Hello my fearless fans!  Read the summary of this book and tell me if you would be able to pass it up:
 
“One father. Two mothers. One genetically engineered baby.
 
In Kira Peikoff’s domestic thriller, MOTHER KNOWS BEST (Crooked Lane Books: September 10, 2019), a heartbroken mother is certain having a healthy child is more important than the controversial process it takes to create one. Bioethics battles human longing in this story of the medically possible versus the moral. 
 
Three years after her son died from a genetic defect, he inherited from her, Claire Abrams is desperate for another baby. And she knows a secret. A trailblazing fertility specialist has developed a procedure to combine healthy DNA from two different women to form one healthy egg. Claire’s husband, Ethan, a member of the President’s Bioethics Committee, would never agree to genetic engineering. But he can’t be outraged if he doesn’t know.
 
Dr. Rob Nash and his brilliant assistant, Jillian Hendricks, have engineered a way to implant healthy genes from one egg into the shell of another. Claire is the perfect human to test this on—she’ll risk anything to have a healthy baby. Only the three of them will know about this illegal procedure. But when the silence is broken, someone will pay the price.
 
When federal agents arrest Rob and Jillian, Claire must run. But where? The entire country is searching for the pregnant woman carrying the FrankenBaby. When the trial begins, Jillian is the only one who appears in court and the only one sentenced to prison. Her life, and her bright future, is over. Biding her time from behind bars, she makes plans and waits.
 
Eleven-year-old Abby Burke is just an ordinary girl living in a small town with her stay-at-home mom and carpenter dad, leading a normal life.  But when a school genetics project reveals that Abby shares DNA with a relative, she knows nothing about, their world explodes. 
 
Who is Abby Burke? And who is this stranger threatening to destroy her family? It’s Michael Crichton meets Gillian Flynn in this technological heart-stopper that asks how far a mother should go to keep her child safe.”
 
Right?!?!?!  So, I asked to be sent the book.  And I just finished reading it.  Oh wow, what a whopper of a tale. Truly a fantastic psychological thriller that is such a fascinating page turner, it put philosophical questions up against the letter of the law, throwing in every kind of personality trait you can want in a thriller.  While staying in the focus of keeping the reader in suspense, this author expertly binds incredible moments of overwhelming emotion with instants of pure tension, action, anger, surprise and even outrage.
 
The plot being something so seemingly outrageous yet, it’s actually very plausible and therefore, to me, increases the creepiness and the eeriness by a factor of at least ten.  Not to mention that this author really seems to have taken the time to really think through each character.  Targeting their core, their souls, their personalities, their motivations, not just letting the reader inside their minds, but actually PULLING the reader into their worlds.
 
There’s Claire and Ethan, a couple desperate to recreate what they lost in their first child.

There’s Jillian and Rob, two doctors desperate to make their mark on human history.

And Abby, a child stuck in the middle of all the crazy.
 
This was a fabulous novel to zip through, once I finally got to it on my reading list.  I was so happy I was sent this one.  That doesn’t always turn out well, ya know?  Some of the free stuff isn’t good.  This, I would have paid for.  This is worth it.  Don’t miss out on this one.  It’s a gripping story that will have you on the edge of your seat all the way to the last page.
 
Here’s link to buy:
https://www.amazon.com/Mother-Knows-Best-Novel-Suspense-ebook/dp/B07NKS94NH

RATINGS
5/5 Stars

 
About the Author
 
KIRA PEIKOFF is the author of Living Proof, No Time to Die, and Die Again Tomorrow. She has a degree in journalism from New York University and a master's in bioethics from Columbia University. She is the editor-in-chief of leapsmag.com, a digital magazine about innovation and ethics in the life sciences. She has also contributed articles to The New York Times, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, Nautilus, Slate, Cosmopolitan.com, and other outlets. Peikoff is a proud member of The Authors Guild, International Thriller Writers, PEN America, and Mystery Writers of America. Visit her online at www.kirapeikoff.com.

Crazy Ass Stories for Crazy Ass People
Book Author Andy Rausch
 
This collection of short stories was sent to me by the lovely people at Blackthorn Book Tours.  I tell you, these folks have got some good taste.  I really enjoyed reading this book.  There were times I laughed, times I was completely shocked and times I had both going on plus more at the same time.  
 
