The Long Way Home by Richard Chizmar

SYNOPSIS
Gathered here for the first time ever are seventeen short stories, two essays, and a short script by award winning and New York Times, bestselling author, Richard Chizmar.
Eerie, suspenseful, poignant, the stories in The Long Way Home run the gamut from horror to suspense, crime to dark fantasy, mainstream to mystery. This brand new collection features more than 100,000 words of short fiction, as well as more than 5,000 words of autobiographical Story Notes. Chizmar s previous short story collection, A Long December, was published in 2016 to starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus, and was included on numerous Best Books of the Year lists. Entertainment Weekly gave the book high praise: Each tale is a magic trick, luring you toward the light while leading you down an ever-darkening path. There is hope mingled with horror, and that s Chizmar s secret power. His storytelling always beats with a huge, passionate heart.
Stephen King says he writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of Disquiet Pie, and with The Long Way Home, Richard Chizmar has taken his evocative and compelling storytelling to an entirely new level.
CONTENTS
The Man Behind the Mask
The Bad Guys
The Meek Shall Inherit...
Silent Night
Widow s Point
My Father and Ellery Queen s Mystery Magazine
The Witch
A Nightmare on Elm Lane
Dirty Coppers
Mischief
The Man in the Black Sweater
Odd Numbers
The Hunch
Roses and Raindrops
Stephen King at 70: A Tribute to the Gunslinger
The Association
The Sculptor
Murder House script
The Custer Files
The Long Way Home
Story Notes

A formidable collection of dark fiction that kept me thoroughly entertained.
The 5 star stories in my opinion were The Witch - A dead body is found and the corpse has left a note that if anything has happened to him the ex is responsible.
A Nightmare on Elm Lane- A father and son project in the back yard turns up a murder mystery.
Mischief - A serial killer has a frightening confession to make.
The Association- A couple has worked hard to afford their dream home but didn't realize their new neighborhood had very strict rules with terrifying consequences.

I received a complimentary copy for review

Black Wings by Megan Hart

There hadn't always been something wrong with Briella Blake, but when she's invited to attend Parkhaven, a private school for extremely gifted students, the girl's wicked genius begins to manifest itself in ways her mother can no longer deny are...strange. Briella's friendship with a raven, Onyx, that's equally as smart as she is, prompts her mother to restrict the animal from Briella's company. Soon Marian learns that nothing can stop her daughter from interacting with the bird, who seems to have become an integral part of the girl's experiments into the possibilities of recording and recreating personality and memory. Also the existence of angels, the afterlife and the soul. Marian's pregnancy with a sibling Briella doesn't want spurs the girl into a frenzied activity of experiments and desperation. Soon, it's impossible for Marian to ignore that although there hadn't always been something wrong with Briella, something is certainly wrong with her, now. Certainly even a child genius can't be blamed for the unexpected deaths and sickness surrounding her. Even the idea that the raven has become some kind of paranormal instigator of tragedy is too ridiculous and idea for Marian to entertain. With a difficult pregnancy sapping her strength, it's all Marian can do to keep herself out of the hospital, much less torture herself with worry about the daughter who's never caused trouble before. A mother's worst nightmare might be something terrible happening to her child - but what happens when the terrible thing IS the child? 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.

Marian is divorced from Briella's dad Tommy and now remarried to Dean. They are living happily and madly in love. Happy that is except for the problems with Briella. Maybe there hadn't always been something "wrong" with her but she never was quite like other little girls. Different enough in fact that her paternal grandmother found her to be an embarrassment to the family, Different enough that her current school thinks there is just nothing more they can do with her. Briella is a little genius, but sadly that genius runs towards the evil side. She is too smart for her own good and does not seem to feel any empathy or much emotions at all other than the fake ones she can wear like a mask.
If the Bad Seed had been a mad scientist she would have been as scary as  Briella.
I Loved this book!
5 out of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy for review. 


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About the author
Megan Hart has written in almost every genre of romantic fiction, including historical, contemporary, romantic suspense, romantic comedy, futuristic, fantasy and perhaps most notably, erotic. She also writes non-erotic fantasy and science fiction, as well as continuing to occasionally dabble in horror.

Forget You Know Me by Jessica Strawser

When a video call between friends captures a shocking incident no one was supposed to see, the secrets it exposes threaten to change their lives forever.Molly and Liza have always been enviably close. Even after Molly married Daniel, the couple considered Liza an honorary family member. But after Liza moved away, things grew more strained than anyone wanted to admit—in the friendship and the marriage.

