"My name is Hawthorne. Use it."...super hero rides again!

"Her face was emaciated and skeletal, dry eyes bulged out of their sockets and teeth bared in a horrible rictus grin. Her body was stiff and brittle like and old corn husk left out in the sun. The front of her torso was covered in spider webs"... This was Hawthornes first encounter with The Iktomi..."ancient. Some believe they are the bastard offspring of the Spider Woman, who wove the world out of silk in the dawn of time. The wretched offspring of a brutal rape.But they rose from the earth in times when blood soaks the Black Hills. And now, White Man, there is more blood here than ever before" Don't we all just love a hero and there is no better setting for good versus evil 
than the lonely and often brutal imagery of the wild wild west...and through this rides Hawthorne mysterious gunslinger, a man of principle who despises evil and is prepared to meet and destroy it in all forms..how can we not love him :) The Iktomi or Spider Tribe feed on the fear and hate in man's brain and, accompanied by the fighting skill of Anpao (whose grandfather previously defeated the Spider Tribe) Hawthorne must search his inner soul for strength in the coming battle!"Hawthorne said, "So they can be defeated." Anpao looked him hard in the eyes "Yes. Perhaps, But it would take a special human being. And the bow of my great-grandfather" The bow must be held by a 
very..particular sort of warrior. The kind driven nearly to the point of madness by a hatred of evil." I love the descriptive prose and sharp imagery that Heath Lowrance brings to the short western novella, no words are wasted and the story stays long in the mind.."The rotting stench rolled across the cave. The flickering orange light played across a blank, pale mask of flesh, as smooth and featureless as an eggshell. Where there should have been eyes, where there should have been a nose and mouth and some semblance of human features, there was only a smooth nothingness"..."He felt the spider's legs scrambling on his gums, felt it shift at the very back of his throat, felt his fingers,slick with sweat, slipping. And he felt it move another half inch..not down this throat, but up, up trying to push through his sinus cavity...It was trying to get to his brain".....now that is descriptive horror, I can see and feel that spider and it's going to keep me awake tonight :)) This is a wonderful series of short stories and long may they continue, and long my Hawthorne wonder the mountains and plains of the wild untamed west..." "My name is Hawthorne. Use it".....

Powerful short story with top notch illustrations.

What makes this short book an excellent read is the fantastic illustrations by Glenn Chadbourne " an extremely talented artist that has become very popular in the small press" It is difficult to imagine how this can work successfully on a kindle ereader but the black and white art work is perfection and it is almost true to say that the writing is secondary to the illustrations...Just look at the image preceding chapter one and the atmosphere and spookiness simply bleeds from the illustration of the cabin atop the hill and the four friends on the roof.....ah I hear you say a lonely cabin in the woods surrounded by those dark forests, and all hell about to break loose! In essence the story is about a friends reunion and the horror that unfolds richly described and illustrated, a short story but one that will stay long in the mind with the help of many excellent and highly detailed pictures. However I would point out one rather obvious mistake that I encountered...do read on....
"Joe fell limp and the bear bit into his throat, lifting him and quickly carrying him into the woods as bullets rained down from the cabin roof. The men on top of the cabin stopped shooting, but they still stared in disbelief, their rifles aimed at the bloody spot where the bear had killed Joe, unable to think or speak or even understand what had just happened"....followed a little later by..." She jumped onto the storage bin, reaching for Steve, who grabbed her hands and pulled her toward the roof with all his might. She scrambled over him, throwing herself at the peak. Steve got to his knees, raised his rifle and took aim into the clearing while Matt and Joe continued shooting above him"....have you spotted it yet?? Joe had been killed by the bear, but he appears a little later...when he was dead! I think the author meant Adam and not Joe...or am I mistaken? If I am correct then why can this simple mistake not be rectified before publication? A small point but one that made me award four stars rather than five, but do read as a download for the kindle it is excellent fun and shows the power of black and white illustrations in the story telling process.

The Good Father by Noah Hawley...a thoughtful and intelligent read.

If this book was a painting it would be a Rembrandt, if this book was a wine it would be a "1997 Domaine de la Romanee Conti Romanee Conti", it this book was an automobile it would be a "Ferrari FF"....this book is a wonderful,yet uncomfortable read about the way we live our lives and the consequences of our actions. Dr Paul Allen is a rheumatologist at a hospital in Manhattan, divorced with a son Danny from a previous marriage to Ellen...and one morning at home with his present family the FBI came calling and inform him that Danny has been arrested for the assassination of Jay Seagram, Presidential hopeful. What follow is a journey, not only for Danny who accepts his guilt, but more notably for his father who searches his past and questions decisions he has made in an attempt to explain and understand the situation that his son now faces. The beauty of the writing is that you the reader will focus on the issues presented and question the perceived values in your own lives. 

