​This book is a collection of short stories sent to me by the most awesome people ever at Blackthorn Book Tours.  There are eighteen stories in this collection.  They are ALL horror, thriller and suspense type stories.  They are put together kind of like an anthology, which I always like.
 
Here is the blurb for the book:
 
Nightmare Asylum – Despised by day, tortured by night. A midwifery student’s life disintegrates into a terrifying nightmare, after a disturbing encounter with the notorious child killer, Evelyn Green. Dark secrets from Lydia’s past unleash a truth that conjures her fears into unspeakable horror.
 
Other Deadly Delights – Tales from the psychotically unsound and deadly deluded. A stalker turns serial killer; a cleaning lady is imprisoned in the basement, there’s a prophetic warning for a woman in peril, and an android with love addiction, plus many more… a deliciously dangerous collection of short stories, ranging from psychological horror to paranormal, sci-fi and noir.
 
Dare you enter the nightmare Asylum?
 
I like the fact that it is a COLLECTION of short stories, rather than a full novel.  It makes it easier to read, like when a book is broken up into chapters.  So, keeping in mind that it was in such format, I decided to rate each story individually and then take the average of those ratings for the overall book rating.  I figured that would be a completely fair way of evaluating the book.
 
But, before we get to the ratings, I want to point out a couple of things.  First of all, in a larger collection of stories like this, you get such a variety of content.  I want to say that’s one of the best things about this particular collection.  Some of the stories read like journal entries, some were hair raising and chilling, some were mildly creepy but still fun to read.  There was only one story out of the whole collection that got a 1-star rating.  I’d say that’s pretty good.
 
One of my favorite stories that I would like to highlight is the first one, Nightmare Asylum.  This was a truly haunting and chilling tale.  It’s full to the brim with madness, anger and confusion.  So much so that those very emotions and feelings are very real to the reader and beyond just palpable.  This piece actually reminded me of the Masters of Horror TV episodes that have been on cable here and there.  It is amazingly written and quite a page turner.  Exceptional vocabulary was used in this creation and it really adds to the heft and depth of the story.  The vivid descriptions and emotional context put the reader right in the thick of what is happening.
 
Another excellent creepy concoction was Cry Baby.  This rated VERY high on the creep-o-meter scale.  The psychopathology expressed in this little bite of terror is incredibly detailed leaving you to able to conclude nothing but the fact that this main character is nothing other than a truly disturbed and troubled individual…and that’s putting it VERY nicely.
 
So, here’s how the ratings broke down:
 
There were five stories that got 5/5.
Two stories got 4/5.
Three got 3/5.
Six stories got a 2/5 (keep in mind that THIS count includes a two-part story set.
Only one story got 1/5.
 
This gave me a total of 53/90 which is an average of 3/5 stars.
 
I would totally recommend this to short horror story lovers.  Again, the beauty of this collection is that you can read in short bursts and not have to remember what carries over in the plot because you can easily finish one or two stories in a sitting.
 
I really respect and like how the author wasn’t afraid to try new things in the story lines.  It feels like the writer really searched themselves for some good ol’ fashioned horror and managed to not only keep it classic but also add a splash of modernism, which nicely rounded things out.  I hope you all enjoy this horror collection as much as I did, or better yet, more than I did!

About the author:
 
Sonia Kilvington
 
Bio: Sonia Kilvington is a journalist and fiction writer from the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus. She has published many articles, travel features, short stories and interviews in glossy magazines. She loves to write dark and disturbing short stories in genres such as noir, crime, ghost and Sci-fi. Her online writing credits include Out of the Gutter Online, Spelk fiction, Pulp Metal Magazine & Near to the Knuckle. Her new short story collection, Nightmare Asylum & Other Deadly Delights - published by Close To The Bone, is available on Amazon.
 
