Bedtime Tales of Horror: The Curse of Miley
By Bradley Poage
 
Here, my good friends, is what I would deem a shining example of what a short horror story should be.  A wonderful little piece of entertainment that is well-rounded, complete and leaves the reader with a feeling of satisfaction AND anticipation.  Gripping and suspenseful, this tale will snatch your attention and have you enthralled, from the first paragraph to the very last.
 
One of the challenges with a horror short is deciding how much detail to include, what to give to the reader and what to remove from the story to fit a desired length, all while somehow manufacturing a cohesive story that is not only interesting but also one that the reader can visualize in their own imagination.  Trying to communicate what is in your head to someone else AND have them understand it AND GET IT…well, that’s not always easy.  Even harder when trying to create a masterful tale of terror that only takes up a few pages.  And Poage has done it with this production of a well written and well-balanced piece of horror.
 
Although consistent with what I have come to expect of Poage and his writing, this tragic tale of woe goes above and beyond the chilling joys of many of the previous works of his that I have read.  As soon as I began to read this tasty little devilish snack, I was so engrossed I could not put it down until I was done reading.  And the great thing about Poage’s short stories…they are actually genuine short stories.  So, it was only a few pages, a few minutes and a small break from the horror of my reality to the hell of someone else’s.
 
There is just enough explained that you know what is happening and can follow the plot.  However, there isn’t so much extra detail that we get bogged down in seemingly innocuous details or taken for a ride on the author’s drug induced tangent of some sort that makes no sense and has nothing to do with anything at all.
 
In this apprehensive anecdote everything centers around a beloved childhood toy.  A ventriloquist dummy named Miley Smiles.  (I mean, geez, just the name of the damn doll is creepy as hell, right?!)  A simple toy for a simple person in a simple tale that will send chills down your spine and make hairs on your arm stand up.
 
All of that finished off with an ending that is, in my humble opinion, rather genius.  It leaves the door wide open for the reader’s imagination, pushing you to go in, pulling your mind in all directions of thought.  Yet the ending is totally and utterly complete.  In theory, it’s like one of those really good horror films that has that one ending where it concludes the movie and the film could be a stand-alone if they left it that way OR they could totally make a sequel with the way they left it open.  I like these kinds of endings because, as the reader, you get to participate in writing the story a bit for yourself.  You decide what happens after a certain point OR you decide to leave it as the author left it.  It’s perfect to play with and a lot of fun.
 
I have to say that any of my fellow horror lovers would dig this and dare I say, even some readers that like short stories in general.  As well as this one flows, it’s hard to imagine someone not liking it.
 
To read for yourself you can get your own copy at the Amazon link below:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JHQLGJV/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+Curse+of+Miley&qid=1600573916&sr=8-1
 
RATINGS 
5/5 Stars

​Blood and Ink: Love Can Be Cold
By Bradley Poage
 
This is a new series from the same author as Bedtime Tales of Horror.  You remember, those short stories in three book collections that I loved so much?  Yes, THAT author.  I’m telling you this guy has some skills.
 
This is the tale of a unique tattoo shop with an artist that has a very special talent.  One that can definitely make or break a tattoo for the client.
 
In this story, our client is an insistent and anxious young lady, who is just dying to get a tattoo b this man.  A friend of hers got one from this artist and well, Jenna just fell in love with it.  So, she wants her own ink piece done by Michael.
 
But Michael does things differently than most tattoo artists.  He doesn’t use a stencil or a ThermoFax machine.  He doesn’t apply a line drawing of the image to the skin first to use as a guide.  He draws every design freestyle, by hand, straight from his mind to tattoo gun to human flesh.  To him, he’s finding the story of their skin.  But he’s not searching for just their particular story, he’s looking for their particular fate.
 
THE END
 
I felt this short story was a fantastic read.  It read so quickly it was as if the words were jumping off the page at me, grabbing my attention with practically every syllable.  In addition to a quick and fluid pace, there is an immediate sense of impending doom and intense anxiousness that, at the beginning, you just can’t quite put your finger on.  But you know it’s there.
 
