The Sorrows by Jonathan Janz

Ben Shadeland and Eddie Blaze are the hottest young music composers in Hollywood. Fresh off an Oscar nomination, they've just been chosen to score a big-budget horror movie by Lee Stanley, the most demanding director in film. But Ben, the creative half of the duo, hasn't written a note since his wife divorced him and got custody of their three-year-old son.
Chris Blackwood is the gambling-addicted heir to the Blackwood fortune, which includes the Sorrows, an island off the coast of northern California. The island and its castle have been uninhabited since a series of gruesome, unexplained murders in 1925, but Chris needs money, and to get it he allows Ben, Eddie, Claire Harden (an aspiring composer), and Eva Rosales (Lee Stanley's gorgeous assistant) to stay a month in Castle Blackwood.
Eddie is certain an eerie, isolated setting is just what Ben needs to find musical inspiration for a horror film. But what they find is more horrific than any movie.


The premise sounded simple enough as I settled in to read what I expected to be a spooky but not unusual tale of a haunted castle. I should have known after my last foray into horror with Jonathan Janz (The Siren and The Specter) that this is not an author who does "simple." While this book is heavy with supernatural horror, it also showcases the fact that sometimes the worst monsters are of the human variety. It frazzled my nerves and had me terrified over whether  or not the characters I cared about would survive, while simultaneously wishing a horrific death to those who deserved one.
5 out of 5 stars
I received a complimentary copy for review.


Get a copy


About the author
Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories. His work has been championed by authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene; he has also been lauded by Publishers Weekly, the Library Journal, and the School Library Journal. His ghost story The Siren and the Specter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novel Children of the Dark was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year. Jonathan’s main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children. You can sign up for his newsletter (http://jonathanjanz.us12.list-manage....), and you can follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads.

The Stranger in Our Home by Sophie Draper

Have you been bad enough?
After her stepmother’s sudden death, Caro returns to her childhood home, a now-empty farmhouse in Derbyshire. But clearing through her stepmother’s belongings unearths memories Caro would rather stay buried. As snow descends, trapping Caro in the strange village, where the neighbours stare and whisper about her, Caro’s past will catch up to her with deadly consequences. What is it about the summerhouse that makes her shiver? Who is the young boy she seems to remember playing with? And why did her stepmother taunt her with a haunting fairy tale about two sisters, enticed to commit a terrible act?
As Caro digs into the dark corners of her past, she starts to realise that she has been bad. More than bad enough.

"The flashy one or the nutcase?"

If ever there was a wicked stepmother, it was Elizabeth, who made a point of letting Caro know she didn't belong, and tormenting her with horrid stories. That may explain why Caro's older sister Steph flew the coop when she was barely old enough. It doesn't explain why decades went by before she would ever bother with her sister again.
Now a grown woman, Caro will uncover the reason why her childhood memories are so sparse and what secrets her own mind has hidden from her, as she heads back to her childhood home to clear it out after Elizabeth's death. The locals are less than welcoming, and a charming neighbor who rents the cottage on her property may know more about Caro's past than she does.
This was a twisty psychological thriller with lots of suspense and a bit of romance thrown in.

4 out of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy for review.

Walking Alone: Short Stories by Bentley Little

From the mind of the man Stephen King calls "a master of the macabre" comes a brilliant new collection of no-punches-pulled horror stories, some never-before-collected and many originals that have never been published anywhere before. Bentley Little can take the innocuous, twist it around, and write a story that will change your way of thinking. Walking Alone: Short Stories is a shining example of his talent to scare you, creep you out, and make you shudder.

Bentley Little has been and continues to be one of my favorite authors. He has a unique gift for taking an ordinary situation like a car trip or the day in the life of a school girl, and turning it into something supernatural and horrifying. Even his craziest and most bizarre tales that begin with something far less innocent, such as murdering your parents because all the cool kids are doing it have me in stitches. I sometimes don't know whether to shudder or chuckle but probably the biggest compliment I can pay is to say that Bentley Little is never boring. Of these 27 stories there were only a few that missed the mark for me, but the rest more than made up for it.
4 out of 5 stars.
Get a copy

About the author
Little was born one month after his mother attended the world premiere of Psycho. He published his first novel, The Revelation, with St. Martin's Press in 1990. After reading it, Stephen King became a vocal fan of Little's work, and Little won the Bram Stoker Award for "Best First Novel" in 1990. He moved to New American Library for his next two novels, but was dropped from the company after he refused to write a police procedural as his next novel. He eventually returned to New American Library, with whom he continues to publish his novels.

Little has stated on several occasions that he considers himself a horror novelist, and that he writes in the horror genre, not the "suspense" or "dark fantasy" genres. He is an unabashed supporter of horror fiction and has been described as a disciple of Stephen King.

Haunted: Horror of Haverfordwest by G.L. Davies

Blissful beginnings for a young couple turn into a nightmare after purchasing their dream home in Wales in 1989. Their love and their resolve are torn apart by an indescribable entity that pushes paranormal activity to the limit. Haunted: Horror of Haverfordwest is the prequel to the bestselling A Most Haunted House.



Presented as non-fiction this factual account is based on the author's own experiences as detailed in the included copy of his best selling book "A Most Haunted House" and the experiences of a couple who lived in the house before him. 
It is a creepy read whether you believe in the supernatural or not, and it also touches on some scientific explanations for the phenomena and explanations and theories on hallucinations.
Presented as an interview, there are some strikingly believable occurrences and some that defy plausibility. It should be a hit with fans of TV shows like Paranormal Witness, My Haunted House, A Haunting or any of the other ghostly reenactment shows.
4 out of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy for review.

Get a copy

About the author
G.L. Davies is the author of the bestselling A Most Haunted House. He is the founder of the popular webcast The Paranormal Chronicles Network on YouTube, presenting shows with Dave Dominguez on a number of Paranormal subjects. He became sole owner of Pembrokeshire's premier paranormal website, Pembrokeshire Beyond, in January 2015.