The Rain Dancers

I've read a number of Greg Gifune novels over the last 25 years, including Apartment Seven, Savages, Midnight Solitaire, and Oasis of the Damned. I am staring to re-read a few of his books and wanted to begin with The Rain Dancers. The 77-page novella was originally published by Delirium Press in 2012, then reprinted by Dark Fuse in 2014. As of this writing, I believe the work is out of print.

The novella introduces readers to Will Colby, a New York college professor, and his wife Betty. The married couple are in a rural small town cleaning out an old house that was owned and occupied by Betty's deceased father. Gifune is a master of atmosphere, so the obligatory “one dark night” element rises to glorious fruition. As the two are finishing off a long day of cleaning and packing boxes, they are interrupted by a knock on the door. Will goes to answer and is met by Bob Laurent, an elderly man introducing himself as a close friend of Betty's. Hesitantly, Will invites the man inside.

Will excuses himself to inform Betty of their unexpected visitor. While she dolls herself up for unwanted company, Bob tells Will stories of the friendship he shared with Betty's father, a friendship that extended to Betty for many years. He goes as far as suggesting Betty called him “Uncle Bobbie”. When Betty arrives, Bob begins a physical and emotional recollection by reminding Betty of all the wonderful things they experienced in the house. Later, while Bob is in the bathroom, Betty confesses to Will that she has no idea who this man is.

The Rain Dancers is a potboiler brimming over with an intensity void of any gut-wrenching, explicit violence. Gifune's prose of “less is more” works effectively to build this novella into an emotional, creepy, and atmospheric narrative despite the lack of on-page horror. The author's engaging storytelling incorporates marital fears of unfaithfulness, complacency, and insecurity with a repressed childhood memory too disturbing to fully reveal. It's a masterful blend of secrecy and horror that only Gifune could create. This novella is a must everything – read, reprint, repost, make it relevant.

Halloween - The Mad House

In 2023, I reviewed The Scream Factory, the first of a three-book series of young-adult horror novels centered in John Carpenter's Halloween universe. The series was published by Berkley in 1997-1998 in paperback format and authored by Kelly Reno using the pseudonym of Kelly O' Rourke. Halloween is my favorite horror series and my family just recently gifted me a Michael Myers-themed coffee mug. It reminded me to read more of this series, so I grabbed The Mad House, the third installment of the series. 

As I mentioned in my The Scream Factory review, this series ignores the entire Halloween movie franchise aside from the 1978 film. In the town of Haddonfield, life goes on despite the masked serial killer, Michael Myers, vanishing after being shot by his doctor, Sam Loomis. In The Scream Factory, Myers appeared once again in the sleepy midwestern town, stalking and murdering teenagers at a haunted house attraction. At the end of the book, Myers once again vanished. 

While these books can be read in any order and are considered stand-alone novels, each book is set one year apart. The Mad House begins with the book's protagonist, Christine, recalling her school newspaper article, “Good-bye Friends”, as an emotional story about the lives and accomplishments of several students who were murdered a year earlier in The Old Myers Place. It's now late summer, and Christine is meeting a fellow student named Eddie for a planned documentary he hopes to shoot.

Eddie explains to Christine that he plans on shooting his film at Smith's Grove Mental Hospital, the place Myers escaped when he turned age 21. Eddie says the ghost of a deranged doctor, Ernest Blackwell, still haunts the abandoned hospital. In this book, it is explained that Blackwell would often treat Myers and conduct various experiments on him. Eddie hopes he can capture the ghost on film as part of a documentary documenting haunted places in Illinois. 

The bulk of the book's narrative features Eddie, Christine, and a handful of other young people spending the night inside the abandoned mental hospital. Of course, Myers is living there, huddled in the hospital's basement waiting for his next killing cycle. Through the book's second half, Myers methodically kills the kids in different parts of the building. Eventually, Eddie and Christine do find the ghost of Blackwell, but it's not quite what they imagined.

I'm trying not to completely nerd out and drown you in Halloween film mythology, but there are a couple of interesting things happening in this slim paperback. 

This novel is the only instance where a character named Blackwell appears. He is absent from the film franchise and the other novels. Also, I found it interesting that Halloween: Resurrection film (2002) used a similar idea of filming in a location central to Michael Myers' past. Like that film, characters are often attempting to record events happening so they can sell the footage to prospective studios and producers. The Mad House predates Resurrection by five years. 

Also, I loved that the author used a laundry chute in one of the chase scenes. This had been used effectively eight years prior, in Halloween 5 (1989). It's a type of homage (I think). Interestingly enough, Halloween: H2O also used a similar device to escape the killer, but instead of a laundry chute it was a dumbwaiter. 