And I mean this tattoo artist is no joke.  He even gives a different disclaimer than regular tattoo artists, telling them he doesn’t do custom designs or custom art.  Then he tells her something like let’s see what your skin has to tell.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME???  Total red flag girlie, but noooo.  She wants a tattoo.  Friend did it.  She should do it.  (The stupidity of youthful logic.)  And still, the artist gives her a calm and stiff warning that Jenna fails to heed.  Soon her lack of recognition of her animal instincts will prove to her just exactly why they are there in the first place.
 
I found this short story to be incredibly and eerily entertaining.  An awesome story with an intensity throughout that tugs at your nerves and pries at your curiosity.  Capturing the reader from the start, a spectacular delivery building up to a superb ending, ensures the readers complete and total satisfaction.  With smooth transitions and well timed dark levity, horror lovers are sure to become engrossed within the first few moments.  And void of any awkward breaks or structure issues i the material, the author allows the story to build up naturally in the imagination of the reader.  Utilizing some classic tidbits with bold new twists, transforming the text into fresh and creative material.  Poage is an excellent author with a very vivid imagination and a true talent for transferring that creativity from his brain to his manuscript.  A definite must read for ALL horror lovers!
 
To read for yourself sign up at http://www.channillo.com/ and search for 
​Bradley Poage and/or Blood and Ink.
 

I always like story collections.  I like that you get many different stories, conclusions and such a multitude of emotional roller coaster rides as you go through each story, as if you are living out the experience yourself.  
 
In this book, a collection of stories sent to me by Blackthorn Book Tours, there are thirteen stories compiled.  They range from murder mystery to an almost ghostly type of science fiction horror.
 
Here is the blurb:
 
“The moon has always been with us -- tempting us, enticing us, and enthralling us through the ages. Here you'll find thirteen stories involving this heavenly body -- sometimes tragic, magical, and other times mysterious, or horrific, but always, memorable.
Contributors include both veteran and first-time authors alike, and hail from around the world, including the United States, India, United Kingdom, and Greece. The collection was compiled and edited by Laura Seeber.”
https://www.amazon.com/Moonlit-Dreams-Nightmares-Anthology-ebook/dp/B087CD1YFK/
 
I rated this collection the way I have rated others, by taking the average of the ratings of ALL stories put together.  So, I score each story individually and then take the average of those ratings to get the final full book rating.  I find this to be the fairest way to judge a book like this.
 
Now, I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone so, no spoilers here.  I will say that while I liked this book, it should be noted that some patience will be required for this reading material.  I don’t say that because the stories are boring.  No.  I say that because there isn’t forefront action on the first page of every story.  While some of the stories do start right off with the horror roller coaster ride, not all of them do.  Some tales read more like novellas rather than an actual short story.
 
One thing about this collection that surprised me was that several stories had somewhat vague or cliffhanger type endings.  What makes this such an advantage is that the reader gets to create any ending they want for themselves.  Some endings were surprisingly not what I had expected.  And some of the stories and endings don’t follow the typical rules of horror.
 
All in all, I thought this was a well-rounded collection.  No collection will ever please every person with every story.  But this anthology was a nice, even mix of everything.  For me personally, my two favorite stories were The First Victims Club and The Experiment.
 
RATINGS
3.5/5 Stars
 

Here’s a little information on each author included in this horror collection:
 
Laura Seeber (“To Make a Violin”)
Laura Seeber actually performed double duty on this anthology, acting both as a contributor and editor (so any typo complaints- send her way!). When she’s not writing horror, mystery, or dark science fiction, she spends her time divided between her young son and husband, her freelance writing business, and Antimony and Elder Lace Press.
 
Todd Taylor (“The Experiment”)
Todd Taylor teaches high school ELA, Creative Writing, and Theater in an inner-city Memphis-area School. His short story, “The Experiment,” was published by Laura Seeber in the summer of 2019 in an anthology called, Moonlit Dreams / Moonlit Nightmares. He has also written a play for his theater class that is being performed at 3 different high schools, and has 2 completed novels he is looking to publish. When Todd is not writing, he spends his time coaching track and field, playing guitar in a local band, woodworking, performing weddings / funerals, or relaxing with Sudoku.
 