Gruesome weird western...a must for lovers of horror and the wild west

Skin Medicine is just one great fantastic weird western ride by horror maestro Tim Curran, and what a fun outing it is. The skill in this tale of bloody evil, living in a mining community, is the masterful weaving of both the good old wild west and the bloody gruesome imagery of the horror genre. In every western book I have ever read there is always a distinctive and strong hero, a man who, although worn down by the tough life of the lonesome cowboy, stands head and shoulders amongst his peers, and who will always do the right thing! Tyler Cabe, civil war veteran turned bounty hunter, is on the trail of a murderer known as Sin city Strangler and his journey leads him to the mining settlement of Whisper Lake…what he finds here will change his life forever and you the reader are set to be terrified beyond your wildest imagination! There is a great list of characters; Jackson Dirker, sheriff (Tyler met him during the war) Janice Dirker the sheriffs wife, Charlie Graybow, Virgil Clay and his monster brother Elijah Clay, Sir Tom Ian, English gunslinger, Carny the barman, Henry Freeman (texas ranger?) Caleb and Hiram Callister the local undertakers with some truly revolting habits! and the real villain of the story James Lee Cobb the bringer and purveyor of “skin medicine” These are some of the characters and villains that pass effortlessly through the pages of this great adventure…just look at the writing: 

“Then he crossed the muddy, sucking streets and fell through the door of a tent-roofed saloon called the Oasis. Inside, the floor was covered in sawdust. There was a bar and tables with pine benches pulled up to them. A woodstove in the corner belched greasy fumes that mixed with tobacco smoke, cheap cologne, and body odor. A dozen worn, beaten-looking men slouched over beers and whiskey. A lone gambler played solitaire in the corner.”

“ The door had swung open and a tall man had stepped in. He wore a knee-length overcoat, the cuffs and collar trimmed in fur. Atop his head was a round buffalo fur cap. His face was narrow, angular, the moustache riding beneath the sharp nose trimmed immaculately. He was a handsome man and his pale blue eyes simmered with authority and bearing. There was a badge pinned to his breast. It read: SHERIFF BEAVER COUNTY UTAH.”

What I love about westerns is the spit, the sawdust, the bad manners, the total disregard for authority, the great devide between good and bad and always the simmering uneasiness that lingers…death is never far away..

”The double-doors opened and two men in gray dusters stepped in. They wore wide-brimmed hats that thrust their faces into pools of shadow. Their eyes seemed to glisten like wet copper. Everyone stopped what they were doing, watched the strangers…The strangers closed the doors. They looked on all and everyone with flat, dead eyes, hungry eyes. The eyes of wolves taking in a tasty herd of steer, wondering which one they would take down first.”……

The story rattles along at a relentless pace and ends in a spectacular gruesome gun battle…will the sheriff bring peace to this unsettled mining community and will our hero Tyler Cabe put his past demons to rest and maybe build a future for himself with the love of……..ah but you will have to read the story to find out, and I do hope you do as this must surely be one of the best examples of the weird wild west genre that has ever been printed.

Dark Winter by David Mark..... tired old formula in a crowded crime market.

Tired old formula crime caper that adds little new or exciting to a very crowded market. DS Aector McAvoy (now its Aector....not Hector...as we are reminded on more than one occasion) is a big guy who in the past did the moral, right thing and threw one of his bad police colleagues to the wolves...and now not many people will talk to him (yawn..yawn) He has little or no self esteem and is forever complaining about the demanding hours of the job, get a life Hector (sorry Aector!) we all have hard jobs and it's about a life work balance. He has a lovely wife Roisin, and in one typical scene she is rushed into hospital with her pregnancy...but our Hector has his phone switched off!...what an idiot. In another scene Roisin wants some attention (in the loving sense) from your hero..but he's too busy on his computer with some police work (yawn...yawn)...get rid of him Roisin and get a real man who will pay you some love and attention :)As to the story itself, we have a murderer on the loose in Hull and a number of victims have been identified the connection as follows: "Not obviously connected, but certainly with a link that bears examination "Oh yes?" Emms looks interested. "The link between the victims is their survival" say McAvoy "Survival of an incident that killed everybody else. A former trawlerman who made it home alive when thirty odd mates drowned is found dead in a lifeboat off the coast of Iceland just over a week ago. A bloke who set fire to his own house and killed his family was burned to death in a room at Hull Royal Infirmary. A woman who was almost butchered by a serial killer was attacked in exactly the same way in Grimsby"....So the killer is targeting "survivors", I as an intelligent reader find that concept totally ridiculous. There are some redeeming features, the language is taut and the plotting moves along at a good pace...but overall a poor attempt at a crime novel. I will not be reading anymore books by David Mark.