I questioned whether Reno had watched Halloween movies before writing The Scream Factory. Reading The Mad House, I know she hasn't. In this book, she has Myers tying victims to a hospital bed and then torturing them with electricity. Myers never “toyed” with victims like that. Also, there' a strange description of Myers with a deformed head, a plastic mask, and a rotted face. I felt like Reno was confusing Myers with Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th). Reno also routinely has Myers voicing animal growls and howling to break free from a straitjacket. This isn't the Myers character. If I'm nitpicking, I'd also question Reno using “bullets” in a shotgun.

As a quick horror read, this is a very entertaining read. There's plenty of violence as bodies are impaled, stabbed, electrocuted, and run over through the book's 144 pages. There's also a side story of Blackwell's involvement with Myers and the atrocities that occurred at the hospital in years past. If you love a good horror story, then The Mad House is recommended. However, in terms of traditional Michael Myers characterization, this one is way off.

Bone Chillers #01 - Beware the Shopping Mall

Betsy Haynes authored nearly 100 paperbacks, mostly of juvenile and young-adult fiction. Her bestselling novel, The Great Mom Swap, was published in 1986 and adapted to a film in 1995. She authored the preteen series Taffy Sinclair and its spin-off, The Fabulous Five. Beginning in 1994, Haynes authored a ten-book series titled Bone Chillers, a juvenile horror title created by Harper to compete with the successful Goosebumps series written by R.L. Stine. The series was adapted into a 13-episode television show in 1996. Fans of the PW brand know I never shy away from a good story, no matter what genre or age level. I jumped on the debut Bone Chillers paperback, Beware the Shopping Mall.

In the first-person perspective, Robin begins her tale while being dropped off at the front entrance of the Wonderland Mall. On the drive over, Robin's mom explains that the mall was built over the old Mournful Swamp, a cursed place where three teenagers mysteriously disappeared. Robin would rather trade rumors of haunted swamps for the buzz of the mall's grand opening. 

Inside the mall, Robin and her friends begin the stroll through the new stores. Yet, it seems the same three kids are working all the stores. This is impossible considering that the stores are far apart, sometimes on different levels. Yet the kids are physically identical, other than the store-branded shirts they are wearing. By mid-morning, Robin notices that many of the kids she saw shopping in the mall now resemble mannequins strewn throughout the mall's shops. When her friends begin to disappear, Robin fears that they have secretly been transformed into mannequins!

There's something to be said for a good shopping mall novel. Oddly, it's almost its own sub-genre of horror and suspense. Here on the blog, we have obvious mall-themed books reviewed like Chopping Mall, The Mall, Hacking Mall, and the then novels that take partly take place in malls like Black Friday, Suburban Gothic, and Path to Savagery. 

Beware the Shopping Mall, at 150 pages, is a brisk, breezy read that has a central mystery that kept me interested throughout. Obviously, the connection from the haunted swamp to the new mall structure is paramount to the plot, but I felt the ending was a bit disappointing. Like clowns, mannequins are equally unsettling, and I felt like the author used that to her advantage. If you want a fun, all-ages horror story for an hour of enjoyment, then Beware the Shopping Mall is an easy recommendation.

Get the book HERE. 

The Exorcist's House

West Virginia native Nick Roberts has emerged as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary horror, blending the psychological depth of classic suspense with the visceral terror of modern supernatural tales. With 2022’s The Exorcist's House, Roberts leans into one of the genre’s most enduring tropes, the haunted house possession story.

After a prologue introducing the evil dwelling within this house, we join the action in 1994 in Southern Ohio where psychologist Daniel Hill is excited to be closing on the purchase of a thirty acre plot of land in rural West Virginia with his pregnant wife, Nora, and their teen daughter, Alice.

The house upon the farm hasn’t been upgraded since its construction in the 1940s, so contractors get to work modernizing the place for the Hill family. An old timer on the crew tells his fellow workers that the house used to be owned by a backwoods exorcist before experiencing an unsettling supernatural encounter.

Once the Hill family is occupying the house, they quickly determine that all the spookiness seems to be emanating from the basement, and the paperback doesn’t waste any time becoming seriously scary. In the cellar filled with cobwebs, there’s a small sealed door that is difficult to open. Our new homeowner, Daniel, is giddy and determined to find out what’s beyond the door because he hasn’t read as many cursed houses books as you and me.

The scares escalate throughout the novel with terror, possessions and explanations of how this poor family’s basement became a portal unleashing demons from hell. There are some really terrifying scenes that work because the characters are so vivid. No joke, this is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read.