This book includes twenty-one short stories AND a very creative novella (which will really get your mind going).  The great thing is the plot range is all over the place with the exception that they all have that general horror component in common.  Now, I don’t want to give anything away but at the end of each story I made some notes about my thoughts on that tale.  I’ll give you a few general examples without spoiling any of the stories for you because, believe me, you won’t want me to ruin any of this.
 
First of all, the author starts off with a very honest and open introduction that totally gives you a feel for what you are about to get into.  Plus, it also gives you a fair amount of insight as to the kind of guy the writer is.  In reading the intro, I truly felt like this guy was my kind of people.  Come to find out, he’s from Parsons, KS. which is only about two and a half hours away from me.  Midwesterners tend to recognize other Midwesterners by the verbiage they use.  (I call us flatlanders, especially here in the center of the country where there are no mountains or anything like that…lots of wheat and corn fields…and cattle…and fields…lots and lots of fields.  But anyways, the intro is funny.  Mr. Andy gives us a taste of the kind of twisted, sometimes dry, sometimes over-the-top, but always natural sense of humor he has.  Reading the introduction is like Rausch is sitting right there in front of you talking with you as if you’re one of his buddies.
 
A lot of the stories I liked had a very Tales from the Crypt/Twilight Zone kind of feel to them.  Think back to watching Twilight Zone episodes, and when you just KNEW you had it figured out.  Then all of a sudden in the last five minutes, Rod Serling threw you a twist that you never saw coming and you loved it.  Now apply that to the written form and you get this fantastic collection of troubling little tales, shocking stories and appalling anecdotes.
 
Some of my notes consisted of comments like “very eerie, excellent build up and ending,  well written, moved fast, 8/10 creep meter 10/10 deviant meter, natural flow, fantastic adult take on Snow White, would make a great horror movie short, very modern day Twilight Zone.”
 
As you can see, getting this book would not be a wasted purchase.  I highly recommend it to my readers and fans of horror novels and fans of short stories.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

About the Author:

Andy Rausch is an American film journalist, author, screenwriter, film producer, and actor.
 
He is the author of several novels and novellas including Elvis Presley, CIA Assassin. He also wrote the screenplay for Dahmer versus Gacy and is the author of some twenty non-fiction books on popular culture.
 
Books: Riding Shotgun, Bloody Sheets, A Time for Violence, Layla's Score
 
You can usually find Andy on Twitter @writerrausch1, and he maintains a blog at https://authorandyrausch.wordpress.com/
 

Escape From Alcatraz: The Mystery of the Three Men Who Escaped from the Rock
 Author: Eric Braun
 
I was surprised how small this book was when I got it, but then I remembered…little things can pack a big punch.  There is a lot of information in this book.  It’s well written and it actually has more than just the basic every day, every documentary information that you’re usually gonna get.
 
Most of the time, especially when you watch a documentary about the escape, they are so limited on time that they really only focus on the three inmates that actively left the cell block.  The real facts are that there were others involved in not only the planning of the escape, but also in the preparation of the escape.  
 
Think about it.  Alcatraz was like a prison inside a prison.  You spent the majority of your time in your cell, unless you had a job to go work.  So, these three men would have definitely needed help procuring specific things.  Yes, one of the escapees worked in the prison barber shop and that’s how they got the hair.  That was one of the Anglin brothers.  The other one worked in an area where he had access to the raincoats and contact cement.  They were allowed to order paint for their “painting hobbies”.  But still…
 
Someone somewhere had to get them the magazines from the prison library.  Someone had to help explain the layout of the cell block.  Someone had to help get the motor for the drill they made.  Someone had to get tools, extension cords, act as decoys, help distract the guards (sometimes for months at a time).  Believe me, this was not a small, secret, three-man effort.
 
The idea of escape was revered by the inmates on The Rock and many wanted to help just to be able to be a part of what they dreamt of and longed for with sadness and sorrow as their many days of their long sentences went by.
 
The escape was new.  It was fun.  It was exciting.  It was history in the making.  And people wanted to be a part of that.
 
In this book you will find a wealth of information and a treasure trove of legitimate picture of everything from the dummy heads the inmates made to the tools that were found in their makeshift workshop above the cell block. (Oh, you didn’t know that was there huh? Read this book.  There’s so much more to tell.)
 
