditional vampire tale, he adds science fiction elements to produce a refreshing new interpretation of Stoker's legend.The most fascinating part of the story is the protagonist's (Richard Neville's) attempts to explain the legendary aspects of the vampire myth in scientific terms.His discovery of a bacterium, which he dubs vampiris, as the true source of vampirism struck me anew reading the novel again after the events of September 11, 2001.Although we only get pieces of the story regarding the outbreak of the vampiric plague, including a reference to bombings, it can easily be seen as the fruits of germ warfare.Neville even conjectures that the Black Death of the Middle Ages was caused by this same vampiris germ, and he extrapolates facts and ideas from that history in his attempts to understand why such defenses as garlic, crosses, and stakes driven into the heart actually are effective against the hordes of undead creatures menacing his own time.He studies academic texts and conducts experiments with the blood of these creatures, which is the means by which he identifies the bacterium.The essence of garlic has no effect on the germ when injected into a blood sample, which initially he is unable to explain, but he later is able to explain garlic's effectiveness.Less scientific tests lead him to conclude that crosses are only effective against "Christian" vampires; the cross has no meaning to for vampires who were once Jews and Moslems, but sacred symbols of those religions, such as the Torah and the Koran, do.All of these scientific tests and speculations are just fascinating.

Neville is essentially the last man on earth, and the loneliness of his situation is the central part of the story.Matheson is able to communicate Neville's emotional feelings vividly, making him very real.We gradually acquire the story of the deaths of Neville's wife and daughter, essentially experiencing the pain he goes through when these memories overcome him.We watch him drink himself into a stupor as each night finds him besieged in his fortified house, surrounded by vampires, including his old friend and neighbor, calling for him to come out.We watch him slowly lose his grip on sanity and come very close to giving up.Then, however, we watch him overcome his depression and courageously fight to live in the nightmare world he is trapped in.The scenes with the dog he finds are full of emotion and really gripped this reader.This is Neville's first contact with nonvampiric life, and his attempts to befriend and help the poor creature (at the same time finally finding a companion) touched me greatly and brought tears to my eyes.His eventual discovery of another human being like himself is also powerful and emotional, although to speak more about this aspect of the story is to risk giving something away to the future reader.

This is a story of one man overcoming all obstacles and fighting to defend his way of life and his very humanity.The novel deals with the human condition, the essential ingredient to effective horror writing.Neville struggles constantly with his doubts and fears, particularly as he commits acts that he would have condemned as barbarous in the time before the plague.His needs for companionship of any kind offer us a clear image of the inner soul of man.By the end of the story, he does indeed become legend, both in his world and in ours.



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Review of The Dead Letters (Mass Market Paperback)

Piccirilli writes dark. His novels are full of dread, sadness, and his characters often have little hope. They are all misfits of some kind and all of them have lost something. It could be their limbs, their lifestyle, their freedom, their sanity, normalcy, or a loved one. In this book it's the loss of a child that haunts the protagonist.

The plot concerns a man who has dedicated his life to finding the serial killer who murdered his daughter, and then other children. The killer smothered his daughter in her bed while she slept with her own pillow. After several more killings, a twist comes into the case. The killer starts kidnapping children from abusive homes and then brings them to the families of the children he killed.

This novel has all of the characteristics you come to expect from a Piccirrilli novel. A main character filled with tremendous loss of some kind, guilt, and a need for closure or acceptance. It has some really strange people in it in the form of a wacky cult who's involved with their own serial killings whose members who are as odd and deadly as they come. The story has supernatural elements with both the wacky cult and the main character himself to keep horror readers adequately enthused. And it has an ending that defines a Piccirrilli novel.

I enjoyed this novel much more than Headstone City. Its plot was straightforward without a lot of sub plots or distractions. Its mood was sullen and depressing giving punch to the chills and very thrilling portions of the story. And the story itself was disturbing enough to make me come back to it in my mind after I finished the last page.

When an author writes a book as great as November Mourns, (or even Choir of Ill Children) there is a tendency to compare all other books he writes after it to that masterpiece. This is unfair to the author (look at King's work after "It") and it's tempting to do so. But I'm gonna do it anyway...this book is not as good as the two mentioned above, but it is certainly a great read and I would place it at number 3 of my all time favorite Piccirilli novels. I would recommend this book to Piccirilli fans and to those who have not read the author before.

T.T.Zuma



Product Description
Five years ago, Eddie Whitt's daughter Sarah became the victim of a serial killer known as Killjoy, and Whitt vowed to hunt him down-no matter what the cost. But the police have given up. And Killjoy has stopped killing...and in some bizarre act of repentance has begun kidnapping abused infants and leaving them with the parents of his original victims.

The only clues to Killjoy's identity lie in a trail of taunting letters. And even as they lead Whitt to a deadly cult-and closer to his prey-he begins to suspect that, like his wife, he's losing his grip on reality: Sarah's dollhouse is filled with eerie activity, as if her murder never occurred.As dark forces rise around him, Whitt must choose-between believing that evil can repent...and stepping into a trap set by a killer who may know the only way to save Whitt's soul.

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