Shaun Avery (“The First Victims Club”)
Shaun Avery writes fiction in a number of different mediums, normally with a dark or satirical slant, and often both at once. “The First Victims Club” comes from questions raised by watching horror movies. A LOT of horror movies. He also loves comics, and has co-created a self-published one, more details of which can be found here: http://www.comicsy.co.uk/dbroughton/store/products/spectre-show/
Unsurprisingly, this is also a horror.
 
A.P. Sessler (“The Sound of Stars”)
A resident of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, A.P. frequents an alternate universe not too different from your own, searching for that unique element that twists the everyday commonplace into the weird. When he’s not writing fiction, he composes music, makes art, and spends too much time trying to connect with his inner genius.
His first novel House of the Goat came out in January. It’s an homage to the Satanic Panic genre of the ’70s-’80s. https://www.amazon.com/House-Goat-P-Sessler/dp/1945940735
 
Lori Tiron-Pandit (“Receiving Room”)
Lori Tiron-Pandit is a writer, editor, and Web communication professional. Her work celebrates women’s lives and work, of both mystical and mundane significance, as well as their ancestral and contemporary imprint on the world. Growing up with the “great” “classics” of literature, all men, only very late did she realize that the male perspective was not all there was, that it was skewed and small, and it ignored women’s views. Her work is rooted in the worlds of women she’s been lucky to cross paths with.
https://www.loritironpandit.com/
 
Thomas Vaughn (“A Consultation by Moonlight”)
Thomas Vaughn is an author of literary horror and dark magical realism. He came from the debris field of rural Arkansas where he persists in uncertainty. When he is not writing fiction, he poses as a college professor whose research focuses on apocalyptic rhetoric. For him fiction serves as a tool to mediate the terrible reality that encompasses all humanity. These works represent his clumsy efforts to seek awareness in the face of a stillborn universe. And so, he pulses, waiting for a reply in the void.
https://www.brokentransmitter.com/about
 
Cara Fox (“Anamnesis”)
Cara Fox is an English author trying to write her way out of the dark. She favors steampunk, horror and Gothic romance, but you can find her anywhere that the stories sink their claws into you and the wine flows freely. Her work has been published by Tales To Terrify, Empyreome, Broadswords & Blasters and Horror Addicts, amongst others, and she is working on her debut novel, The Strange Case of Doctor Magorian.
 
Parineeta Singh (“A Visitation”)
Parineeta Singh currently lives in Delhi, India, and has earned a Ph. D in Creative Writing from the University of Surrey, as well as a Master’s Degree in the same field from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her work has appeared in many international magazines and anthologies, and we’re thrilled to have her talent showcased here as well.
 
Dawn J. Stevens (“When the Moon is Full”)
Dawn Juniper Stevens is the fiction pen name for Kara Kelso. She has been writing short stories and poetry for nearly 30 years, with the past 20 years spent writing an assortment of business, hobby, and nonfiction articles for a variety of businesses, websites, and projects. There aren’t too many types of writing she hasn’t dabbled in at least once, but fiction remains her favorite. “Kira’s Tale: Descend into Darkness” was released in 2013 and is currently available on Amazon.
In her spare time, she enjoys mostly non-fiction books for their source of education and learning from another’s beautiful experience, as well as spending time with family and children. She also enjoys sustainable gardening, music with soul, real life magic, and simply being surrounded by nature. She lives in the Midwest.
 
For news and updates, find Dawn J. Stevens on both Facebook and Twitter.
https://dawnstevensfiction.wordpress.com/about/
 
Jesse Moak (“One Stormy Night”)
Jesse Moak is a lifetime writer and dreamer who has been perfecting his craft and pursuing the dream of becoming a professional writer for some time. When he isn’t actively searching for an agent or writing other stories, he spends his time exploring his other passion of retro gaming at his blog retrorevelations.blogspot.com
 
Jamie Ryder (“Eleventh Hour”)
Jamie Ryder is a short story writer and pop culture content creator from Manchester, England. His short stories and poetry have been published by Hyperion and Theia, Colp, EastLit Magazine, AEL Press and more. You can find his other work on The Comic Vault, Yamato Magazine and The Rum Ration.
 
Sarah Walker (“Phosphene”)
Sarah Walker is an author and mixed media artist who currently lives in Lebanon Oregon. When she isn’t busy writing, she spends her time creating art that explores the boundaries of reality.
 