This is a fantastic book to read as an introduction to the subject of the escape from Alcatraz.  It really does cover a wide range of details in a short number of pages, making it a fast and easy, not to mention fascinating, read.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

I was fortunate enough to be one of the few that was given this book by Ms. Taylor herself.  What’s most interesting about this horror novel is that it is, in my mind, completely and totally relevant.  And anytime a horror story, tv show, film can get into my head and show me that this is something that actually could happen, that’s when it’s the creepiest and scariest to me.
 
[Side Note: Things like IT, Nightmare on Elm Street, Puppet Master, Leprechaun, etc…those movies and stories don’t really scare me.  In fact, fiction RARELY scares me, because well, it’s fiction.  There’s usually some aspect of it that makes it a non-probable scenario.  Take something like Trucks or Maximum Overdrive.  Great stories, and I love Maximum Overdrive.  But, totally not scary.  In fact, almost comical because I have a hard time wrapping my head around inanimate objects coming to life with the sole purpose of wiping out human existence.  To me, since they would need us to survive, it seems a little farfetched.  However, you take this story here, Sinkhole, and it hits a creeped-out chord with me.]
 
I’ll start with sharing the blurb summary I was given that made me want to read the book.
 
“Could you learn to get along with a complete stranger - or even your worst enemy - to save your life?

A sinkhole swallows a girl in Michigan. Fire shoots into the sky in Pennsylvania. Deer attacks leave people hospitalized in West Virginia. And this is all just the beginning of a catastrophic series of global events that will make you question everything you think you know about the planet, nature, and humanity.

From an award-winning, Amazon #1 best-selling author comes this harrowing tale of a world gone mad. Can anyone survive when Mother Nature unleashes her bad side?”
 
Now, here’s what initially got me interested.  There’s an actual sinkhole in my major metro area that the city has refused to fix for over a year.  Then, you add to that the incredible awe factor of Centralia, PA.; a now near ghost-town wrought to desertion and devastation by what is called a coal-seam fire.  That’s when there’s a large coal mine on fire underground.  For a very over simplified example: Imagine a Pac-Man game board.  Now, picture that anywhere dots can be either has been, is now, or will be at a later time burning coal that reaches a temperature of up to 1350 degrees Fahrenheit underground.  At that temperature the asphalt splits and cracks open, sinkholes open up and swallow whatever is in its grasp, the climate in the area is affected, things won’t grow in certain areas, fumes and vapors seeping up through the cracks in the ground can be toxic and unhealthy, sometimes lethal.  And the problem with such a kind of coal fire is there is no way to smother it or put it out.  It’s coal burning in a coal mine.  It just has to burn away all its fuel and then it will be over.  Unfortunately, that can be decades upon decades.  It all depends on how much coal is in the mine below the surface.
 
So, that’s the hook about sinkholes.  But, check this out.  Taylor has truly brought to life an idea that, while in a fictional novel form may seem a little outside the box, I see as something that could actually happen in a sense and most likely will with global warming now on steroids.
 
So, now picture this…
 
You’ve got the sinkholes dropping ground beneath people, places and things all over the nation.  Now imagine that Mother Nature herself is EXTREMELY pissed off, and man do I mean pissed.  I mean, we’re talking a whole new realm of pissed here.  Like Mother Nature took “pissed off” into The Twilight Zone and unleashed a new dimension of hatred, frustration and vengeance upon the human race.  And it’s not just the plants, the grass and the trees, the wind and the rain.  It’s the animals too.  It’s like every deer in the country has turned into Cujo, but without the rabies.
 
Got that situation in your head?  I mean, the world very well could be ending.  Can you see it?
 
Now imagine trying to survive that with your worst enemy, your total and complete nemesis, the one person that, when you see their face, you just want to smash it in with a Mack truck with barbed wire wrapped around it’s grill, covering the nine inch spikes imbedded in the front end at every square quarter inch as well to ensure full disfigurement.  I mean, you have to try to survive all this and the person that you have to try to survive with is the one  person who’s voice makes you cringe, their mere presence makes you want to nauseated and when they talk, you can’t help but vomit from the constant smell of bullshit coming out their mouths.
 
It’s one thing to have to try to survive this kind of ordeal with your significant other or your family, but your enemy?  Hell, all would be difficult.
 