Jump on board...The Long Black Train!

This is the third Heath Lowrance short story I have read and found it fantastic fun! It is a beautiful mixture of western/horror done with a certain amount of panache that makes the reading experience highly enjoyable. Once again our lone hero Hawthorne (read Clint Eastwood without the humour!) is on the trail of killer Bill Cobb and encounters "The Long Black Train". On board is a madman possessed by some form of black demonic magic who is dismantling the good passengers and making his own creation with their body parts...lovely :) When the madman boards the train he carries his neat valise, which he opens to reveal..."It was all there,shiny steel in slotted rows, Butcher knife, hacksaw, gutting blade, bone scrapper. The suture kit. All the tools he'd need for the journey" Now we the reader know we are in for some butchering fun! Hawthorne encounters some dismembered talking body parts (lovely!) "Hawthorne knelt down to examine the thing on the tracks. A human arm, severed, roughly at the elbow. The flesh of it was white, but blood still dripped from the stump. It showed no signs of attention from scavengers yet Hawthorne picked it up by the hand, surprised that it still felt fairly pliant. The fingers were long and lean, a woman's fingers. There was a gold ring on the index finger.....There was something evil at work here, and he could not rest now until it was burned away from the earth forever. In his hand the arm twitched. He dropped it and it thudded on the tracks, twitched again, and the fingers spasmed crazily and grabbed his boot. Hawthorne grunted in surprise, almost fell. He tried to shake the arm off, but it clung tight, with all the strength of a living limb. He reached down and gripped it by the writs, wrenched it off. The fingers curled and uncurled, groping. He threw in into the trees" When Hawthorne further encounters a talking torso he is directed to "The train...the long black train" Our hero finds and boards the train where he meets his killer Bill Cobb and encounters the madman..." A huge, bald man in a blood-stained suit stood at the far end of the car, knee-deep in the dead. He had a woman's corpse draped over a bench like a length of linen. He was carving off her head with a hacksaw"

The writing is taut and the combination of horror and western works flawlessly to produce a superb sustained and exciting little read....I will certainly read more by the wonderful Heath Lowrance :)

Get into the mind of a demented serial killer...if you dare :)

Be warned! not for the squeamish!! just have a read of this...or not:)

 "Without any more warnings, the artist pinched and twisted Littlewoods's nipple with a pair of metallic medical forceps, pulling it away from his body so hard that the skin almost ruptured right there and then. Littlewood let out an agonized cry. He felt vomit starting to rise up in his throat again. " I really hope you don't mind pain. This knife isn't very sharp" The other instrument the artist had retrieved from the desk was a small serrated knife. It looked old and blunt. "Feel free to scream if this hurts" "Oh God, pl..pl.., please don't do this. I beg you. I... Littlewood's next words were abruptly substituted by a soul-chilling scream as the artist slowly started sawing off his nipple. Littlewood almost passed out. His mind was struggling with everything. He desperately wanted to believe that whatever was happening to him wasn't real. It couldn't be real. He had to be inside the absurd world of some crazy dream. It was the only logical explanation. But the pain that shot up from his blood-and-vomit-soaked chest was very real. The artist put down the blunt knife and watched Littlewood bleed for a while, waiting for him to catch his breath, to regain some of his strength. "As much as I've enjoyed that", the artist finally said "I think I want to try something different now" This might hurt more. Those words sent Littlewood tumbling down a rabbit hole of such intense fear that his whole body tensed. He felt the muscles of his arms and legs cramp so hard it paralyzed him. The artist moved closer. Littlewood closed his eyes, and though he wasn't a religious man, he found himself praying. Seconds later he noticed the smell. Something unbearably strong and intrusive. Something that immediately made him want to be sick again. But his stomach had nothing else to throw up. The smell was instantly followed by excruciating pain. Only then did Littlewood realize that his skin and flesh were burning.