Dimitris Psomadellis (“The Magic Circle”)
Dimitris is a life-long writer that has been perfecting his craft in Mytiline, Greece for a number of years. “The Magic Circle” is his first published story with a professional publisher, and we have no doubt it will be the first of many.
 ​

Here we have another novel from our fabulous friends at Blackthorn Book Tours.  (I swear they keep me soooo busy with all the books they find for us.)  In fact, if you are interested in becoming a reviewer yourself, you can visit their website https://blackthornbooktours.wordpress.com/ and find all kinds of information on how this hard working team gets all this stuff done and how you can be a part of it.
 
Now, before I get into what I thought about this book, here is the blurb that enticed me.  You guys know I always share the blurb on these book tour reviews.  I think it’s important you see for yourself what initially grabs us and forms immediate interest.
 
Blurb
"This is a novel I would read and reread and recommend to others. Fans of vigilante and desperado revenge will delight in this horror story." — Horror Tree.
 
Rebecca Crow’s four-year-old son is dead, and her husband is missing.
 
Divers find her husband’s car at the bottom of a canal with their son’s small, lifeless body, inside. The police have no suspects and nothing to go on but a passing mention of a man driving a van. Guilt and grief cloud Rebecca’s thoughts as she stumbles towards her only mission: Revenge.
 
James Porter knows exactly what happened to them, but he’ll do anything to keep it a secret.
 
James didn’t plan to kill Rebecca’s son, but he’s not too broken up about it, either. There are more important things for him to worry about. He needs money, and his increasing appetite for murder is catching the attention of a nosy detective.
​

Sad story, huh?  Well, don’t get all down in the dumps about it because not everything is as it seems.
 
Rebecca, devasted by the loss of her little boy Oliver and her missing husband, Jon, she desperately waits for the police to come up with something, ANYTHING, that would lead them to who killed her boy.  She’s also in a constant state of anxiety and depression because of this whole ordeal, which only gets heightened and made more raw by the disappearance of her husband.  Cases like these can move fairly slowly.
 
Tommy and James are pals.  Although James is obviously the alpha of the two, they go practically everywhere together.  And, they are partners in crime.  Burglaries, robberies, etc.  In order to live that kind of criminal lifestyle, you need a vehicle that is big enough haul away the loot.  James happens to own and drive an old white van that matches the witness description at the scene of the crime.  Eventually, Detective Barnes comes snooping around James’ home and asking the typical questions.  He confirms with James that he does own and drive that van.  Tommy seems like he’s going to come out of his skin with the Detective there interviewing them.  Of course, they have a planned alibi, but everyone knows it’s thin.  
 
As it so often happens, as more pressing and current cases come in, the Crow murder/missing person case gets put on the back burner, waiting for test results and hoping for some new information to smash the case wide open.
 
But Rebecca is going crazy with all the waiting.  Waiting to go back to work.  Waiting on the police.  Waiting for results.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  She would love the mental and emotional distraction that her work would provide, but her boss thinks she’s not ready to come back just yet.
 
So, what does a shattered woman do with all that free time?  She decides it is time for her to take charge of the situation and conducts her OWN investigation.
 
Out of the two, James is definitely the most cruel and sadistic.  He has no conscience and isn’t fazed by anything that he does.  That includes anything from intimidating his mother’s landlord to killing little Oliver and everything in between.  He has no compassion, no boundaries, no morals.  Tommy, on the other hand, really just seems to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person.  And he knows it.
 
Soon, Rebecca is becoming so distraught that she is hallucinating and delusional.
 
When does it end?  And where is Jon?  What happened to him?
 
Find out by getting your copy of the book at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084FHXZZL
 
I highly recommend that suspense, thriller and murder mystery lovers read this book.  It is extremely well written and the flow of the text allows the reader to easily follow along, even though we jump back and forth between different characters and situations.  
 
Although there are some truly disturbing and heartbreaking aspects to the plot, the way the author expertly brings everything together is seamless with a flawless fluidity is truly a magnificent structure rendering this tense tale of murder and mayhem that pulls at the reader, flooding them with anticipation and even playing detective themselves as they furiously read along.
 