Links:
 
Website: https://soniakilvingtonwriter.com/
 
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sonia-Kilvington/e/B005FDXFQS/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
 
FB writer’s page: https://www.facebook.com/soniafiction/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Soniacyprus   (@Soniacyprus)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-kilvington-26b2b721/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soniakilvington/?hl=en
 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898959.Sonia_Kilvington
 Contact email: soniawriter@hotmail.co.uk
 
Amazon book links for Nightmare Asylum & Other Deadly Delights:
 
Amazon.co.uk.https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nightmare-Asylum-other-Deadly-Delights-ebook/dp/B083R5YMX2/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Nightmare+Asylum&qid=1578909796&s=books&sr=1-5

Amazon.com https://www.amazon.com/Nightmare-Asylum-other-Deadly-Delights-ebook/dp/B083R5YMX2/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=nightmare+asylum&qid=1578910007&s=books&sr=1-5
 
 
 
RATINGS
3/5 Stars

I have to begin by stating that I am quickly becoming a true lover of this Blackthorn Book Tour that I have become a part of.  I am getting access to some incredible pieces of work that I would otherwise probably never have found, seeing as how I never really look for fiction when I go to buy books.
 
This novel was sent to me to review for the tour.  Now, you guys know I am always honest about my reviews, so don’t think that because it’s part of this tour project I am a member of that every book will get a glowing review.  The thing is, they just haven’t sent me a book I didn’t enjoy yet.  I wonder if they ever will because the works I get the opportunity to read are pretty damn good on a consistent basis.
 
In this story, we have all the makings of a great murder mystery.  There’s money, murder, lies and deceit, police detectives, family is involved, romance.  I mean, talk about encompassing the whole kit-n-kaboodle.
 
So much happens in this story, it’s going to be hard to give you an overview without giving anything away.  So, here is the blurb that made me want to read this book:
 
“Six months after a drug cartel infiltrated Charleston, Ronan McCullough continues to fight the drug war that plagues the city. His investigations are halted when the body of a mutual acquaintance, Sarah Gilmore, is found in the trunk of a burning car. In an investigation that takes him deep into the professional and personal life of the victim, McCullough discovers secrets lurking in her past, and a tangled web of personal and professional conflicts, suspicion, and betrayal. Was Sarah killed for those reasons or something larger? As Ronan seeks answers, his life and the lives of those closest to him are used as pawns in a deadly game that has no ending.”
 
So, who’s interested now????
 
This book was a real page turner, I have to admit.  It certainly wasn’t one of those that I was trying to get through that seemed like it was going on forever.  There’s so many little details and major happenings, so many little twists and turns that you are on the edge of your seat frantically flipping pages.  Reading this novel ACTUALLY proved to me that I have started to read faster than when I first began my website of reviews.
 
Now, I’m not going to tell you much about the story because I think the blurb says a lot and I don’t, actually I refuse, to spoil this story for you before you get the chance to read it.  So, I will tell you a little about the characters first.
 
Ronan McCullough is a Detective.  He lives at home with his nephew, a teenager named Nick.  Accompanying them in their family home is the love of Ronan’s life, Ty Andino.  Ty works as an ER nurse and sees just as much horror in is line of work as Ronan sees in his own.  Nick is a typical teenager who is quickly falling in love with a beautiful young lady named Ashley.
 
Life is perfectly normal for the loving family.  Until Nick happens upon a dead body while out riding his bicycle.  He was on his way to a girl’s house to try to get the gumption to go knock on her door and talk to her.  However, he had passed her house multiple times and still couldn’t summon the courage he needed, so he was just riding around trying to pump himself up with a pep talk.  That’s when he found the dead body.
 
Immediately he was a suspect, but with his father being a member of the department, the badgering quickly subsided when a Detective Seam Carter intervenes and tells the patrolman to ease up and back off.  I mean the kid DID just found a dead body.  He was more than a little unnerved by it.
 
Soon, lines are being drawn between the found victim and various people throughout the city, including Ronan’s life partner, Ty.
 
There’s also this independent company that specializes in forensics.  They are desperately determined to get the city to sign a contract with them thus employing them to process all forensic evidence in investigations rather than the city crime lab.  This is a big opportunity for the company, called BTech.  This is a contract that could generate millions in revenue.
 