The Exorcist’s House is a seriously frightening haunted house book that was so wildly popular that it spawned two sequels with equally terrifying online buzz. I look forward to diving into the next novel about the house, but I need to let my heart rate stabilize first. Recommended. Get the book HERE. 

Lords of Twilight

I'm continuing my re-reading of the Greg Gifune bibliography. I've enjoyed and respected his novels and novellas for the past 25-years. Next on my list is Lords of Twilight. It was originally published by Dark Fuse in 2011 and now exists in a new Crossroads Press' Macabre Ink edition alongside the author's 2013 novella House of Rain. 

The main character is Lane Boyce, a former educator. Although the author doesn't offer explicit details, it is revealed in snippets that Lane had an alleged sexual relationship with a student. Whether he did or didn't, the incident led to Lane's formal dismissal as a professor and the upending of his marriage. In a type of self-imposed punishment, Lane moves to a small rural house in Edgar, Maine, an off-grid type of locale where he can become riddled in self-pity. But, things are weird in Edgar.

There's an early indication that something has invaded the town. It begins with cattle mutilation and the discovery of a local farmer's mysterious corpse. Later, three hunters appear at Lane's house with a frenzy of instructions, one of which is to load a shotgun and prepare. As government employees, the proverbial men-in-black, appear in the countryside, events begin to spiral out of control. Is Lane losing his mind in this off-the-grid frosty Hell or is something from another world inhabiting this small town?

Gifune shines when he reveals fragments of the story to readers. Often, his characters revel in emotional turmoil with undertones of loss, regret, and frustration. Along with weather elements, it is the characteristic of his writing. 

In Lords of Twilight, Lane is mentally traipsing a balance beam of what's real and unreal. That instability conveys to the readers, leaving much of the narrative as a foggy suggestion that readers can contemplate subjectively. Whether events are actually happening or simply figments of a character's imagination is the charm of Gifune's literary work and this novella is no different. Lords of Twilight is a captivating horror yarn (I think) or, at the very least, an unsettling descent into a man pushed from the rungs of relevancy. Regardless, it is a real masterpiece of the genre. Highly recommended. Get it HERE.

Punk Rock Ghost Story

I've been reading David Agranoff this month. My first experience with him was The Last Night to Kill Nazis, and I've dabbled in his work, podcast, and excellent blog ever since. He's extremely diverse, popping in and out of genres while still maintaining his strong storytelling. That's a measure of talent that often goes unnoticed. 

His 2016 novel, Punk Rock Ghost Story, was published by Deadite Press. Like his debut, The Vegan Revolution...with Zombies, this book also boasts a flavorful combination of satire, comedy, seriousness, and outright horror. I described it to Nick at the Book Graveyard as Natural Born Killers throwing a basement party with the Manson Family and Black Flag. I'm not even sure that outrageous description does it justice. Maybe throw in Ari Aster to direct the party's cell phone footage.

The book is presented in a non-linear narrative that captures events from 1982 and 2006. Agranoff masterfully blends both into a penultimate moment when everything collides – people, places, and things. It's a careful orchestration to combine these two different eras in an entrancing plot that doesn't lose the reader. 

In 2006, Nate and his band are set to tour the country's dives and basements as the fictional Indiana punk band People's Uprising. As a mode of transportation, the group bought an old beater van that was once used by a mysterious fictional punk band called The Fuckers, who had one unforgettable tour in 1982 that culminated in their lead singer, Frank Fucker, disappearing. 

As the People's Uprising hits the road, Nate begins to hear voices from the van – voices that seem to resonate from The Fuckers in 1982. Nate begins to align his principles and beliefs with Frank Fucker as he descends into a pretty dark place. His girlfriend, Ericka (the star of the show), is revolted by Nate's transformation, an intriguing part of the storyline that makes for great drama. On the flip, readers are submerged into the 1982 tour and the violent crescendo of Frank Fucker's self-appointment as punk rock's unholy gatekeeper.

As a music journalist, I've been in some pretty crazy spots on the East Coast. This book brought back some memories for me (good and bad) of the music industry roadshow. Agranoff complimented the novel with a Blair Witch Treatment. He made an actual album of punk rock songs credited to The Fuckers, including songs mentioned in the book. Further, he made a mockumentary film with real Indiana punk bands, citing The Fuckers as an influence on their music. Outrageous. 

If you enjoy unique psychological horror, or just a great backstage music bio, then Punk Rock Ghost Story is an entertaining experience. Get it HERE.

Eric's Brand New Book Haul

Eric shares his latest book haul, featuring new releases from Stark House Press and a stack of horror books borrowed from a friend. He also talks about a pulp coffee table book and outlines upcoming plans for his show through the end of the year and into 2026. Stream below or on YouTube HERE.