Have you ever met Detective Robert Hunter, he works for the Homicide Special Section of the Robbery Homicide Division...and in his own words it isn't Club Med! Hunter is an amazing creation, he holds certain personality traits of many homicide detective...he's a loner..prone to long hours at the job...and enjoys the odd drink... but lets dig a little deeper! All good detectives are best of being alone, as solving crime is so intensive and time consuming, and Hunter is ok there he is single, most detectives drink alcohol to dull what they see and hear however Hunter is a connoisseur of fine single blend whisky and he drinks for the enjoyment and the taste and not simply to get drunk. He is also very much an intellectual, well read with a photographic memory and amazing recall...all of which are essential qualities to making him the man that he is, in one word driven...set him on a course and he will find a killer. This is just as well because "The Death Sculptor" introduces the reader on a wholly original and horrific serial murderer. There is a killer on the loose in the City of Angels, more horrific than your worst nightmare, not only does he kill his victims but he removes and uses their body parts to make a "death sculptor" leaving hidden clues for Hunter and his partner Garcia to attempt to understand and hopefully unmask and understand the mind of one serious demented killer....I cannot praise enough this latest offering by Chris Carter ,it is outstanding, truly unputdownable and one of the best crime stories I have ever read...(now that is praise :) At the very start there is a scene that has stayed with me and indeed haunted me throughout this book...Melinda Wallis, a third year nurse, works weekends attending to Derek Nicholson, a terminally ill patent who has advanced lung cancer and  not long to live. Melinda arrives early on the Sunday morning to attend and make comfortable Derek Nicholson but discovers an horrific murder scene his badly mutilated body on opening the bedroom door...Hunter and Garcia arrive and begin to question (gently) a somewhat disturbed and upset Mz Wallis...and there is a little story she tells of the previous night when Melinda left....

"At around midnight" Garcia continued, still reading from his notebook. "Melinda realized she'd forgotten one of her study books here in the room. She came back to the house, opened the front door, and made her way up the stairs" Garcia guessed Hunter's next couple of questions and offered an answer before he spoke. "Yes the front door was locked". She remembers using the key to unlock it. And no, she didn't notice anything strange when she came back into the house. No noises either. Hunter nodded. "Melinda came upstairs again" Garcia moved on, "and because she didn't want to disturb Mr Nicholson, and she knew exactly where she'd left here study book..." He pointed to the mahogany writing desk, she never turned on the lights. She just tiptoed into the room, grabbed her book, and tiptoed back out again. Hunter's stare moved to the bloody wall next to the bed and his heart skipped a beat as Garcia's account of what had happened finally started to make sense. "Melinda slept through her alarm this morning" Garcia carried on. "She got up, got ready as fast as she could, and rushed back in here. She said she opened the front door at 8.43 am. She checked her watch" Garcia closed his notebook and returned it to his pocket. "She came straight upstairs, and as she entered the room she was greeted not only by what you see here, but also by that message from whoever was in the room" He indicated the wall again. Among all the splatters, written in large blood letters were the words "GOOD JOB YOU DIDN'T TURN ON THE LIGHTS" 

 The implication is clear here, when Melinda returned to the room to collect her study book, the killer was waiting in the shadows, and if she had turned the light on she most certainly would have become a victim! I thought this was an ingenious piece of writing as the reader instantly imagined what could have happened and how lucky Mz Wallis was...no words were needed our imagination did and said it all. As the book proceeds the death toll mounts and our detective rushes against time to solve in an unpredictable and fantastic conclusion....so please be assured if you enjoy crime..serial crime...this needs to be top of your to read list..it is truly amazing, Robert Hunter is a wonderful creation and I look forward to his future adventures, that is if he survives this one....you will have to read and see :)))

A great introduction to Mr Hill

As Joe Hill is commencing a UK tour in the near future I particularly wanted to read his first major breakthrough UK novel. In essence this is the story of Jude Coyne, hard living (hard lived) aged rock star who is haunted by the dead "stepfather ghost" of a previous girlfriend. I loved the somewhat gothic and rockstar/rockchick feel and the serious undertones of physical(from his childhood) and sexual abuse that formed the real basis of this novel....."...and how his mother and Jude had run away from him together when Jude was nine, only at the Greyhound his mother lost her nerve and called her parents, and wept to them, and they told her to take the boy back to his father and try and make peace, make peace with her husband and with God, and his father was waiting with the shotgun on the porch when they returned, and he smashed her in the face with the gunstock and then put the barrel on her left breast and said he'd kill her if she ever tried to run away again, and so she never ran away again" Jude decides that in order to rid himself of this unwanted ghostly companion he must visit the "seller" Jessica Price his ex girlfriends sister. I feel the horror aspects were secondary to the real and true human/emotional issues, the abuse suffered by Jude Coyne and how it influenced and shaped him and impinged on his life and relationships.