This was a story of many lives, individual destinies intertwined together in a web of death, gore, greed, love, murder and revenge.  This is the kind of novel that will get your heart pumping and your adrenaline rushing.  I can’t imagine a thriller/suspense/mystery fan not falling in love with this book.
 
​

Murder in Montague Falls
Noir-Inspired Novellas by Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton and Patrick Thomas
 
This was another book sent to me by Blackthorn Book Tours.  I must say, the team over there has a knack for finding entertaining reading material.  This book is a collection of novellas, three of them to be exact.  We have murder, mystery, money, Satan worship, the classic love triangle, sex, drugs…they have everything in these three novellas.
 
Let’s talk about each novella before I get into the ratings.
 
The first story is called Red Ink.  This was written by Russ Colchamiro.  It involves an average fourteen-year-old boy with a wild imagination named Isaac Fuller.  Isaac fancies himself as some sort of super spy.  Yet in the mundane reality of his real day to day life, little Isaac is just a neighborhood paperboy.  He likes the job, riding around town and getting to know his customers as he delivers their newspapers every day.  
 
Unfortunately, one day while delivering the paper to his neighbor, Mrs. Gagne, he sees something very strange, unusual.  He thinks he’s witnessed the tail end of a crime and Mrs. Gagne winds up missing.  He shares this information with his life-long friend Dani, who says, in her most friendly and loving way possible, maybe he should just go to the police and let them handle it.  Poor Isaac has a crush on Dani and has for what feels to him like forever, so when she seems to doubt his “special spy agent prowess”, it is a huge slam to his ego.
 
Soon a precarious triangle begins to form between Isaac, his suspect and the police as suspicious things around the neighborhood start to happen.
 
Will the truth be revealed before someone else goes missing?  Will Isaac get to prove his skills to himself and Dani before something bad happens to him?
 
I really enjoyed this story immensely.  It was a fantastic read and I tore right through it.  The text has such an excellent and natural flow it is easy to read and follow.  I loved the story idea, very interesting with a number of tense moments.  The Isaac character is only fourteen but he has a kind of simple maturity that makes it seem like he should be older.  That little edge on Isaac rounds out the tale perfectly.
 
I rated this story a 4/5.
 
 
The second story is a wild one.  It’s called The Devil’s Delinquents and written by Sawney Hatton.  Okay so here we go:
 
Meet Cal Virgil.  A smaller build of a kid, he’s a young teen from Van Buren High School.  He is not considered popular (if his classmates consider him at all) and the poor thing, like so many others, suffers from horrible teen acne.  Isn’t puberty just grand?  He’s also somewhat mean spirited and slightly emotionally void.
 
Now meet Derry Rhodes.  Derry is a fellow young teen at Van Buren and is Cal’s best buddy.  Derry is a larger kid than Cal.  He has black hair and seems to have more of a conscience and moral code than Cal.  Plus, Derry has a soft spot in his heart for his Mama.  So, we know he can feel love and compassion.  Cal?  Not so sure.
 
These two friends are interested in devil worship, conjuring dark forces, that kind of thing.  They try and try, yet they are repeatedly unsuccessful.
 
Then they meet Natalie Glantz, a Junior classman transferred from what is referred to as “a special school”. She totally rocks the gothic look; black hair, thick black eyeliner, deep red lipstick, pale skin and tops it all off with a black pirate patch over one eye.  Needless to say, she doesn’t look like every other teen at Van Buren. She’s viewed as the creepy girl at school, she’s very cold and emotionally detached (especially from her parents) and even claims she can communicate with spirits and demons from the other side.
 
This is EXACTLY what Cal and Derry think they need.
 
Together the three of them do everything in their power to try to conjure dark forces.  But nothing is ever what it seems when dealing with the devil.  Soon the boys find out that there is more to conjuring than they thought.  Questions start to arise and a tiny little love triangle begins to develop that could have a devastating impact on the trio’s whole plan.  Now they have to figure out what to do, where to do it and most importantly, who to trust.
 
I found this story to be an excellent example of truly disturbing horror and gore.  We run the gamut of horrifying bits and pieces.  Child death and mutilation, Satanic worship, all kind of violence on all levels and murder and gore galore.  Be ready for some shock and awe as you tear through the darkness of this tantalizing tale.
 
I rated this story 4.5/5.
 
