Great and exceptional horror by a true master.....

What an amazing story from an author at the top of his writing ability. In "The Tent" we are introduced to Mike and Emma and together with their son Cody they embark on a little camping expedition...

"In his youth he'd gone camping with his father a few times, and those occasions were some of the best moments of his life. He had hoped in keeping with the wildness of the location, he could create the spirit of those cherished trips..."

The only problem is the tent that Mike purchased from Walmart is of rather poor quality and within a few hours is carried away by a storm...great start to a little family bonding in the wilds!...oh Mike silly mistake and you'll pay for that later...won't he readers :)) So now we have have three disgruntled and disheartend campers alone against the elements in the deep woods and if that was not enough Mike and Emma are having a somewhat "stormy" period in their marriage. As is hoped for in a story with few word KPB's writing is taut, descriptive and never lets the readers attention stray with glorious, gripping and snappy dialogue.....this is how Mike views his wife after many  years... 

"That blonde is not as pretty now, and he knows not all of that can be blamed on the weather. Her red slicker clings to a body made shapeless by the years, the disappointment, and the stress of being married to a man crippled by the ever increasing weight of his own failure and unrealized dreams. Her hair, which has lost its luster and faded in synch with her expectations of him, is pasted to her pallid face, but not enought to hide the doubt from eyes made darker by the shadow of his presence in their marriage."

And just when you thought...shit surely it can't get any worse!....Cody vanishes...

"Emma, what-?"
"Cody," she all but screams at thim, the rain streaming down her face making her look as if she's melting before him. His confusion evaporates as he looks over her shoulder...The boy is gone....

Emma in a beautiful explosive episode lets out all the pent up frustrations...

"The colour has returned to her face, the fury warming her from the inside out. Her breath steams in her face as she rages; her eyes glitter like elliptical shards of volcanic rock. "So here I am, a prisoner of my own cowardice, trapped in a marriage of habit, forty-seven years of age with my looks gone to shit, my weight all over the place, and i'm stuck in these goddamn woods with you. My son is missing, none of us even wanted to be here...

Isn't that just brilliant exciting writing, mum and dad hating eachother, as the bad weather closes in their own personl storm is ignited, and then young Cody is missing...can anything else can go wrong...but his is horror and usually the explosive and visceral arrive to entertain! A light is spotted in the distance,a glow inside a tent. Mike and Emma travel towards what they hope is rescue and exit from this living hell.

"Emma. The tent. I can't explain why so please don't ask me. It just feels wrong, feels like someone drew us here on purpose. One light in the whole damn woods, in a part of the woods nobody's supposed to go, and it leads us here, to a tent with nobody in it. It just feels wrong"

And naturally as in all good horror stories we proceed into a bloody, original and thoroughly entertaining
conclusion. Kealan Patrick Burke is an author who writes exciting taut and visual prose and The Tent is certainly one of my favourite reads of 2013.

Inheritance by Joe McKinney...watch out for the walking dead :))

What a great read that cuts across the crime and horror genres but leans more towards horror as we race towards an exciting conclusion! We live the cop life with Paul Henninger a rookie learning what it takes to live on the streets of San Antonia. Paul has had a trouble childhood and has been greatly influenced by his evil and cruel stepfather who not only is the cause of the suicide of Paul's mum but also sees Paul as a natural successor to the evil power and black magic that he hopes to pass to him...the charge.."You'll be able to see into men's souls. You will know their fears and desires like they were written on their face. No one will ever be able to hide the truth from you. Men will be drawn to you like a lodestar. I spent my life trying to see what lies beyond the doors to perception. But I was never meant to see that country. It was meant for you" "My inheritance" Paul said, his voice barely a whisper. "And your charge. You'll make a kindgon of this world"...... Oh and did I forget to mention that Martin Henninger is dead! killed by his own son and determined to return from the dead with his "charge" accompanied by some putrid and evil smelling bodies...zombies...we love em :) "Paul I am very scared. Your father possesses great power. Power far beyond my own. Even from the grave he is powerful. But your father is a dark man, Paul. A bad man. I think he has corrupted the power that he inherited from my Abuela, the power he intends to pass on to you. He is using what he knows to do horrible things" As we race towards a thrilling conclusion Paul begins to..."He was only now realizing that the vision his father had in mind was nothing short of an apocalypse, an end to this world and the birth of a new one populated by the risen dead. Power, true power, he saw now, had to be a logical necessity absolute, or it was not power at all. It was not enough to teach a man what to believe, or tell him what he should hear and say and do. It was not enough to punish him for doing or even thinking wrongly. It was not even enough to reprogram him from the inside out when the threat of application of force failed to compel total submission"......Will Paul defeat this evil? will Paul destroy the zombies? will Paul return to the lovely Rachel and have a good life?...read this Bram Stoker 2013 nominated book and find out...Joe McKinney has created for the reader a winning combination of good against evil that stays in the mind a long time after the final page.....