I will tell you this book is a very fast read.  We switch back and forth between locations, which are all real places, by the way.  The chapters are short and most have some kind of action in them.  I will also tell you there is a character named Don who is a horrific poster boy for Donald Trump.  It’s mortifying, terrifying and hysterical all at the same time.  This author, April Taylor, is very good at giving you a variety of characters in this novel.  That coupled with the different locations where many various things are happening simultaneously keeps the story alive, interesting and fast paced.  It also keeps you on the edge of your seat because each next chapter is taking you slightly back to pick up that particular story and then give you more.  Then you stop and move on to the next location and next set of problems.  It keeps your complete attention and definitely gives you a few OMG moments.
 
I loved this book.  Not only because I could relate to parts of the story but also because Taylor chose to use real places, thus making the story feel more real and true to life.  Also, I’ve often wondered what it would be like (or if/when it will happen) if Mother Nature really just gave us all the finger.  A version of that is coming with global warming, as I said earlier.  When climates change, ecosystems change.  That affects farming and the species living in those areas.  All species have to start to adapt, which means that behaviors are going to change.  Eventually, this is all going to trickle down to the human race.  So, what’s Mother Nature gonna do to us for mistreating her all these years.
 
If you’d like to get one person’s very creative and, in my opinion, even possible ideas on what nature would do to us…get this book.  You won’t regret it.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

​Now, this was an interesting novel.  I was very excited to read it from the little synopsis I was sent about it.
 
--Margot and Myron Spielman move to a new town, looking for a fresh start and an escape from the long shadow of their past. But soon after they buy Rawlingswood, a foreclosed mansion rumored to be haunted, they realize they’re in for more of the same…or worse.
After a renovation fraught with injuries and setbacks, the Spielmans move in to the century-old house, and their problems quickly escalate. The home’s beautiful facade begins to crumble around them when their teenage son uncovers disturbing details of Rawlingswood’s history—a history of murder, betrayal, and financial ruin. The Spielmans’ own shameful secrets and lies become harder to hide as someone or something inside the house watches their every move.
As tensions build between the family members, the home’s dark history threatens to repeat itself. Margot and Myron must confront their own ghosts and Rawlingswood’s buried past before the house becomes their undoing.--
 
Reading that, I thought this would totally be my kind of book.  I want to point out a couple of things that I thought were really cool and unique about this novel.  First, at the front of the book, we get an actual floor plan of the sprawling mansion, level by level.  Then, the writer, instead of using plain chapters and numbers, took the liberty of using the history of the families that lived there and the time frames they were there.  For example, we start out with chapter one, titled House for Sale and then underneath that the date of April 7, 2018.  The author does this throughout the whole novel, using the last names of each family that had lived at Rawlingswood and the dates, allowing us to follow each family’s experience while living at the house.  Furthermore, the author bounces back and forth between all the different families so we get to experience their time at the mansion, past and present together, as it all unfolds.
 
The incredible amount of suspense is another score for the author here.  It’s not nail biting, pull your hair out, on the edge of your seat kind of suspense.  I would describe it more like a constant feeling of suspiciousness and uneasiness, a feeling foreboding and darkness looming over as you read what these characters are going through.  That feeling of eeriness follows as you read through each page, tugging on you as you keep pushing forward through to the end.
 
I really enjoyed reading this book.  I found it extremely difficult to find a good place to stop because it seemed like something enticing and interesting happened in every single chapter.  It reminded me of that feeling you get when you are watching a television series and you just keep watching episode after episode, binge watching because you HAVE to see what happens next.  It’s horrible to have to choose at which cliffhanger to stop reading because you have real life things to do.  It was also very easy to get caught up in the story and the characters of this novel.  You find yourself feeling a range of emotions throughout the novel directed at all different characters.
 
I would definitely recommend this to those of you who like thrillers and subtle suspense.  If you’re into things like urban exploring, abandoned buildings and things like that (which I love to watch those kinds of videos on YouTube) then I think you would really dig this book as well.
 
RATINGS
4.5/5 Stars

​Luckily, this was another book sent to me from Blackthorn Book Tours.  And what a whopper it was!  First of all, it’s not epically long, just the opposite. Second, it has this whole crime show drama/thriller/Tales from the Crypt kind of thing going on.  SO worth reading.
 
I’m not going to give a whole lot of information about what happens but, I will give you a quick little rundown of the premise, just so you know what you’re getting.

​This story is about a young man named Kyle Broder and his former professor William Lansing.  Now, Kyle will tell you that Professor Lansing was instrumental in his pursuit of becoming an author.  In the end, Kyle has ended up making his money being an agent for other authors, until he gets his own off the ground, of course.  All the while, Kyle has a nice little spot, a girlfriend and has just landed the newest and hottest author account on the market.
 
