At the bar The Wild Zone, it all starts out innocently enough. A bet between two bothers, Will and Jeff, and Jeff’s buddy Tom, of who can get that hot brunette to go home them.

With the sly help of Jeff’s girlfriend, Kristen, who is also the bartender, Will leaves the bar with the girl. Jeff, clearly upset, gets Tom to follow them. Tom has a gun, and when he sees Will and Suzy, the mystery brunette, kissing on the beach, he’s itching to use it. But what neither man knows, is that Suzy has her own idea about what to do with the three men she’s just wrapped around her finger.

What happens when a bestselling thriller writer runs of out ideas? It’s called, The Wild Zone. There is no way that this book comes close to what Joy Fielding can produce. Something to throw down on paper to fulfill obligations instead of an inspired masterpiece, which we’re so used to seeing from her (ie Heartstopper, Still Life)? Perhaps. The plot was weak, the characters were uninteresting stereotypes and the twist and turns that usually have me gasping, had me groaning. Being able to get any book we want nowadays is the beauty of the cyber marketplace. What makes us pick up thrillers is the adrenaline rush we get from putting on the detective hat and trying to figure out the end before we get there. What makes us pick up Fielding is the knowledge that we’ll be done the book by the end of the weekend, cause we can’t tear ourselves away. Sadly, The Wild Zone made me want to burn my hat and spend the weekend cleaning my apartment.

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Zombies, Voodoo and Magic. Oh My!

Jasper Bark’s WAY OF THE BAREFOOT ZOMBIE is in a league all its own. I’m not even sure how I’d classify it. I guess somewhere between Dawn of the Dead, The Serpent and the Rainbow and Silent Hill. If you’re a fan of any of the afore mentioned, then this is a read that you won't want to miss.

I’d thought I’d seen and read everything that a Zombie movie or book had to offer. I was wrong. Some of the scenes Jasper paints are so obscene that you have to wonder if he has a little red phone on his writing desk that’s a direct line to the gore-fairy himself. Intestines wrapped around boat’s propeller, still-seeing eyeballs removed from their owner’s heads then crushed like grapes (add popping sound here), and for the first time ever I think, a man sodomized by a fly infested Zombie. Crap, just writing all that is giving me the willies again. I mean seriously, who reads this stuff? Oh, wait a minute...

Final Verdict:

I loved this book. This is a must-have for all you Zombie lovers out there. It read quick and smooth, and was extremely entertaining. Jasper has a unique voice and if Way of the Barefoot Zombie is any hint to what goes on in that head of his, then I’m not sure if I want to know any more. :)

When the residents of Walden, Virginia wake to find the sun hasn’t risen and the town is surrounded in total darkness, they think nothing of it. They get up, shower, and head off to work, some even driving off into the black abyss. However, it’s not long before they realize the darkness is more than a simple storm front that’s blocked the sun’s illuminating rays… something is in the darkness…something that wants them.

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN is one man’s account of what happens to his town as the surrounding darkness slowly consumes it and sends the inhabitants into an eventual state of primeval carnage. Reminiscent of Stephen King’s THE MIST, which Keene makes reference to, DOTEOT plays on the human fear of the unknown, of ‘there’s something in the darkness,’ that drives a stimulating curiosity and fear that’ll keep you turning pages. Brian Keene’s writing reads effortlessly and whether he intended to or not, he had me laughing out loud several times, partly out of finding humor in a given situation and partly out of a tingle of fear that made me wonder what would I do in that situation?

In one scene our ‘hero’ (anti-hero?) is trying to enlist a crew to venture into the darkness. He finds the people of the crowd all staring at him, waiting to hear his words and thinks, “Suddenly, I had to take a massive shit.” This had me laughing long after I’d closed the book, as I could relate to addressing a group of people and some of the anxieties that come along with it and lets face it, it's just funny.