The Shoppe of Endarkenment

Bradley J. Knefelkamp is a commercial photographer who possesses a strong passion for music (his drum covers to Rush are rad), graphic design, and writing. His first novel was 2016's Escape from Gehenna, a young adult adventure that was followed by a sequel, Return to Gehenna, in 2022. My first experience with the writer is his horror novel The Shoppe of Endarkenment, published in 2021. 

In the Victorian town of Brown's Creek, a new trinket store has just opened. Its mysterious owner, Phineas Stumpf, offers a charming assortment of oddities that captivate the apothecary and antique consumer. But Stumpf is a peculiar shopkeeper. He has a penchant for eating insects, especially the ones that crawl out of his own skin. Stumpf can also make inanimate objects move of their own accord. But his most uncanny ability is the nearly magnetic pull he has on his customers. They “must” possess his various trinkets and treasures - at any price. But, Stumpf proves to be a fair dealer in commodities. He warns every one of his consumers of the danger and responsibility of owning these physical objects. Humanity has a history of opposition to supernatural commands.

The Shoppe of Endarkenment is a type of short story collection. Through these six offerings, listed as “episodes”, six people buy an object from Stumpf and experience horrifying results. It's a variety of offerings, and offings, as these people are essentially killed by their own material possession. Maybe. But, as each episode unravels, readers learn that each of these characters was experiencing their personal demons, an inner darkness that Stumpf preys upon. In the last episode, Stumpf meets his match with a vengeful family man who brings Jesus into the conversation.

Knefelkamp's prose is smooth and to the point, never squandering the propulsive feel of each episode's obligatory demise. He maintains a quick pace while still offering enough characterization of these men, women, and children to allow the reader to care about their fate. This book should appeal to all ages, but it is targeting young adults. There are a few gory details (like disembowelment in a bathtub), but for the most part, it all remains PG-13. You can get the book in digital and physical editions HERE.

Things Have Gotten Way Worse Since We Last Spoke

Boston horror author Eric LaRocca devised a clever 100-page novel called Things Have Gotten Way Worse Since We Last Spoke. The story employs a storytelling device organized like a documentary film pieced together by a diligent researcher via Internet postings, emails, and instant messages. It’s an inventive way to tell a horror story.

The story begins with a somewhat rattling Internet posting from a woman named Agnes trying to sell her grandmother’s apple peeler and the response from another woman named Zoe. The two women (both lesbians) develop an online friendship that veers into sexual flirtation.

Once they start confessing their sexual fantasies to one another, things take a dark turn when Zoe reveals her preferences. It’s about total escalating control over another person. No spoilers here. Leave it at that.

And then the payoff comes and it’s…disgusting. The author is a fine writer but went for the revolting gross-out when something more subtle and menacing would have been more effective. I genuinely think he’s a great writer, so I look forward to checking out his other works. This one failed by going extreme without the requisite build-up.

Also: Gratuitous animal cruelty. You’ve been warned. Get the book HERE.

The Lost Village

Camilla Sten is a Barcelona-based Swedish author and comedian. She's gained recent notoriety for her critically acclaimed suspense novels, including a criminal psychologist character she's created, Rebecca Lekman. Her novel, The Resting Place, was one of Goodreads' Most Popular Horror Books of 2022, and she earned a Viktor Crime Award in Germany. I wanted to start with her debut, The Lost Village, published in 2021. The novel was praised by the New York Times and has been translated to multiple languages. The book has also been optioned for a movie deal.

If you are striving for a traditional, breezy reading experience, then The Lost Village is not the book for you. Instead, this novel is non-linear and alternates between events in the present with those in the mid-20th century. To assist me on my literary journey, I kept a scratch pad handy with character names for both periods. It may not be necessary, but I found it a valuable supplement to Sten's narrative.

In the past, labeled as “Then” in the chapters, a fictional small town called Silvertjarn comes to life through a handful of characters. It's a typical rural village that exists from the income earned through the local mine. It's complemented by charismatic, ordinary citizens who go to work, school, and church. But three monumental events occur that change Silvertjarn's blue-collar charm. First, a new pastor arrives who immediately begins to change the orthodox teachings of the local church. Second, the mine closes. Third, a young woman is tied to a pole and stoned to death. That last one surprised you, right?

In the present, aptly labeled “Now” in chapter headings, a small filmmaker named Alice Lindstedt leads her production crew to Silvertjarn to document the town. It's now completely abandoned, with its streets and old buildings being slowly consumed by nature. Alice wants to investigate the town and search for answers on why the town's population seemingly vanished one day. Helping her is a former ex-best friend (and her male friend), the film's financial backer, and her partner.