When Daniel goes away on business, Molly and Liza plan to reconnect with a nice long video chat after the kids are in bed. But then Molly leaves the room to check on a crying child.

What Liza sees next will change everything.

Only one thing is certain: Molly needs her. Liza drives all night to be at Molly’s side—but when she arrives, the reception is icy, leaving Liza baffled and hurt. She knows there’s no denying what she saw.

Or is there?

In disbelief that their friendship could really be over, Liza is unaware she’s about to have a near miss of her own.

And Molly, refusing to deal with what’s happened, won’t turn to Daniel, either.

But none of them can go on pretending. Not after this.

Jessica Strawser's Forget You Know Me is a “twisty, emotionally complex, powder keg of a tale” (bestselling author Emily Carpenter) about the wounds of people who’ve grown apart. Best, friends, separated by miles. Spouses, hardened by neglect. A mother, isolated by pain.

One moment will change things for them all.

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I had previously read "Almost Missed You" by Jessica Strawser and it broke my heart! I was hoping this latest novel could evoke such intensity of emotion and it came very close even if nothing here drove me to tears. Molly and Liza were the best of friends, and although they tried to remain that way after Liza moved, the distance between them made it impossible. Meanwhile Molly has been suffering debilitating pain, and she and her husband have drifted apart. When Liza and Molly try to rekindle their friendship over a video chat Liza witnesses something she wasn't meant to see. Fearing for Molly and her children Liza drives all night to get to her, and is treated as an unwelcome and unwanted nuisance when she arrives. She is shocked when Molly turns her away. but there's an even bigger shock waiting for Liza when she gets home, and there is just no telling if their friendship or Molly's marriage will survive.
4 out of 5 stars.

I received an advance copy for review



About the author
Jessica Strawser is the Editor-at-Large for Writer’s Digest magazine, North America’s leading publication for aspiring and working writers since 1920. Her debut novel, ALMOST MISSED YOU (St. Martin's Press), was a Barnes & Noble Best New Fiction Selection upon its March 2017 release, as well as a She Reads Book Club Selection and a PopSugar Best Spring Read. The book garnered accolades from such wide-ranging bestsellers as Chris Bohjalian, Adriana Trigiani, Lisa Scottoline, Jacquelyn Mitchard, and Garth Stein. Her second, NOT THAT I COULD TELL, is forthcoming from St. Martin's in March 2018, and a third is under contract for 2019.

Her diverse career in the publishing industry spans more than 15 years and includes stints in book editing, marketing and public relations, and freelance writing and editing. A Pittsburgh native and “Outstanding Senior” graduate of Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism, she counts her New York Times Modern Love essay and her Writer’s Digest cover interviews with such luminaries as Alice Walker, Anne Tyler and David Sedaris among her career highlights. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two children.

She blogs at the WritersDigest.com “There Are No Rules” blog and elsewhere, tweets @jessicastrawser, enjoys connecting at Facebook.com/jessicastrawserauthor, and speaks at writing conferences and events that are kind enough to invite her.

Visit jessicastrawser.com to learn more, read some of her work and sign up for her email list to receive occasional updates and hellos.

As Long as We Both Shall Live by JoAnn Chaney

What happens when you're really, truly done making your marriage work? You can't be married to someone without sometimes wanting to bash them over the head...
As Long As We Both Shall Live is JoAnn Chaney's wicked, masterful examination of a marriage gone very wrong, a marriage with lots of secrets...

"My wife! I think she's dead!" Matt frantically tells park rangers that he and his wife, Marie, were hiking when she fell off a cliff into the raging river below. They start a search, but they aren't hopeful: no one could have survived that fall. It was a tragic accident.

But Matt's first wife also died in suspicious circumstances. And when the police pull a body out of the river, they have a lot more questions for Matt.

Detectives Loren and Spengler want to know if Matt is a grieving, twice-unlucky husband or a cold-blooded murderer. They dig into the couple's lives to see what they can unearth. And they find that love's got teeth, it's got claws, and once it hitches you to a person, it's tough to rip yourself free.
So what happens when you're done making it work?


This book started off strong and I expected to love this tangled web of marriage gone wrong and happily ever after turned into I hope you die before me. As it went on and veered away from the dysfunctional marriage and headed more into the lives of the cops working the investigation and the daily ins and outs of police work the less interested I became. When I finally made it to the reveal I was a bit let down at the unbelievability of it all.

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author
JoAnn Chaney is a Colorado-based writer. Her first novel, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW, is out now. AS LONG AS YOU BOTH SHALL LIVE is to be released in January 2019.