Brian Keene is consistent. He always creates a fun story that reads so smoothly you forget you’re reading. Honestly, I don’t know how he does it. Some of my all-time favorite authors, ones that I’d wait in line for on the day of a new release, have written stories I’ve started but never finished, either out of boredom or just a simple lack of interest. Over fourteen novels of reading later, Keene continues to keep my interest and the pages turning.

Final Verdict:

Keene delivers again in Darkness on the Edge of Town. His intense situations that force you to consider what you’d do and how you’d react, make this a personable read that yields a sharpness rarely found in a horror novel.

In 61 HOURS Jack Reacher innocently steps off his never-ending, meandering path smack into the type of disaster only Reacher can solve. The fourteenth novel in the Jack Reacher series is as twisting and suspenseful as every previous story. In tried and true Lee Child style, Child spends the first half of the novel digging Reacher into the deepest hole possible and then the second half letting Reacher logically and physically scramble his way out.

Instead of searching for the perfect cup of coffee, Reacher is sleeping on a tour bus crossing South Dakota in a deadly blizzard when a brush of fate slams the bus into a ditch and lands him in a small town with a big problem. A biker gang has settled outside of town and is selling meth. A retired librarian is the star eyewitness to busting up the gang and is under watch 24/7 by the local police who expect a big gun to come to town to take out the witness. But the police are under orders to cover the nearby prison if the prison siren goes off, leaving their storybook grandma witness unprotected.

Know anyone with previous bodyguard experience? Or Secret Service experience? Or FBI experience? Or can dig swimming pools by hand? Perhaps lacking in social skills with fists as big as hams?

Child’s distinctive voice is spare yet nails the key details that create rich scenes with a minimum of words that consistently place his novels on The New York Times top ten lists. He wields South Dakota weather as a deadly secondary character. The freezing temperature combined with wind chill is ominous every time a person steps outside. I found it more threatening to Reacher’s life than the Mexican drug lord who holds a Heckler &Koch MP5 to Reacher’s face. Of course Reacher evens those odds with a flashlight, brains, and brute strength.

Reminiscent of Bill Bixby on TV as the homeless Incredible Hulk, in each novel Reacher steps up when strangers need his unusual talents and then he moves on, leaving me to picture lonely Bill Bixby trudging down the road at the end of each TV episode, the poignant theme song playing in my head. But that is not the way 61 HOURS ends. I won’t give spoilers, but I will say my jaw dropped at the end of this book. Fans will call 61 HOURS one of the most surprising books of 2010.

61 HOURS will be published in the US on May 18, 2010. Yep, I got an advance reader’s copy and will consider large monetary bribes for a peek at it. If you want to pay steep shipping fees to get your hands on an early copy, the book will be available in Australia on March 10th and in the UK on March 18th. Lee Child will be the featured author of the month on TheNovelBlog.com in May.

Another day, another great Keene book. What you see is what you get with this great author who is fast becoming one of my all-time favourites. Lean and pacy, full of blood, lust and action, he really keeps the reader engaged and never bored.

I’ve read four of his novels now and have more to read from this prolific American writer. This doesn’t hit the heights of The Rising say, maybe it’s the hero being an author that I find a bit lazy. But it’s full of Keeneism from start to finish and I like his characters and root for them unlike some other writers.

This is something a little different and the Machen reference wasn’t lost on me either.

Keep going, I’m a big fan.


Blurb

When mysterious music is heard in the forest at night and women begin disappearing without a trace, novelist Adam Senft discovers that the town of LeHorn's Hollow has become the victim of an ancient nightmare worse than any ghost.

Jeremy Robinson has done it again. INSTINCT is a knock-down, thought inducing, all-out-thrill-fest with enough testosterone to put hair on even the wimpiest of chests. The Chess Team is back and once again they’ll travel to the ends of the earth in an effort to save it.