The Lost Village is like a cross between The Blair Witch Project and David Morrell's Creepers. The narrative's twisty first half is an atmospheric, downright spooky delve into the town's empty school, church, and residential homes. There's a feeling of cold regret, an edgy abrasiveness, and a cloak of impending doom that helps suffocate these characters. Enhancing the mood is a stalking vibe as these characters hear footsteps and laughter in this quiet, neglected place. 

Sten's second half storytelling is where The Lost Village drifts from something truly special into a formulaic cat-and-mouse thriller that doesn't develop into an inventive finale. The surprise reveal wasn't spectacular, and there's a giant plot hole that left me feeling a bit insulted as an invested reader. 

Despite the poor second half, I found there was enough spark here to still make The Lost Village an entertaining read. The panning out from present to past wasn't a unique combination, but it helped the story and propped up the mysterious circumstances involving the town's citizens. The characters were predictable, but compelling. I dislike past-tense presentation, but Sten made it work. I would read another one of her books, but I'm not in a rush to run out and get one.

Get The Lost Village HERE.

At Home With the Horrors: 14 Chilling Tales

Sammy Scott is a rising voice in contemporary horror, known for crafting stories that are as unsettling as they are imaginative. In At Home With the Horrors: 14 Chilling Tales, he turns everyday settings into landscapes of dread, pulling readers into worlds where something sinister is just beneath the surface.

Reviews of short story collections are usually unsatisfying, but here are my thoughts of the first four stories in the collection:

"What We Have Here" - Scott wastes no time scaring the crap out of the reader with this story of a marital communication failure of epic proportions. The things that happen to Emily and Elliott in this story was like a twisted Twilight Zone episode fed through a body horror meat grinder. The less you know the better. Read this story.

"Theresa" - Newlywed Theresa is shattered when her husband Ray is killed in an act of workplace violence until she hears from him beyond the grave. The catch? He’s calling from the day he was murdered. Can Theresa use this temporal time loop to save her man? Depressing, but effective, story. Would be a great Black Mirror episode.

"Blackbird" - Molly is seeing a shrink because she misses her dead mother so much. As you can imagine, she’s excited at the idea of participating in a new kind of psychotherapy where drugs and hypnosis can send Molly into a dream state to have conversations with her mom while unconscious. After a few sessions, Molly begins to wonder if her weekly reunions with mom are a dream placebo or something truly supernatural. Another rattling winner of a story with a tidy twist ending.

"The Sisters" - Andrea is a home health care nurse assigned to care for an Alzheimer’s patient named Delores. Before starting the gig, Andrea receives a briefing about Delores’ creepy and cruel sister, Edna. It’s quite a backstory. Delores is convinced her dead sister is haunting her, and damned if the author didn’t create another great final-page surprise.

You get the idea. The quality of the 14 stories never fades. Sammy Scott is a modern-day Rod Serling who has mastered the art of twist endings that land every damn time. This may be the best single-author horror short story collection since Stephen King’s Night Shift.

At Home with the Horrors is available for free on Kindle Unlimited or just pay for it on Amazon. It’s really something special. Get it HERE.

Joyride

Stephen Crye, possibly a pseudonym for Ronald Patrick, authored Joyride, a 1983 horror paperback published by Pinnacle. The book's blurb on the back cover suggests it is comparable to movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, only more horrifying and grisly. I originally heard about the book during an interview I conducted with horror writer Brian Berry, who praised the book's use of slasher tropes. Will Errickson also mentioned the book in his interview with Nick Anderson of The Book Graveyard.

Joyride has a narrative that features events happening in both 1982 and 1974. In 1974, the author presents the story of young Robert, a 17-year-old high school kid that's tormented by his fellow students. At home, Robert is abused by his father, a wheelchair-bound dictator that dumps daily diatribes in an outward deflection of his own emotional instability. Robert's only peace is through books, writing poetry, and one-sided friendship with a popular 12th grader named Carla. The events of this period culminate in Robert being facially disfigured in a cruel joke.

In 1982, Robert now lives in the cemetery that his family owns. His mother and father are both dead. When a group of graduating seniors arrive to kickoff the rest of their lives, Roberts slips in behind them and locks the cemetery gates. As night descends, the teenagers are hunted and killed off one-by-one in a macabre murder spree. But, Robert has special plans for a girl named Priscilla, who he mentally sees as Carla, the girl that he had longed for previously.