Meanwhile, in between teaches others the finer points of the creative craft, he himself has spent the last ten years cooking up his first novel, his masterpiece.  Lansing treats this manuscript as if it were his legacy.  And though that may be his intention, he runs into some…shall we say obstructions…and detours.  Nevertheless, the professor is determined in his venture.  And the first person he wants to read his priceless work of art, the only person he trusts to read it, is his former student, Kyle Broder.
 
But Kyle is busy with his new Rockstar author client and frankly, a little underwhelmed when he takes his first glimpse at a few pages.
 
Things start to become more and more strange in Kyle’s view as he tries to figure out how to maintain his job, his relationship and handle the professor.  It’s just a matter of in which direction things will go off the rails.

​THE END
 
The whole time I was reading this I could see a great setup for a series.  I also kept picturing the story running in my head as a Tales from the Crypt or Twilight Zone episode.  There was a special craft to the way this particular book was written and the way it pulls you in.  This is definitely worth getting.  It won’t take you long to get to the good stuff and it’s a fast read.
 
RATINGS 
 
5/5 Stars

​More About the Author:
 
Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels THE DESIRE CARD, THE MENTOR, and SLOW DOWN. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. The second book in the Desire Card series, PREY NO MORE, is forthcoming in 2020, along with his first Sci-Fi novel ORANGE CITY. His new endeavor will be as the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Fringe Press and Fringe Digital, dedicated to publishing fiction that’s outside-of-the-box. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Book Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in the anthology DIRTY BOULEVARD, The Millions, Cagibi, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series and lives in New York City. Follow him at leematthewgoldberg.com. 

Bullets, Teeth and Fists 3 is a fantastic collection of everything, something for every kind of horror fanatic.  Every twisted tale careful crafted to lure you in and keep you there, holding you hostage amongst the words, your only escape is the satisfaction of getting to the end and finding out what lies in store.  And as that sense of relief sets in, the very next piece of fiction takes you for another morbid ride.
 
I was a little bummed when I found out this was the third book in the series and I was just hearing about it.  After reading this one, I am DEFINITELY going to want to get the first two, without a doubt.  This author, Jason Beech, has his own style which incorporates the best qualities of horror and fiction.  He doesn’t always give you the answer, sometimes he lets your wheels spin…and perhaps, sometimes, it’s better to not know what happens past a certain point.
 
One thing I want to say that just kept rattling around in my head as I was reading through this book was how much it seemed like an adult version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.  While certainly not all campfire type stories, they do have a certain ebb and flow as you move swiftly through the pages.  I found it to be fun and refreshing, not to mention a very enjoyable approach to horror writing.  I am quite the lover of short horror stories and I certainly love whole collections and series done by individual authors.  I think it’s because you get to see the vast imagination of the author while they still stay within one genre.  Yes, it takes a lot of skill to bring an entire novel to fruition but, to create a collection of short stories and have them be a strong representative sample of the immense talent along the horror spectrum that you, as the author, possess, I find that to be quite an accomplishment as well.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars
 
Buy Bullets, Teeth and Fists 3 HERE
 
You can buy any Jason’s work from Amazon and read his work at Spelk Fiction, Shotgun Honey, Close to the Bone, The Flash Fiction Offensive, Punk Noir Magazine, Punk Noir, and Pulp Metal Magazine.
 
Website: jdbeech.wordpress.com
 
Twitter: @beech_jason
 
Facebook: Messy Business

Thanks to the gracious and wonderful people at Blackthorn Book Tours, I was afforded the opportunity to read what I consider to be an amazing piece of writing with genius spread all the way through.
 
In the book Hot Splices, we get a glimpse into the other side of life as a film student and/or film junkie…addict, if you will.  This story brings to life a belief and faith in a group of Film Gods, their impact on the students of film, the makers of film and the actual filming material itself.
 
Throughout the entire book there are a multitude of film references.  Some are obvious and most anyone could pick up on.  Others are more obscure and require a little more attention.  Either way, the amount of film knowledge possessed by the author is astounding.  As I said, some of the film references are very easy to get, others are like little Easter Eggs hidden within the text of the novel.  
 
