Inspection by Josh Malerman

J is a student at a school deep in a forest far away from the rest of the world.

J is one of only twenty-six students, all of whom think of the school’s enigmatic founder as their father. J’s peers are the only family he has ever had. The students are being trained to be prodigies of art, science, and athletics, and their life at the school is all they know—and all they are allowed to know.

But J suspects that there is something out there, beyond the pines, that the founder does not want him to see, and he’s beginning to ask questions. What is the real purpose of this place? Why can the students never leave? And what secrets is their father hiding from them?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, in a school very much like J’s, a girl named K is asking the same questions. J has never seen a girl, and K has never seen a boy. As K and J work to investigate the secrets of their two strange schools, they come to discover something even more mysterious: each other.

After the terrifying horror found in Bird Box I was dying to read this book and had high hopes for more heart pounding terror. For that reason Inspection did not quite live up to my hopes.
In a bizarre experiment in which the hypothesis is that knowledge of the opposite sex somehow stifles genius, children who have been obtained by dubious means  are kept totally ignorant of the real world, the opposite sex, and are led to believe they grew on trees. The first half of the book is devoted to the boys, and it is at the halfway point that we meet the girls who are raised separately just a stone's throw away. The pace is quite slow and even after the shocking (to them) discovery of the opposite sex there is not much action until the end.

I received an advance copy for review.
Get a copy



About the author
Josh Malerman is the author of BIRD BOX and the singer/songwriter for the band THE HIGH STRUNG

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner

Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943--aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.

The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.

In this bittersweet work of historical fiction, Elise, now an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer's recalls the days she and her family were forced to relocate first into a camp and then later sent back to Germany during the final year of the war. The only thing that made her time in the camp bearable was being reunited with her father, and the brief friendship she shared with another girl who was also forced to live in the camp. After the girls are separated they vow to one day reunite back in the states when they turn 18. Sadly they fell out of touch but Elise never forgot her friend. As both time and her memories are escaping from Elise, she travels alone in an attempt to reconnect with her long lost friend before it's too late.

I received an advance copy for review.

Get a copy


About the author
Susan Meissner was born in San Diego, California, the second of three. She spent her childhood in just two houses.
Her first writings are a laughable collection of oddly worded poems and predictable stories she wrote when she was eight.

She attended Point Loma College in San Diego, and married her husband, Bob, who is now an associate pastor and a chaplain in the Air Force Reserves, in 1980. When she is not working on a new novel, she is directing the small groups ministries at The Church at Rancho Bernardo. She also enjoy teaching workshops on writing and dream-following, spending time with my family, music, reading great books, and traveling.

Will Haunt You by Brian Kirk

You don't read the book. It reads you.

Rumors of a deadly book have been floating around the dark corners of the deep web. A disturbing tale about a mysterious figure who preys on those who read the book and subjects them to a world of personalized terror. Jesse Wheeler--former guitarist of the heavy metal group The Rising Dead--was quick to discount the ominous folklore associated with the book. It takes more than some urban legend to frighten him. Hell, reality is scary enough. Seven years ago his greatest responsibility was the nightly guitar solo. Then one night when Jesse was blackout drunk, he accidentally injured his son, leaving him permanently disabled. Dreams of being a rock star died when he destroyed his son's future. Now he cuts radio jingles and fights to stay clean. But Jesse is wrong.

The legend is real--and tonight he will become the protagonist in an elaborate scheme specifically tailored to prey on his fears and resurrect the ghosts from his past. Jesse is not the only one in danger, however.

By reading the book, you have volunteered to participate in the author's deadly game, with every page drawing you closer to your own personalized nightmare.

The real horror doesn't begin until you reach the end. That's when the evil comes for you.

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

At the start of this novel I didn't notice any "rumors of a "deadly book" as mentioned in the description, but after recovering addict and rock and roller Jesse performs at a reunion of his former band there is mention that he read a book that was recommended to him. On his way home to his wife and son after the show, he hears a horrifying radio broadcast that seems to be for his ears only. I thought this was an incredibly creepy start, but as the story went on it felt more like a science fiction than the horror I was hoping for. Still it was very creative as Jesse tries to find his way out of a nightmare world that seems to have been invented only for him.
4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.
 About the author
Brian Kirk is a Bram Stoker Award®-nominated author of dark thrillers and psychological suspense. His debut novel, WE ARE MONSTERS, was released in July 2015. In addition to being nominated for a Bram Stoker Award® for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, WE ARE MONSTERS was optioned for film development by Executive Producer, Jason Shuman.

His short fiction has been published in many notable magazines and anthologies, most recently Gutted: Beautiful Horror Stories alongside multiple New York Times bestselling authors.

Visit his website for more information, or just to chat. Don't worry, he only kills his characters.

The Promise by Teresa Driscoll

The chilling new psychological thriller from the #1 bestselling author of I Am Watching You.
It was their darkest secret. Three schoolgirls made a promise – to take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave.
Thirty years later, Beth and Sally have tried to put the trauma behind them. Though Carol has distanced herself from her former friends, the three are adamant that the truth must never come to light, even if the memory still haunts them.
But when some shocking news threatens to unearth their dark secret, Beth enlists the help of private investigator Matthew Hill to help her and Sally reconnect with estranged Carol ­– before the terrible act they committed as teenagers is revealed.
Beth wishes she could take back the vow they made.
But somebody is watching and will stop at nothing to ensure the secret stays buried. Now, with her beloved family in peril, can Beth still keep the promise?


Beth, Sally, and Carol met as teenagers and soon became the best of friends at boarding school, until something awful happened and Carol began to sever ties with them. Now, years later, Beth and Sally are on a mission to find Carol before a secret they promised to keep is revealed. Although this book is represented as a psychological thriller I think it would be better categorized as women's fiction. There really is no heart pounding suspense or shocking twists that one would expect from a psychological thriller. It is more an exploration of the relationship between the three girls and how the past shaped their future relationships with each other and their husbands.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy for review.


About the author
Teresa Driscoll - a former BBC TV news presenter- is now an international #1 bestselling author. Her debut psychological suspense I AM WATCHING YOU hit Number One on Kindle in the UK, USA and Australia and sold more than half a million copies in its first year. Her second thriller THE FRIEND was also Kindle #1 in the UK and Australia and a top #10 bestseller in the USA.
Teresa also writes women's fiction. Her debut in this genre RECIPES FOR MELISSA was auctioned at the Frankfurt book fair between seven German publishers and her second women's fiction title is LAST KISS GOODNIGHT.
During her long career as a journalist, Teresa worked for newspapers, magazines and television, including 15 years presenting the BBC TV news programme Spotlight. Covering crime for so long, she was deeply moved by the haunting impact on the relatives, the friends and the witnesses and it is those ripples she explores now in her darker fiction.
Teresa's books have been sold for translation in 15 languages. She lives in glorious Devon with her husband and two sons and blogs regularly about her "writing life" at her website - www.teresadriscoll.com.