When the President suddenly drops dead and no one knows why, the Chess Team suits up for action. Assigned to protect "Pawn" as she leads them to find an answer, the team grabs their gear and leaves for Vietnam...and finds much more than they were looking for.

INSTINCT contains all the ingredients you’ve come to expect from a Jeremy Robinson novel: cool technology and weapons, action, adventure and deep at the heart of the story there’s that urban legend that he’s such an expert on intertwining. Rook, Bishop, Knight, King and Queen are all back and bigger than ever, as well as a few new characters that I hope carry on throughout the Chess Team series.

What I really enjoyed about INSTINCT was that several times I literally laughed aloud while reading. Making me laugh while reading (fiction at least) isn’t a simple task, yet I found myself doing it several times. I also think this is a much more serious writing by Jeremy, in that unlike PULSE—which was clearly fiction—INSTINCT has a very plausible plot and carries a much finer edge as a result.

In 2006 United Artists released Casino Royale which boasted "...discover how James became Bond". At the time a relatively unknown Daniel Craig was cast in the role of Bond and, being the huge fan of the series that I am, it caused me to doubt if he could pull it off (remember Timothy Dalton?). Anyways, after walking out of the theater I’d felt something that I hadn’t felt in a long time—I wanted to be James Bond. INSTINCT did the same for me; I wanted to be a hero, dressed in cool gear with a big gun, constantly staring death in the face and I believe that is a real tribute to the type of read this is.

Final Verdict:

Jeremy has definitely been honing his writing skills and INSTINCT proves it. Fun, lovable characters, a solid (believable) plot and fast-turning pages makes this one of my favorite reads of 2010 to date.

Adam Kindred is a climatologist with a bright future. After a seemingly successful job interview, he decides to dine at a little Italian bistro in Chelsea, London. He strikes up a conversation with a the lone diner next to him…like some might do, and when the diner leaves, forgetting his briefcase, Adam feels compelled to return it to him…as some might do. He calls the stranger, who instructs him to bring the briefcase to his home, which is not far off. From that moment on, life as Adam’s knows it is forever altered.

He suddenly finds himself on the run without access to anything from his former life. With an assassin sniffing out his trail, he delves deeper and deeper into the dark underground of an unnoticed street life, and becomes one of the faceless ranks. All while carefully and patiently navigating the minefield of a pharmaceutical giant’s machinations, to clear his name and bring to light a potentially fatal new drug worth millions.

There are some mixed reviews out there regarding this, Boyd’s, latest thriller, but I have to say that this was one of the most exciting reads I’ve had all winter. From the book jacket I was expecting a completely different story, but was taken somewhere dark and seedy, to places I didn’t see coming, with characters that intrigued me more and more and began to genuinely care about. Each one surprising me at every turn, whether with pride or disgust. This is what a thriller is about…and Boyd nailed it!

A quiet Irish town the discovery of something metal long buried under the sand. Unearthed is a submarine and inside a last gasp Nazi chemical weapon from the end of the Second World War.

The healthy get ill and die, but rise again, to stalk the town and seek to bite and infect the living. Cut off and quarantined by the army, the townsfolk desperately fight to stay alive and try and make for an ancient keep during low tide in the estuary.

Nice to see a zombie plague set in another country from the US and with likable characters the story zips along nicely with well choice and creative prose.

If you like a good zombie book and fancy something a little different this is worth a punt.

One puzzle is the arrival of British soldiers in a helicopter at one point which adds nothing to the plot and why they are there at all, is never explained?

I’ve read other great works by Heather: THE SÉANCE, HAUNTED and GHOST WALK to name a few, all of which were fun reads, so when I saw DUST TO DUST I was pretty excited to sit down and get started.

Sadly, I was disappointed. While it shared promise with ties to the book of Revelation (a personal favorite of mine), Mayan prophecies of the world ending in 2012 and the realm of the supernatural, it ended up just being a bunch of blah. Characters with great potential were left untouched, while the ones we were supposed to care for I found boring if not annoying. And finally, there’s the twist towards the end that made it hard for me to finish reading.

