Elderwood manor by Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes
“Things fall apart—Bruce Davenport knows this all too well.
On the heels of his wife’s death, laid-off and penniless with an eviction notice on the door, the only thing left for him and his four-year-old son Cody is Bruce’s childhood home, secluded deep within Ozark forests, haunted by the ghosts of his past.
After he receives a strange phone call from his dying mother, who has lived alone in the house for the past 15 years, Bruce reluctantly returns to the estate with his son.
But they soon find that something else dwells in the home, in the earth, in the woods. Unseen things are out for vengeance and blood. If they can survive the night, they may just find out what truly lies within the walls of…Elderwood Manor. ”
*****
The Davenport women never leave the manor, as the legends say. Or is it more of a lineage curse? The manor was built in the 18th century by an occultist to practice his dark rites and diabolical Satanist practices.
Bruce returns home out of desperation and quickly becomes marooned with his young son. What he find is more horrifying than words can say. The manor its self becomes a third character, as it’s evil consumes everything around and in it.
Written with atmospheric prose, you can feel the trepidation and the tendrils of winter bleakness. This bone chilling novella should only be read in well-lit rooms with people around and never, I repeat, never read after midnight on your own.
******
Blackout by Tim Curran
Release: August 19th
In the midst of a beautiful summer, in a perfectly American suburban middle-class neighborhood, a faraway evil is lurking, waiting to strike the unsuspecting residents.
First come the flashing lights, then the heavy rains, high winds, and finally a total blackout. But that’s only the beginning…
When the whipping black tentacles fall from the sky and begin snatching people at random, the denizens of Piccamore Way must discover the terrifying truth of what these beings have planned for the human race.”
*****
What happens when the lights go out?
Blackout is a story set in everyday suburbia, with a Stephen King/ H.G. Wells style. Strobe lights appear in the night’s storm; illuminating what may be out in the inky darkness. People start to disappear and the disorientation of what is believed to be a natural disaster takes over; combine that with the eerie undertones- Piccamore Way starts to believe there is nothing natural about it.
Blackout is a terrifying account of what happens when they don’t come in peace and this novella will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The Sleeping dead by Richard Farren Barber
Release: August 12th
“Don’t listen…
When Jackson Smith attends an interview to escape his dead-end job, he witnesses a man jumping to his death through an office window. But this suicide is only the first of many he encounters. All around him, men and women begin taking their own lives. These seemingly random events make little sense to Jackson until he hears voices urging him to join the others.
Don’t look…
As Jackson fights the desire to self-destruct, he flees through a mad city where the river and streets pile high with bodies of the sleeping dead, those who have simply surrendered to the strange voices.
Don’t hope…
Jackson’s only chance is to find an escape to this madness before giving in to the strange voices in his head.”
*****
The first few lines, set the macabre scene with some truly bizarre self- terminations. Suicide becomes a spectator sport- a ghoulish kind of voyeurism, as Jackson is helpless to stop it.
Victims appear to have clicked over to some primal setting and become hell-bent on destruction and their own determined demise. Within the space of a few hours one sunny afternoon, all hell breaks loose as an unexplained epidemic spreads. The voices urge them towards suicide and no one is immune to the compulsion. Jackson quests to find Donna but every where he goes are dead bodies laid out in a macabre tableau.
Richard Farren Barber’s writing is so crisp and detailed, I felt all the fear, panic, confusion and despair that Jackson Smith felt, as he tried to find an escape from the madness around him. Not for the faint of heart but perfect for anyone who loves a spine-chiller with a dash of gore.
The Exiled by William Meikle
“When several young girls are abducted from various locations in Edinburgh, Detective John Granger and his brother Alan, a reporter, investigate the cases from different directions. The abductor is cunning, always one step ahead, and the only clue he leaves behind at each scene are the brutalized corpses of black swans.
When the brothers’ investigations finally converge at a farmhouse in Central Scotland, they catch a glimpse of where the girls have been taken, a place both far away yet close enough to touch. A land known throughout Scottish history with many names: Faerie, Elfheim, and the Astral Plane. It is a place of legend and horror, a myth. But the brothers soon discover it’s real, and, to catch the abductor, they will have to cross over themselves.
To catch a killer, John and Alan Granger will have to battle the Cobbe, a strange and enigmatic creature that guards the realm, a creature of horrific power that demands a heavy price for entry into its world. The fate of both realms hangs in the balance…and time is running out… ”
****
Exemplary horror from the new king of macabre: William Meikle.
The Exiled is a bloody thrill ride through Edinburgh’s slums to find missing girls. It combines Police procedures with the occult to create a spine tingling story of epic proportions.
Dark magic is at work as Celtic mysticism comes to life in a way you never thought possible or saw coming. I hope there is more to come from Detectives John and Alan because they were such brilliantly flawed characters and their dark world was so fascinating. I loved this novella and William Meikle left me wanting more. If you only read one horror novella this summer, then this it!
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