The last story, A Many Splendid Thing, reminds me of so many true crime cases I’ve seen over the years.
 
A young man named Jethro find a dead body.  (You gotta love a dead body so early in the story, especially the first page.)  Of course, being the one that reported the crime, this puts him on the radar of the police as a suspect.  If that isn’t bad enough, the troubled teen is struggling at home with an abusive and angry drunk of a father who can’t seem to get over being abandoned by his wife a while back.  Jethro just hates her.  Dad, he just drinks.
 
But Jethro does have a place of rescue.  His teacher Mrs. Carmine.  He’s totally in love with her (ya know, hot for teacher…) but then again, so is every other guy in the school.  Jethro feels almost blessed when she asks him to help her home with groceries.
 
Most of Jethro’s days at school are spent being as quiet and unseen as possible.  Yet the three school bullies, Pete, Dean and Stumpy, are constantly antagonizing him every time they see him.  But Mrs. Carmine usually takes Jethro’s side and runs to his aid.  Of course, this makes him feel like she has a thing for him, which only intensifies his emotions towards her.
 
Eventually things progress between Mrs. Carmine and Jethro and they spend a wild weekend together while her husband is out of town.  Then she starts telling Jethro things about her marriage and how she wants out and they can’t be together unless she doesn’t have a husband anymore…and all these thoughts and feelings start pouring into poor, young Jethro’s head and heart.  
 
Thus, begins the game of cat and mouse between Jethro and his new love where she will stop at nothing to get what she wants and accomplishing her goals.  And apparently, she’s outsourcing the job of getting rid of her husband.  
 
So, who will accept?  Who will decline?  Who will survive and who comes out on top?
 
This story was by far my favorite.  It’s the best story in the book.  It has a fantastic ending and for me, was the most well written out of all.  I was on the edge of my seat, reading as fast as I could just to find out what happened next when I turned the page.
 
I rated this story 5/5.
 
The average rating between the three stories is 4.5/5.  This is a very good rating.  I have to say that this is definitely a must read for horror lovers.  Each story is independent of the others and they are all very entertaining to get to experience in your mind as you read.
 
RATINGS
4.5/5 Stars

Russ Colchamiro
 

Russ Colchamiro is the author of the rollicking time travel/space adventure, Crossline, the SF/F backpacking comedy series Finders Keepers: The Definitive Edition, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, editor of the SF mystery anthology Love, Murder & Mayhem, and co-author of the noir anthology Murder in Montague Falls, all with Crazy 8 Press.
He is now finalizing Crackle and Fire, the first in a new scifi mystery series featuring his intergalactic private eye, Angela Hardwicke, set for publication September 2020. 
Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, two ninjas, and crazy dog Simon, who may in fact be an alien himself. Russ has also contributed to several other anthologies, including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, Altered States of the Union, Camelot 13, TV Gods 2, They Keep Killing Glenn, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Camelot 13, Badass Moms, and Brave New Girls. 
Russ is repped by The Zack Compnay. 
For more on and Russ’s books, you can visit www.russcolchamiro.com, follow him on Twitter @AuthorDudeRuss, and ‘like’ his Facebook author page www.facebook.com/RussColchamiroAuthor. 

​Sawney Hatton
 

Sawney Hatton is an author, editor, and screenwriter. Other incarnations of Sawney have produced marketing videos, attended all-night film festivals, and played the banjo and sousaphone (not at the same time). He loves a good day trip into the unknown.

To learn more about Sawney, visit his website at SawneyHatton.com

​Patrick Thomas

Patrick Thomas writes the beloved fantasy humor series Murphy's Lore, and  wrote the graphic novel Case of the Moon Maniac and the steampunk themed As The Gears Turn. His short stories have been featured in over fifty anthologies and more than three dozen print magazines.
A number of his books were part of the props department of the CSI television show and one was even thrown at a suspect. Fairy With A Gun was optioned by Laurence Fishburne's Cinema Gypsy Productions. Act of Contrition, a story featuring his Soul For Hire hitman is in development for a short film by Top Men Productions. 
 
Drop by www.patthomas.net to learn more.

Brought to you by The Horror Report
​and Blackthorn Book Tours
(click Blackhorn Logo below to visit Blackthorn Book Tours)

​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