I hate writing negative reviews about a book, especially seeing as I know how much work goes into writing one, but part of our mission statement is to give honest opinions—good or bad.

My Verdict:

I was bored and had a hard time finishing. I thought maybe I was being too harsh so I read other reviews online and again, sadly, I was not alone in my opinion. You could certainly do worse; however, this one is safe to skip. Instead go watch an episode of NBC's HEROES.

The back-cover:

Not long ago, Scott Bryant would have described himself as an ordinary guy. But one act of heroism has changed his life forever—or at least until the apocalypse occurs. Because the end of the world is on its way.

Suddenly and inexplicably possessed of superhuman strength, Scott finds himself allied with the enigmatic and alluring Melanie Regan in a quest to find the mysterious Oracle in hopes of averting the absolute destruction that threatens.

Melanie herself has been falling into trances, sketching terrifying visions of future events—and she wants answers. She knows better than Scott where to look for help, but even she cannot fathom the powers that have thrust them together in an epic battle of good against evil.

The earth itself will soon turn against its inhabitants, and now mortal and immortal must join forces if any are to survive.

Danny has spent years focusing on medical school and now that it’s over all he wants is to finally start his life. He wants to marry his girlfriend, start his residency and settle down. But instead of saying yes to his proposal, Danny’s girlfriend says she’ll think about it, and on the day of his final exam, he finally gets the answer in the form of a note.
She’s leaving for London where she will travel across Europe on the Magic Bus to Kathmandu.

Devastated and not wanting to let “the one” get away, Danny decides to take on this strange journey in hopes of finding her, where he can get some resolution. But when the bus arrives in Kabul, the day the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in ‘79, Danny is not only fighting for his life, but fighting a war.

This story pulled you in right away. There was love, there was the mystery of strange countries and people, and an adventure that almost all of us dream of going on. The only thing that gnawed at me while I was reading it was that I was being told what was happening, instead of being immersed in the story through the characters and landscapes.
Otherwise…good stuff from Levy.

Jillian has just lost her sister to suicide. But instead of grieving, she throws herself in the search for a killer, for she’s convinced that her sister did not kill herself with pills.
Dr. Garrity has lost his best friend to post-traumatic stress disorder. But instead of letting sleeping dogs lie, he searches the streets obsessively for his missing friend. Both soon discover the horrifying connection between two seemingly random people, with each other and the last surgeon.

As per usual Palmer fashion, this clever thriller kept me guessing until the very end. There were just enough twists and sketchy characters to make any hardcore thriller reader happy and enough romance to satisfy the lonely hearts. Dr. Garrity was a perfect example of post-traumatic disorder, something that most soldiers are plagued with after war, and of which civilians (and bureaucrats) seem not to understand. Jillian a strong woman, who never sacrifices her instinct and intuition, for simple answers. Perfect characters for everyone to identify with, learn a lesson, and take courage from .

There are definitely no disappointments with Palmer’s lastest…there’s a reason why every one of his novels has made the bestseller list and this apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Living in Hong Kong, as a Neil Diamond impersonator, Neil is destitute, abandoned and unloved. He is desperately trying to cling to the last hope that can make all the abeyance worthwhile. His weary body and spirit, suddenly begin to make tragic decisions that go against obvious ethics, slowly changing a man’s convictions to appease his ego.

The desperation that arises from this character’s choices versus the voice of reason very much mirrors humanity’s. Neil’s struggles are our struggles. Through very meticulous prose, some of the best I’ve seen, I often found myself ignoring the slowness of the plot, knowing that there was a greater story to be told. Perhaps, there was even salvation.

Hiram Grange and the Twelve Little Hitlers

Pour yourself a glass of Absinthe, oil your Webley and sit down and enjoy the irreverent bleak ride that is the monster hunter life of our anti-hero in this series of Novella.