But suspicions start to be raised when the investigation of Sarah Gilmore, our dead body, and her death start leading the Detectives all over the place.  It seems everyone is affected or involved in one way or another.
 
And then the threats start.  It’s never good to threaten a cop’s family.  Just a tip.  Loved ones are threatened, people are hurt, people are kidnapped.  Things are frantically spinning out of control.
 
Now, the race is on.  Find the murderer. Keep his family safe.  Solve the case.  It’s almost like you’d need a SuperCop do get all that accomplished.
 
If you like detective stories, murder mysteries, violence and suspense…this is a MUST HAVE for you to get yourself immediately.

Here’s a little about the author whose creativity put this fantastic book together.
 
Eliot Parker is the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. His novel Code for Murder was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. He is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. He recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.
 
Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and Blog Talk Radio. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches English at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.
 
Facebook: eliot.parker.98
 
Twitter: E4419

Instagram: eliot.parker
Website: http://www.eliotparker.com
 
Please feel free to visit his social media and website to see what else he is working on and has in store for us.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

Check out the rest of the reviews on this book by visiting these websites:

The Night Police
Beyond the Line of Duty
By Chris Berg and Paul James Smith
 
As the direct child of a former police officer, this book was almost like a small flashback to my childhood.  While it wasn’t a special fraternity of cops that was over at my childhood home practically every other weekend, I did grow up with a small group of five to seven cops that were on my Dad’s crew around A LOT.  Dad was Crew Chief and so Crew Parties, lol, were at our house.  So, I have a unique perspective in reading this book.  I’m going to try to share that with you.  This book was written by two former police officers, so, if you will, try to imagine the following:
 
You have a group of cops, small group, say…five to ten guys, max.  They are all very close.  The work together side by side every day and have for years.  When cops get close like this, they have certain ways they interact with each other OUTSIDE of the precinct.  
 
One of these ways is something that has long been referred to as “Choir Practice”.  Choir Practice is the cop slang for when the guys from the squad get together and go out drinking after shift.  Inevitably, during such meetings and certainly over an ice-cold beer or two, they unload the stresses of the day on each other, tell stories about previous calls or stops, tell cop jokes and try to unwind from the stress of the job before they go home to their families.
 
So, picture these guys, some newer to the force, some veterans of the department, all getting together to drink and tell their kind of war stories.
 
That’s basically what this book is.  Now, I found it a great read because, like I said, it took me back to my childhood.  Some stories you only hear once.  Some, like the really good ones, you get told to you over and over again.  Cops have a certain sense of humor but they also have their own language at times, and that shows in this book.
 
Most of what I read came off as very realistic, although I do feel like, because of things I know from being raised around cops, that some things may have been dramatized for effect.  Which isn’t really abnormal, now is it?
 
I liked the stories because they do sound like legitimate cop stories, similar to the things I grew up hearing.  The portrayal of the police in this book is fairly accurate to what I grew up with.  While not all of what is in this book are things the cops I knew did, they did tell stories that strike similar chords.
 
I really enjoyed reading this book.  I thought it was fun and a trip back to my childhood.  I recognize that the language in this book hasn’t been soften for the average civilian.  That doesn’t matter to me or bother me.  I heard all kinds of things growing up.  But I thought the style and presentation of the stories had an excellent transition instead of just listing the stories out one by one, with no connective tissue to help you get to know the storytellers themselves.  This would have been a book that I think my father would have really liked and I plan on getting a copy for his best friend and old partner on the job, because I still talk to those cops I grew up with.  It’s a family.  Just like the military.  You never lose those bonds.
 
RATINGS
4.5/5 Stars

​This was a book I got from Blackthorn Book Tours.  I gotta tell you, they have access to some pretty incredible authors.  This is the second book by Goldberg that I have read in the last three months.  He does NOT disappoint.  Ever.
 