If you love slasher cinema from 1973 through 1986, like Slaughter High, Prom Night, Graduation Day, etc., then this vintage horror novel will be a real pleasure. Crye/Patrick perfectly captures the spirit of the slasher genre by injecting this scarred madman into the narrative while serving him plenty of stereotypical teenagers to feast on. It isn't a masterpiece by any means, but it doesn't have to be. 

As one of the only true slasher books from that era, Joyride is a cause for celebration. Highly recommended. You can also watch my video review of this book HERE. Also, spend a fortune on acquiring the book HERE.

David Agranoff: Writing Against Facism with Fangs and Fire

This in-depth interview explores the work and creative philosophy of author David Agranoff, known for blending horror, science fiction, and political commentary. The discussion covers his literary influences—ranging from heavy metal and punk rock to authors like Alistair MacLean and Philip K. Dick—and how they inform his fast-paced, visceral writing style. Watch the video chat HERE or stream below. The audio portion is available on any podcasting platform or download HERE.

Crash Course

I initially discovered Kathryn Johnson earlier this year when I read her young-adult thriller Winterkill, originally published by Avon in 1991. I enjoyed the novel, leading me to place the author on my radar to find more of her works. Johnson, who used the pseudonym Nicole Davidson, wrote over 40 published novels and was nominated for the Agatha Award. I located plenty of her books and chose her 1995 book Crash Course to read along with a fellow Booktuber named Bryan from Bad Taste Books. 

The plot is rather elementary, leaving the focus to be more of a character study. Eight Maryland high school students are forced to participate in a group SAT study with a teacher named Porter. But, this isn't any normal scholastic study group. Instead, Porter, with parental consent, takes these eight kids to a rural house miles from civilization. The house, sitting on the shore of Deep Creek Lake, will be the students' home for a few nights over Thanksgiving break. Here's the personalities that clash on this mandatory meeting of the minds:

Kelly – protagonist, in love with a student athlete named Jeff and best friend to her neighbor Brian.
Paula – Kelly's rival, the girlfriend to Brian, jealous rager.
Chris – jock and bully, homicidal.
Jeff – secretly loves Kelly, goes with the flow.
Nathan – motorhead biker and food junkie.
Isabel – Native-American mystic and all-around introvert.
Angel – the group's goth witch.
Brian – pal to Kelly, hardworking student, bound for college.

As the kids arrive and settle in, small alliances begin to form. But, the mystery begins when Brian disappears in the lake. The kids begin to question each other on where Brian is, who may have had a hand in his demise, and what to do next. These suspicious increase once Porter leaves to find help. But, when another student is found stabbed, the need to survive the coming days becomes the most prevalent plot point.

By 1991, the slasher film market had reached a pinnacle of success. Johnson hones in on some of the genre's most intriguing tropes – a camp killer, teens in peril, the clashing of raging personalities, and the ultimate guessing game of the murderer's identity. While the third-person narration consistently flips among the characters, the most dominant is Kelly. She's mature, daring, and makes good decisions when facing adversity. She's also the one with the most motivation to discover the whereabouts of Brian's body. It was fun to join her on the search for motives.

Kelly and two other characters from this book appear in the sequel, Crash Landing. 

Get Crash Course HERE.

Pack Animals Exclusive Cover Reveal

Prolific horror and crime-fiction author Greg F. Gifune, recently announced a thrilling four-book partnership with Crossroad Press. The deal features brand new editions of two of the author's out-of-print works, Dreams the Ragman and Samsara, plus two exclusive originals, The Standing Dead and Pack Animals.

Gifune, the recipient of multiple Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award nominations, sits down with Eric Compton of Paperback Warrior to reveal the details of his new books, including an exclusive reveal of the wrap-around cover art for Pack Animals. It was illustrated by Zach McCain, an internationally published artist who also created the striking artwork for Gifune's 2022 horror novella Savages, published by Cemetery Dance. 

“Zack, he's such a nice guy and he's a very talented guy and he's an absolute joy to work with. He's got the whole retro cover thing. When we got this deal, they asked do you have any preference? We all kind of agreed that the covers are always important, but with these kinds of books, the pulp kind of books, they're really important. They asked me if there was anyone I wanted, and I said if you can get Zach McCain. He'll nail it...and he did”, Gifune said. 

When asked to elaborate on the concept of Pack Animals, Gifune explained the atmospheric nature of the story and the impact it has on the characters.

“There's a couple of werewolf novels that are kind of fun, but I essentially just said, you know what...I'm going to write a book that I would want to read about this kind of thing. And it's essentially about a group of guys who have been friends since high school, and they're middle-aged now and have families. One of them gets divorced in a kind of really messy divorce, and he decides to leave. He moves up to this town in the mountains in New Hampshire. There's this property that's kind of a steal, and he buys it. But not long after moving there, he realizes there's something wrong. There's something moving around out there that shouldn't be. And his friends all sort of coordinate to take vacations and go up and see him because they're worried about him. So they go up, and then it kind of goes from there. There's a blizzard, and they're kind of in the middle of nowhere. There's this pack of animals that are stalking them.”