And here’s something very different.  I found this little tidbit to be quite fascinating.  These film students, past and present, all gather in a communal house called The Tower.  Each generation kind of has their own space, you could say.  But what they all use this particular space for…is Flixing.  Flixing is when they take one single frame of film and suck on it.  When they do that the chemicals from the frame melt into their bodies and they start kind of “tripping” in a way, like LSD, except that in their trip, they are part of the movie they are sucking on.  They can pick certain scenes from movies and live them, in a way.  Now, just like with any serious drug use, there are sign that these people are taking the flixing to a whole new level.  They all get these marks on their bodies, like the perforated edges of movie film on those big rolls that theaters use.  Those perforation marks on their bodies are like the track marks of the addicts of flixing.
 
Plus, we even have film mythology.  This was an incredible part of the story to me because it was like the glue that pulled everything together.  This was also where the curiosity and mystery lie in the story.  There’s a set of films, included in this set is a probable snuff film.  The filmmaker has been long gone but, the myth still lives on.  That myth being that if you watch this set of films in a particular order it will induce psychosis and everyone viewing will freak out and become killers.  Totally a fantastic idea for a horror novel, maybe even a movie…?
 
Then, there’s the vivid descriptions of the violence and the sexual encounters, the descriptions of the flixing trips, it’s all so bright and shocking, jaw dropping at some points, at others you feel the fear and suspense pulling you into the pages of the story, as if the text can reach out and grab you by the back of the neck and drag you into the page.
 
Some of the violence is totally gnarly and at times, it’s even intertwined with very tantalizing sexual encounters.  These encounters are written in a very visual way, as any good writer should be able to do, yet, at the same time, they have a very technological, scientific, astrological type imagery that is created.  But, believe me, the sex is done is a classy way to where it’s still hot and steamy but also incorporates the horror aspect in a spectacular way as to make you get the full film going experience but, completely in text form.
 
All of this builds to an ultimately dramatic ending, wickedly and vividly described with spellbinding excitement and action laced with raw animalistic emotion.  
 
Truly in a class of its own, Hot Splices has successfully SPLICED itself into my memory and will stay there for a long, long time.  I even think it’s one of those books that you can definitely read a second or third time and probably pick up on things you may have missed previously.  So, well worth the read.  Mike Watt has taken what could have been just simple subject matter and catapulted it into a realm of deep complexity and sinister dreams.  I would highly recommend this to any film lover and to any horror lover, for the two are rarely combined so well.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars
 
Big thanks to Blackthorn Book Tours and Mike Watt!

Visit Mike Watt at the following sites:
mikewatt.me
www.happycloudpublishing.com

Buy Hot Splices Here

​Visit Blackthorn Book Tours Here

Okay, I have to be totally honest with you guys and tell you that I about lost it when Billy Hanson contacted me and asked me if I would like to review his book.  In case you guys aren’t aware, Billy Hanson wrote two of the Grimm Tales of Terror issues in volume four this past year.  He wrote The Wyoming Incident and The War of the Worlds.  Two very excellent issues.  What was really cool is somehow he saw my reviews of those issues and then hit me up through my website to see if I would be interested in his book, Spider Season.  Ummm, HELL YEAH!!!!
 
SO, here I am about to tell you about this book.  First, it is a collection of short stories, all written by Hanson himself.  As you all know, I love short horror stories.  And I was beyond thrilled when one of the writers from my all-time favorite comic book series contacted me to let me know he had put a book together of his own short stories.  Hanson is truly talented and I feel like this collection of horror tales highlights his love for both short stories and the horror genre itself.
 
Here we have ten short stories, three of them are even actually screenplays, which was something new, fun and different.  I don’t usually read screenplays so, it gave a different feel to those three stories.  You got more of an idea how they would be viewed as a movie rather than only what you create in your own imagination.  It was kinda cool to have a different format for the a few of the stories.
 
While there were a few stories that I considered REALLY good, the entire collection was fantastic and fun to read. Each story is unique and fascinating.  There’s practically something for everybody.  That’s one of the reasons I love collections of short stories so much.  One tale, titled ‘The Clearing’ was a spectacular story of suspense and tension.  Another one called ‘She Was Perfect’ was a PERFECT 10/10 on the creep-o-meter.  He’s got another one entitled ‘Paris with the Lights Turned Low’ which is a fabulous revenge/whodunnit tale.  And there’s even one that is fairly realistic according to my true crime shows, the story titled ‘Music from the Gun Room’.
 