This is the blurb that enticed me to read the book:
 
How far would you go to make your dreams come true? For budding writer and filmmaker Noah Spaeth, being a Production Assistant in director Dominick Bambach’s new avant-garde film isn’t enough. Neither is watching Dominick have an affair with the lead actress, the gorgeous but troubled Nevie Wyeth. For Noah’s dream is to get both the film and Nevie in the end, whatever the cost. And this obsession may soon become a reality once Dominick’s spurned wife Isadora reveals her femme fatale nature with a seductive plot to get rid of her husband for good. Slow Down, a cross between the noir styling of James M. Cain and the dark satire of Bret Easton Ellis, is a thrilling page-turner that holds a mirror up to a media-saturated society that is constantly searching for the fastest way to get ahead, regardless of consequences.
 
***(We don't yet have an Amazon buy link yet as this is a re-release.)***

1. Main character with a drive to make their dream come true
2. That dream will come at ANY cost, no limits, no holds barred, no one is safe
3. Multiple love triangles
4. Murder
5. Jealousy

 

I loved this book.  I am quickly becoming a fan of Lee Matthew Goldberg.  He truly has a way of not only pulling things together and building a story, but he can also manage to make almost every page in the book a necessity to read, because you don’t want to miss a thing.  And honestly, it’s almost as if each page holds some little piece of important information that is critical to the story.
 
The suspense is spectacular and, at some points, leaving you with this feeling of “Wait…what? What happens? Turn the page! Turn the page!  Quickly!”, like if you don’t you ARE going to miss out on something killer in the story.
 
Personally, I really liked the Noah character.  I think Goldberg did a fantastic job creating this person and bringing him to life.  He’s so relatable.  He’s raw and vulnerable.  And he’s hungry for his success.  That brings a lot to the story.  If it weren’t for Noah, the very lifeblood of the entire plot would be exsanguinated.  He’s the reason you keep reading.  You want to know what he does next, what happens next, is he okay, how he feels. He’s truly a massive character.
 
There’s much more in the story that is absolutely intriguing and strange and weird in such a wonderfully entertaining way, I just don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

Hippie Cult Leader The Last Words of Charles Manson
By James Buddy Day
​ 
This was an interesting read.  The author of this book was in touch with Manson during the last year of his life. He has personal contact with Manson via email and phone calls.  So much so that even during a holiday dinner the author stopped eating to take a call from Charlie.
 
There is certainly some new information in this book.  It is extremely well written and from a different perspective than what we normally get.  This is what Charlie says, not what others say about him.  And it’s different from other Manson books because it’s like he knows he’s dying so he is just going to tell everything and let it ride.  Not like they could do anything else to him.
 
The author has also taken a lot of time to find various former Manson Family members and cultivate professional relationships with these people in order to get the real story, as he hears it.  He spent time talking to people like Manson himself and other family members or friends of the family, extensively.  It obviously took a lot of time to compile all of this information.
 
There’s a lot of behind the scenes kind of information about the trials and strategies, plea deals, paroles, politics, the family, witnesses.  Day really delves into the mystery of Manson head first and comes up with a lot of excellent information that pulls a lot of things together.  You even get Charlie’s perception of the Helter Skelter trial and subsequent trials on other charges.
 
This book also puts a new light on Linda Kasabian and her testimony.  We’ve always been told her testimony was key to the Helter Skelter trial.  At the same time, the book highlights mischaracterizations of various people like Bobby Beausolei and even Manson himself.
 
Additionally, this book covers everything from Charlie’s version of the Tate/LaBianca trial to Charlie’s prison mentality.  We also hear from Charlie himself his own definitions of certain words and relationships, like “friends”.  We even read about cons Charlie runs while in prison after the Tate/LaBianca verdict.
 
It is rare that I find a book or documentary about Charles Manson where I find out new information.  So often they all contain the same old material, over and over.  This is different.  Like I said, it’s like the mask has come off because Charlie knows he’s dying and he wants people to know who he really thinks he is…what he thinks he is.
 
Truly a fantastic book full of information, amazement and even a little amusement too.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

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