Ten minutes ago I killed three of my neighbors...Four, if you
count the baby. What a start! to a fantastic rollercoaster of a ride the leaves
the reader breathless right to the last page. Andy Holland is a horror writer
(and we love horror writers!) living single at home from his estranged wife
Karen (who he found in an uncompromising position with her boss!) and daughter
Samantha. Andy is carrying a lot of heartache there’s just him now, and his
good old buddy his faithful dog Norman and one day whilst the faithful pair are
out walking they make the horrific discovery of the naked body of a dead child
and thereafter things are never the same...”Truth be told, I knew exactly what
was bothering Norman. Ever since that fateful morning, I could tell my dog had
not been the same. It wasn’t anything I could put a finger on, really, other
than a slight tension in the retriever’s haunches, a cautious twitch of his
ears every few minutes. Yet I knew he sensed the wrongness that had festered
within our neighbourhood these last few days. An ominous feeling lingered on
every breeze, like the ozone scent of a storm looming just seconds away. The
air around us crackled with a strange, electric quiet. Gone were the low,
rattling drone of skateboard wheels atop asphalt and the ticking of playing
cards in bicycle spokes and the carefree laughter of children which normally
echoed up and down our block......”
This is a delicious story that starts of slow with the horror and the reality of Andy’s situation building to a bloody crescendo and in the end Andy discovers that the good life he thought he had was in reality a myth and those he hoped he could trust disappeared and turned against
him.
There were three great characters of note Ronnie “Round Man” Miller proprietor of the 7th Avenue Stop-N-Shop and two of Andy’s neighbours: Mona Purfield “an obese senior citizen who dyed her hair the brightest orange I have ever seen. When the sun hit it just right, her head looked like it was on fire. She always wore three or four times more make-up than necessary for a woman her age, dressed in flowery muumuus and neon pink flip-flops wherever she went, and spoke in the most nasally, obnoxious voice you can imagine” and Ben Souther who always had a handy quote whenever and wherever he needed it. “Everyone is a moon” Ben Souther said, “and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.”So will the killer be discovered?, will Andy ever have the good life again? And will he still be loved and revered by the good people of Poinsettia Lane? Dear readers you are in for a wonderful treat James Newman is one of the greatest living exponents of the the horror genre and this novel is truly brilliant...so read..and enjoy and be thankful for the support and love of good neighbours J
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