It was an epic fantasy tale with interesting, well-rounded characters, an engaging lore, and packed full of imagination.
The presentation is top notch, featuring gorgeous artwork, maps of its fictional regions, and a helpful addendum that helps readers pronounce the name and learn more about the locations, Gods, and the lore of the world. The book is very easy to digest and the author does a wonderful job of fleshing out this fictional fantasy world in a concise and imaginative way.
There’s a definite sense that a larger conflict is looming, one which the three main characters will play a central role, and the book explores how the characters react to being swept up by their unavoidable fates. The author also packs the book with action, intrigue, and dramatic moments that made it a fun and constantly appealing read.
This was a gripping gothic tale of loss, despair, and denial.
The crafting of the main character’s heartbreak into a blinkered, macabre obsession with her dead daughter is absolutely devesting and I loved the way the author painted a picture of the coffin, which gave the mother a window into her daughter’s corpse and fed that obsession rather than brought any kind of comfort.
The escalation from inconsolable grief to near-necromancy recalls the gothic horror of Stephen King’s Pet Semetary and the author expertly mixed this influence with a dash of Edgar Allen Poe to craft a tragic mother who turns to deception and murder to reunite with her daughter.
This was an intense supernatural horror that impressed by being set in the United Kingdom and taking place over several decades; the author does a masterful job of balancing the different characters and the central conflict between its resurrected main character and his demonic other half.
A story of bloody revenge and the loss of humanity from being consumed by vengeance, The Laughing Policeman really captures the society of the United Kingdom with its slang, references, and an incredible attention to detail when it comes to characterization.
The gore also makes the book incredibly appealed, as does the chaotic relationship between the main character and his demonic partner; I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue they shared and the descriptions of its disheveled appearance and gruesome acts!
Charlie Haynes is an ageing ex-detective, working unsolved cases. Obsessed with cleanliness and order, Charlie is a loner who trades on his experience of grisly crimes, and struggles to maintain a relationship with his adult daughter.
When three teenagers are murdered in a public cemetery, the ritualistic killings show similarities to one of Charlie’s old investigations: a savage serial killer who targeted the members of a notorious Traveller family, the Boswells.
Charlie is called in to speak to the one surviving witness, whose terrifying testimony confirms his fear: the Caravan Cannibal is back,…
A Halloween-themed horror tale set thirty years after a psychopath in a burlap mask and carrying a pickaxe went on a rampage in a small town. For thirty years, Jenny Carpenter has lived in fear of “Mr. Stitchface”, the local bogeyman who attacked her on Halloween night when she was just a teenager. She’s so traumatized by these memories that she refuses to celebrate the season, much less let her own daughter, Dottie, go trick-or-treating. However, just as Jenny is prepared to relent, her worst nightmare threatens to come to life when Mr. Stitchface grabs his trusty pickaxe and comes calling once more…