Gifune, who has a love for survival horror, explained some of the elements that influenced his take on the sub-genre. 

“It's kind of a homage to the survival horror novels of the seventies and eighties. And, you know, the drive-in movies and the exploitation movies of the seventies. It's just like “Savages”. One of the best compliments I had was when somebody said to me, when they were reading “Savages” it was like watching a drive-in movie back in the day, you know, which was just what I was going for.” 

Watch the full Paperback Warrior interview with the author HERE. 

Preorder the book HERE.

Conversations - Bad Taste Books

Bryan from Bad Taste Books joins to discuss 90s young adult horror paperbacks, focusing on imprints like Point Horror and Avon Flare. The chat includes mentions of Goosebumps, The Final Cruise, Christopher Pike, and reviews of two books by Nicole Davidson, along with a showcase of nostalgic book covers. View below or on YouTube HERE.

Your Body Will Never Be Found

A master of blending horror with razor-sharp humor, Jeff Strand has carved out a unique niche in the genre with stories that are as unsettling as they are laugh-out-loud funny. With dozens of novels under his belt, ranging from splatterpunk chaos to darkly comedic thrillers, he’s earned a cult following among horror fans who like their scares served with a side of satire. His 2025 release, Your Body Will Never Be Found, is a fine entry-point to his “body” of work.

The 222-page paperback begins with a family of four lost in the deep woods of rural Georgia with their car’s GPS in constant recalculation mode and the fuel gauge approaching empty. They are Arden (Dad), Laurie (Mom), Nick (15) and Misty (6).

When the car finally konks out with a blown out tire and lack of gasoline, the family is at the foot of a long driveway snaking into the forbidding woods. At the base of the driveway is a sign reading, “If you’re here, you’re clearly lost. What you do next will determine if you stay that way.”

Of course the house’s resident is Finch, a giant scary redneck with a shotgun. But is he dangerous or just worried about coyotes? Would he allow little Misty to use the restroom inside his shack while they await roadside assistance? What could go wrong?

The author does a great job of ratcheting up the tension gradually playing with the tug-o-war between normal human manners and the gut feeling that something isn’t right. When violence finally breaks out, we have a nonstop, extreme horror bloodbath.

Nick and Misty will go to any length to keep their kids safe, and they have a secret history of their own that does not make them the soft targets you’d imagine. Meanwhile, the occupants of the home also have a creepy backstory that adds to the sense of danger and foreboding.

To be sure, Your Body Will Never Be Found is an extremely violent and visceral novel with some truly vile and disgusting scenes. Be warned. Strand also writes some of the best violent fight scenes in horror fiction — as evidenced throughout the novel’s second half.

Overall, this was not a masterpiece of horror fiction, but it’s probably a fine entry-point if you want to dip your toe into the extreme horror pool of blood. He’s a solid writer and the novel’s perspective changes had a cinematic, Tarantino quality. By now, you should know if this is your thing. If so, consider this a recommendation.

Get the book HERE.

Paperback Warrior - Episode 124

This podcast episode features William R. Cox, a prolific author of over 1,000 pulp stories known for his crime-fiction, sports, and western novels. It also includes a review of a 1967 vintage suspense-thriller by John Farris. Listen today! Stream below or on YouTube HERE. Download the episode HERE.

Listen to "Episode 124: William R. Cox" on Spreaker.

The Lurking Fear

H.P. Lovecraft's serial “The Lurking Fear” was originally published between January and April 1923 in Home Brew. The stories appeared with interior illustrations by Clark Ashton Smith. The serial was reprinted as a novelette in the June 1928 issue of Weird Tales. Since that date, the story has appeared in numerous magazines and horror anthologies by publishers like Avon, Panther, Arkham House, and Del Rey. Now in the public domain, one can find numerous audio presentations of the book from free narrators like HorrorBabble, Gates of Imagination, and Voice Voyage. The story was also adapted into several film adaptations including Bleeders (1997), Dark Heritage (1989), Lurking Fear (1994), and The Lurking Fear (2023).

“The Lurking Fear” is a stand-alone story that doesn't fit Lovecraft's vast Cthulhu mythos. It begins with an unnamed narrator exploring Tempest Mountain, a supposedly cursed region in New York's Catskills. This narrator, a monster-hunter of sorts, and his two male companions, are responding to reports of creatures attacking people in the nearby area. Central to the narrator's investigation is a derelict mansion void of any residents. It is here that the trio take refuge to wait out the night. But, in the deep recesses of the dark, the narrator is awakened to see a large shadow on the chimney wall and the disappearance of his two companions. 