It begins with an Agatha Christie rhyme of what’s gonna happen and it delivers a path of death and drug and booze filled destruction that is played for sick fun, but makes the ending and final solution even more barbaric and cruel.

Hiram Grange is back and has to hunt down twelve clones little Hitlers from every quirky corner of the US, but will he live to see the end as he is pulled down into the abyss of self-destruction.

Twelve Little Hitlers is more morbid and morose than it’s bastard sire Village of the Damned and a little less fun, but where do we go from here I cannot wait to see, wherever it is, it’s gonna be green alcohol fuelled ride and I’m lucky to be one of the passengers.

Young, attractive teens? Check. Romantic conflict? Check. Hot young guy driving really fast on a motorcycle? Check. Clichéd spooky keep with a horrid past? Check. Lots of hard body testosterone flying around? Check.

Possessed, has us following Rayne as she struggles to leave the craziness of her everyday life behind. Like many teens today, she’s desperate to find a place where she belongs, a place where she can be at peace and one that is far away from how she currently just exists. In her quest for freedom she’s hired on as staff at Morton’s Keep, to work in the tea room, serving its visitors as they tour the creepy old landmark and inquire about its rumored sordid past.

Not long after her arrival she meets with a young group of attractive teens that take her in as one of their own almost immediately. However, she soon learns that there may be other motives behind her new-found friends.

I’m really not sure what to think after reading Possessed It read quickly and was actually entertaining, but I felt like the story kept going nowhere. In fact, you really don’t learn anything about Rayne’s friends and the black past of Morton’s Keep until the last five or six chapters.

To be fair, I’m not a Young Adult Fiction fan; however, I can’t help but think that Possessed will be a great hit among its intended audience. It follows the same seductive formula not too unlike that of the Stephanie Myer’s, Twilight Series, which is really hot among young readers right now.

My verdict:

If you want a quick, easy and guilty pleasure read, check out Kate Cann’s, Possessed.

Keep reading!

- Dan.

Un-freaking-believable.

That’s the first word that comes to mind as I sit down to write this review. It has been a long time since I’ve read a book in a single sitting. Joe Hill’s HORNS is simply incredible and just goes to prove that he has the talent to stand on his own rather than ride the shirt-tails of his father. In short: Joe Hill rocks!

HORNS, tells the story of a broken man who wakes one day to find devilish horns have sprung from his head. At first he’s shocked and believes he’s dying, but he soon discovers that these horns have a great power—albeit an unpleasant one. Throughout the story he reminds us of what it means to be human, to love, to err, to hate and to kill. He shows us the darker side of human nature as well as the lighter side of forgiveness and love. In the end Joe has us questioning ourselves, our motives, and rightly so, the choices we make and the reasons (or lack thereof) for making them.

Joe took me on an emotional rollercoaster of a ride—an awesome one at that. I felt what Ig felt, I hated as Ig hated, I wanted revenge as Ig did and in the end, had I acted on my initial impulses, I would have learned how very wrong I could’ve been for doing so. In HORNS, Joe reminds us how impulsive we are as a people, how open we are to suggestion and how we tend to react without all the facts. Several times I learned that if I had been Ig and had reacted immediately (as sometimes I do), I would have committed unspeakable acts for all the wrong reasons and hated myself as a result. Whether he intended to or not, Joe teaches a valuable lesson in not jumping to conclusions, patience, truth and forgiveness. How many times I have stood in line, silently cursing the slow person in front of me, only to discover after that this person had a handicap and a simple thing like reaching for a wallet or signing a check was a major accomplishment for them. I’ve done it and I’ve felt horrible afterwards. HORNS will have you thinking twice next time you start to get irritated with someone or something.

My verdict:

I absolutely loved HORNS and you will too. Look for it on February 16, 2010 and make sure to add this to your must reads for 2010. You won’t be disappointed; I promise.

Keep reading!

- Dan.