It’s obvious that Hanson has a love for short horror stories.  As you flip through each page, the words jump out at you, grab you by ears and pull you along for the terrifying ride.  Hanson is not only a writer but also a filmmaker, projects ranging from music videos to comics to books to films and more, including the acclaimed adaptation of Stephen King story 'Survivor Type'.  The man has got some skills people.  If you get the opportunity, you really should grab this book.  It reads very quickly and the stories are even somewhat reminiscent of the classic The Twilight Zone episodes.
 
You can get your copy HERE.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

​Written by Pulitzer Prize winner Raymond Bonner, this book is the heart wrenching description of a true crime AND a true miscarriage of justice.  By telling each part of the case in full, from beginning to end, it is plainly and irrefutably shown that our justice system is far from perfect.  This is truly one of those cases that is so wild it’s almost incomprehensible.
 
In January, 1984, Dorothy Ely Edwards, an elderly white woman was found brutally raped and murdered in her home.  She had been stuffed in her own bedroom closet after her death.  The man convicted for the murder was Edward Lee Elmore.  Elmore was a mentally challenged black man who had no history of violence at all.  He had done odd jobs here and there for Ms. Edwards, simple home repairs, yard work, etc.  The only evidence directly placing Elmore at the crime scene, linking him to the crime scene period, was a regular latent fingerprint in an area away from the crime scene in the bedroom and found at a normal point of entry of the house for Mr. Elmore to have used.  So, this fingerprint is entirely circumstantial, at best.

The rest of the evidence included pubic hairs ripped from the assailant during the sexual assault, blood on Elmore’s clothes and a fingerprint under the toilet seat in the bedroom bathroom adjacent to the room where the crime was believed to have taken place.  They did find blood matching the victim on Elmore’s pants.  But none of this evidence proved Elmore’s guilt.  In fact, when looked at objectively, it exonerates him more than it incriminates him.
 
First, there was a lot of controversy over the pubic hairs that were found at the scene.  The was a debate over how many hairs there were, this piece of information even being contradicted on the stand by the State’s own witnesses.  Plus, there was no DNA from the pubic hairs presented at trial, making their only probative value the technician’s conclusion that they came from an African-American male.  Next, the fingerprint under the toilet seat in the master bathroom didn’t match Elmore.  And the blood on his pants, was such a small amount that he could have possibly been wearing those pants when he committed the crime if he was the assailant.  The amount of brutality and violence unleashed upon Ms. Edwards was so horrific that blood would have been everywhere, all over his clothes, his body, his face, his hair, some would have even managed to find its way into places like inside the rim of his shoes or glasses if he was wearing glass, inside the band of a watch.  And yet, all they found were some small blood drops, tiny ones.
 
Even though the District Attorney had a weak case against Elmore they still decided to take it to trial anyway.  The prosecutor was extremely overzealous in his pursuit of convicting Edward Elmore.  Not only did they go to trial with this piddly little fingerprint on the other side of the house, to which the defense could have said that fingerprint got there any of the times at which he had worked for her or when he had stopped by a few days before to pick up a check for payment for a job he’d done.  But it gets worse.
 
The prosecutor, the judge and even Elmore’s own defense attorney were all VERY close during the whole proceeding.  The defense attorney rarely questioned witnesses, if any.  He repeatedly showed up to court inebriated.  The defense attorney’s biggest concern seemed to be getting the trial over with as quickly as possible with having to do as little work as possible.  This is not only vital but, dangerous for the outcome of this case.  The fact that your defense team isn’t working to defend you…that’s a freakin’ problem!!!  Nothing was done to contest Elmore’s mental capacity to stand trial and it was clear when he was on the stand, he didn’t fully understand everything that was being said or going on.  And as the attorney badgered him, it was like is defense lawyer was taking a nap because he was hung over.
 
So, needless to say, at the first trial, Elmore was found guilty.  He was also sentenced to death.
 
With every death penalty sentence comes an automatic appeal.  Elmore and his family were hoping this would be their chance to get the truth out that Edward did not commit this terrible crime.  Unfortunately, even though he was granted the saving grace of a second trial, it was an exact repeat of the first, almost down to the letter. This resulted in another conviction and another appeal.  A third trial ensued.  Yet another carbon copy of the first two trials with a conviction and death sentence to follow.
 
No new evidence was presented at any of these trials.  The defense did no extra leg work to try to get ahead in the second or third trials.  The prosecution repeated exactly everything they had in each trial and they had come out on top every time.  And the judge made it clear on the record that he held a biased position on the matter.