The narrator leaves the mansion and, after several days, returns to the mansion again with a journalist named Munroe. This time, the duo take shelter from a rainstorm in a nearby shack near the mansion's grounds. It  is here that Munroe is killed by a terrible mauling and the narrator searches for answers in a discarded diary the two had previously located.

In the story's second half, the narrator reveals the history of the mansion and a reclusive family known as the Martenses that turned to inbreeding in their rural isolation. Thinking he has found the answers to the creatures, and their mysterious attacks, the narrator returns to the property again and begins to dig up the grave of Jan Martense. Under the casket he locates a labyrinth of underground tunnels used by the creatures. But, like any good horror story, the clash between man and beast brings resolution.

“The Lurking Fear” has a disjointed presentation which Lovecraft himself was disappointed with. The  reason may have been the serial nature of the story and the need to expand it into several issues. Regardless, I enjoyed the aura of isolation, the unbridled tragedy affecting this early American family, and the narrator's gusto to confront the monstrosities despite the prior casualties that closely affected him. There's an atmosphere of foreboding that permeates the abandoned mansion and grounds. There's also this idea that death itself can reveal answers, apparent in the very physical need to look beneath the casket for answers. 

In terms of legacy, I can see shades of this story in film franchises like Hills Have Eyes and Wrong Turn, the classic 1981 film Hell Night, as well as stories by Stephen King like “Graveyard Shift”. Lovecraft, who remained an “unknown” in his lifetime, touched so many generations of horror fans. His influence on the genre is seemingly endless.

The Phantom Coach

Amelia Edwards (1831-1892) was a British writer and artist that was deemed the “Godmother of Egyptology”. Her fascination with Egyptian culture led to a successful travelogue titled A Thousand Miles up the Nile. Her most famous novel is Barbara's History, published in 1864. However, she appears in several horror anthologies and digests with her frightening tale “The Phantom Coach”. The story first appeared in All the Year Round in 1864 as “Another Past Lodger Relates His Own Ghost Story” with the author unnamed. My version of the story is in The Phantom Coach: Thirteen Journeys into the Unknown edited by Peter C. Smith and published by William Kimber in 1979. 

The story's narrator is a young attorney named Murray. He is relaying an event that happened to him twenty years ago, an event he has never disclosed until now. Murray, newly married, is vacationing in the English countryside. He goes hunting (against his new bride's wishes) in the rural moors and forests during a snowstorm. After a few hours, he realizes he has become lost as the snowfall increases. Thankfully, Murray flags down an older gentleman in the wild. This stranger isn't helpful, and advises Murray that the nearest town is twenty miles away. Murray, desperate to live, sort of forces his will upon this old man, Jacob, and accompanies him back to the cottage where Jacob's master lives.

The master of the manor isn't thrilled to find Jacob has returned with an unwanted guest. After a bit of a verbal tussle, Murray sits with Jacob's master to have some dinner. It is during this conversation that the master advises Murray that he has been away from society and his colleagues in the scientific and technological industry. He wants to learn more about Murray's worldly experiences and, in doing so, he reveals to Murray that he has a fascination with the supernatural.  

Eventually the master encourages Murray to leave that very night to meet the mailman's coach that will be within five miles of the cottage. The mailman can then return Murray back to his wife at the Inn. But, this requires five miles through the dark snowfall on an abandoned coach road. On the journey, Jacob explains to Murray that a horrible accident happened on the old coach road nine years prior. He then leaves Murray with instructions on how to find the mailman's coach at a type of crossroads between the old road and the new one. To reveal any other details would ruin the thrill of this Victorian ghost story.

Amelia Edwards writes with a heavy handed descriptive approach that steers clear of an archaic prose. This is a smooth atmospheric tale that uses the dark moors, forest, and isolation to present a ghost story. Edwards has the ability to reveal very little about Jacob and the master, yet still somehow marries the two characters to the reader flawlessly. Every word they speak in this story hinges on some soon-to-be revelation that will affect the unfortunate protagonist. There's a great deal of mystery on just what awaits Murray on this old coach road. Once the terror reveals itself, Murray and readers are plucked from this out-of-the-way seclusion into a stuffy and cramped space saturated in doom and death. It's a wonderful scene switch that sets the story's finale. 

The Phantom Coach should be easily accessible as a free read. It is worth the effort to hunt it down. Recommended!

Buy an ebook version of the story plus others HERE.