The Nightly Disease by Max Booth III

Description

Sleep is just a myth created by mattress salesmen.

Isaac, a night auditor of a hotel somewhere in the surreal void of Texas, is sick and tired of his guests. When he clocks in at night, he’s hoping for a nice, quiet eight hours of Netflix-bingeing and occasional masturbation. What he doesn’t want to do is fetch anybody extra towels or dive face-first into somebody’s clogged toilet. And he sure as hell doesn’t want to get involved in some trippy owl conspiracy or dispose of any dead bodies. But hey…that’s life in the hotel business.

Welcome to The Nightly Disease. Please enjoy your stay.  

I don't know where to start. Part of me says what the hell did I just read? Yet I have to admit I flew through this book (like an owl?) and couldn't put it down.
Isaac is a young man who has led a very strange life. We are given a small glimpse into his past when as a young teen he was uprooted from his home.. though we are not given the why of it all. Do we need to know? I can't say the not knowing took away from my enjoyment of this humorous and horrifying story but I am certainly curious. Currently sleeping days and  working nights at the "Goddamn Hotel" Isaac is subjected to a strange cast of inhabitants on a nightly basis, including a homeless bulimic girl that he thinks he's in love with and whom he tries to win over with waffles, and a criminal element selling knock offs of name brand shoes. Then there are the owls, do not pet the owls! If you like dark twisted humor with your horror this is most definitely for you. 5 out of 5 stars from me.

I received an advance copy for review

Fog Warning by Edward Lorn

“Tick, tock, tickety, tock. Time’s slipping away, doc ... ”

Emergency Room Physician Brent Cummings is harboring secrets he’d rather leave in the shadows of his past. But, when he finds a dead woman in a foggy park, all his skeletons come tumbling out of the closet.

In a deadly race against time, Brent attempts to alter the future so that he might finally let go of the past.

Will he heed the warning in the fog, or will fate prove more dependable than the good doctor?


Doctor Brent Cummings is leaving work as the fog comes rolling in. He is on foot.. he doesn't drive because.. reasons. It's not that he can't, he just doesn't. Not since the "trouble" back in Oakland. He discovers a dead body full of stab wounds in the park but things don't go well for the doctor when he tries to report his discovery to the police. This was a quick but spine tingling, suspenseful read with the perfect mix of supernatural and murder. 5 out of 5 stars from me.

All Darling Children by Katrina Monroe

Description

All boys grow up, except one.
On the tenth anniversary of her mother's death, fourteen-year-old Madge Darling’s grandmother suffers a heart attack. With the overbearing Grandma Wendy in the hospital, Madge runs away to Chicago, intent on tracking down a woman she believes is actually her mother.
On her way to the Windy City, a boy named Peter Pan lures Madge to Neverland, a magical place where children can remain young forever. While Pan plays puppet master in a twisted game only he understands, Madge discovers the disturbing price of Peter Pan's eternal youth.

 

 

Madge Darling has never been happy living with her grandmother Wendy. She has tried to run away before but is sent back to her grandmother's cold unwelcoming house. She doesn't believe that her mother is dead, and desperately wants to find her. Madge makes her escape one night when she has been left alone with her drunken uncle Michael but is whisked away by Peter Pan with a promise to take her to her mother. Will she find the truth in Neverland? Or is the truth in Grandmother Wendy's diary? Katrina Monroe has envisioned and brought to life a dark and savage Peter Pan that is indeed a far cry from the innocent Disney version. 4 out of 5 stars from me.

 

I received a complimentary copy for review.

Eat the Night by Tim Waggoner

Description

For Joan Lantz, it starts with a dream of a death-cult’s mass suicide in the jungle of Suriname thirty years ago, followed by the discovery of a hidden basement in her new house, where heavy metal music echoes on humid tropical air.

For Kevin Benecke, long-suffering employee of a mysterious organization known simply as Maintenance, it starts with the violent death of his co-worker at the hands of a madman who tells him, The Big Dark is coming for you.

Long-dead cult leader and former rock star Mark Maegarr has returned from beyond the grave, and Joan and Kevin have front-row seats to his apocalyptic comeback. Maegarr’s waited decades to finish what he started, and this time no one will stop him from putting on a killer show designed to hasten the universe’s end.

Rock on.

Joan has suffered a traumatic past, which has left her always longing for a home of her own. Because of that, she is ecstatic when she has the opportunity to purchase a house with her husband Jon even if the circumstances of that opportunity seem suspiciously convenient.
Kevin is an employee of "Maintenance" a company which does not advertise, does not have customers and doesn't want any. These characters who seem to have nothing to do with each other do in fact share a common thread and they are going to meet, in a big way.
This was a creepy read, reminiscent of the classic 80s horror that I so love.
4 out of 5 stars from me.

I received a complimentary copy for review