The Witch of Willow Hall by Hester Fox

Two centuries after the Salem witch trials, there’s still one witch left in Massachusetts. But she doesn’t even know it.

Take this as a warning: if you are not able or willing to control yourself, it will not only be you who suffers the consequences, but those around you, as well.

New Oldbury, 1821

In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters—Catherine, Lydia and Emeline—flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall.

The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline.

All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end.

What an intriguing read! When the Montrose family was forced by scandal to uproot their lives and flee the city, I at first thought to myself that surely it could not have been that severe, after all what was not considered scandalous in those days? The scandal itself is a bit of a mystery, and there are hints that it may have been caused by Lydia or by Catherine, but either way I could not wait to find out what it was. Once settled in their new home it seems that gossip has followed them, and sadly a tragedy is not far behind. The relationship between the sisters held me spellbound. For having been raised by the same parents in the same home, they could not have wound up more different from each other. This was a captivating work of historical fiction with a gothic ghost story feel, complete with heroes to cheer for and villains that I took delight in hating.

I received an advance copy for review. 

The Siren and The Specter by Jonathan Janz

When David Caine, a celebrated skeptic of the supernatural, is invited by an old friend to spend a month in “the most haunted house in Virginia,” he believes the case will be like any other. But the Alexander House is different. Built by a 1700s land baron to contain the madness and depravity of his eldest son, the house is plagued by shadows of the past and the lingering taint of bloodshed. David is haunted, as well. For twenty-two years ago, he turned away the woman he loved, and she took her life in sorrow. And David suspects she’s followed him to the Alexander House.


When David Caine accepts an offer to stay in a supposedly haunted house for a month, to prove or disprove whether it has earned it's title of most haunted house in Virginia, he is unaware of many details about the area. He is not expecting sexual deviants for neighbors. He is not expecting the house to hold ties to his own past, and he is not aware that the Alexander house holds horrors of epic proportions.
This is more than a haunted house tale. The horror is not only in the supernatural aspects but in the evil that mere mortals commit. It got under my skin, not just with  delicious spine tingling fear that all horror lovers crave, but with sadness, and disgust, and sometimes rage. The test of any good book (for me) is whether it can make me feel something. The Siren And The Specter is a masterpiece of horror.
5 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review.

Available on Amazon



Author's website http://jonathanjanz.com/

FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.

The Sea Was a Fair Master by Calvin Demmer

The world’s fate lies with a comatose young girl; an android wants to remember a human she once knew under Martian skies; men at sea learn that the ocean is a realm far different from land, where an unforgiving god rules; a school security guard discovers extreme English class; and a man understands what the behemoth beneath the sea commands of him.

The Sea Was a Fair Master is a collection of 23 stories, riding the currents of fantasy, science fiction, crime, and horror. There are tales of murder, death, loss, revenge, greed, and hate. There are also tales of hope, survival, and love.

For the sea was a fair master.


I am not the world's biggest fan of flash fiction. I do love short stories but have often found the extremely short flash fiction style just leaves me hanging, scratching my head and saying that's it? It's over?
That was not the case here, where most of these stories  have a satisfying conclusion or had me saying Aha! I see what you did there. If you are looking to snack on some crunchy bits of bite sized fiction I can recommend this well written anthology, chock full of sorrow, fear, dark humor and horror.

4 out of 5 stars
I received a complimentary copy for review.

About the author
https://calvindemmer.com/

The Mortician's Wife by Maralee Lowder

The honeymoon of Ada, a shy and innocent young girl and Horace, a dashingly handsome, charismatic, mortician, gets off to a rough start. The marriage goes down hill from there. Although the marriage continues to be unconsummated, Ada holds out hope that one day the love she has for her husband will destroy the emotional wall that continues to separate them. Unfortunately, before this happens, her father, a celebrated physician and owner of the local hospital, faces ruin, both financially and legally. It is then that Ada realizes the only reason Horace married her was because of her family's high standing within the local community. That is when all hope of sharing love with her husband vanishes, as he begins abusing her. Having no one to turn to, Ada quietly accepts her husband's abuse, until, after years of living in fear, Horace does the unthinkable. When he takes away her only reason for living, she shes him for what he as become--a monster of the highest order. When she learns the depth of his depravities, she comes to the realization that it is up to her to keep not only herself safe from him, but also any others who might come within his distorted vision. What she decides she must do will surprise most readers, and abhor others. She feels it is her duty to humanity to protect them from the man she once loved. Unfortunately, what she cannot possibly know is, that although she may have saved others from the living man, she has released an even more dangerous evil, his everlasting angered soul.

The story begins when Emily is a little girl and gets her first glimpse of Ada on a long ago Halloween night. Emily is out trick or treating away from parental supervision for the first time. Everyone knows to stay away from the creepy old mortuary and the crazy old witch lady Ada, but lonely Emily finds a kinship with her and for a brief time they become friends. Years later they reconnect when Emily is a grown woman and Ada is now in her 90s with deteriorating health and needs someone to help her with her daily needs. Gradually, Ada tells Emily her life story and how she came to be living above the mortuary and why she refuses to leave. It is a heartbreaking tale that ends a bit abruptly since it is the first in a series.

4 out of 5 stars.
I received a complimentary copy for review