Hearthstone Cottage by Frazer Lee

Mike Carter and his girlfriend Helen, along with their friends Alex and Kay, travel to a remote loch side cottage for a post-graduation holiday. But their celebrations are short-lived when they hit and kill a stag on the road. Alex's sister Meggie awaits them in the cottage, adding to the tension when her dog, Oscar, goes missing. Mike becomes haunted by a disturbing presence in the cottage, and is hunted by threatening figures in the highland fog. Reeling from a shock revelation, Mike begins to lose his grip on his sanity. As the dark secrets of the past conspire to destroy the bonds of friendship, Mike must uncover the terrifying truth dwelling within the walls of Hearthstone Cottage.



Two couples head off for a celebratory post graduation stay at Hearthstone cottage. Their vacation  starts off with a bang when they have a car accident near their destination, totaling their car and leaving them without means of escape should there be any spooky happenings, and there will be!  There is something very wrong with this cottage and with the village itself.
After that  literally smashing beginning the pace did slow down quite a bit, but rapidly accelerated at about the halfway point when Mike explores the village on his own after his girlfriend is gone for an unusually long time in a borrowed car. It was at this point that the spooky atmosphere really kicked into overdrive.

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author
Frazer Lee’s debut novel, The Lamplighters was a Bram Stoker Award® Finalist for ‘Superior Achievement in a First Novel’. His other works include 'The Jack in the Green', 'The Skintaker' and the 'Daniel Gates Adventures' series.

One of Frazer’s early short stories received a Geoffrey Ashe Prize from the Library of Avalon, Glastonbury. His short fiction has since appeared in numerous anthologies including the acclaimed ‘Read By Dawn’ series.

Also a screenwriter and filmmaker, Frazer’s movie credits include the award-winning short horror films ‘On Edge’, ‘Red Lines’, ‘Simone’, 'The Stay', and the critically acclaimed horror/thriller feature (and Amazon #1 movie novelization) ‘Panic Button’.

Frazer lectures in Creative Writing and Screenwriting at Brunel University London and Birkbeck, University of London. He resides with his family in leafy Buckinghamshire, England just across the cemetery from the actual Hammer House of Horror.

Connect with Frazer:
Official website: www.frazerlee.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AuthorFrazerLee
Twitter: www.twitter.com/frazer_lee

Those Who Came Before BY J.H. Moncrieff

People are dying at Strong Lake, and the worst is yet to come.

An idyllic weekend camping trip is cut short when Reese Wallace’s friends are brutally murdered. As the group’s only survivor, Reese is the prime suspect, and his story doesn’t make much sense. A disembodied voice warning him to leave the campground the night before? A strange, blackened tree that gave him an electric shock when he cut it down for firewood?

Detective Greyeyes isn’t having any of it―until she hears the voice herself and finds an arrowhead at the crime scene―an arrowhead she can’t get rid of. Troubling visions of a doomed Native American tribe who once called the campground home, and rumors of cursed land and a mythical beast plague the strangest murder case she’s ever been a part of.

Two couples prepare to spend the weekend in a cursed campground. Only one young man survives the slaughter that first night.
The events that follow reveal the mystery of what happened to the first Native Americans who disappeared from this land so many years ago. The author does a brilliant job of weaving together a story of historical fiction, Native American folklore and supernatural horror with a dark and ominous atmosphere. We would all do well to remember those who came before.
5 out of 5 stars.
I received an advance copy for review.


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About the author
J.H. Moncrieff's City of Ghosts won the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for best Horror/Suspense.

Her work has been described by reviewers as early Gillian Flynn with a little Ray Bradbury and Stephen King thrown in for good measure.

She won Harlequin's search for “the next Gillian Flynn” in 2016. Her first published novella, The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leave, was featured in Samhain’s Childhood Fears collection and stayed on its horror bestsellers list for over a year.

When not writing, she loves exploring the world's most haunted places, advocating for animal rights, and summoning her inner ninja in muay thai class.

To get free ebooks and a new spooky story every week, go to http://bit.ly/MoncrieffLibrary.

The Axe & Grindstone by Paul Phipps-Williams

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, last orders please.
Seriously, this could be your last ever order…
Have you ever fancied running a pub?
What about two pubs?
And what if they were in different dimensions?

Enter Mark Adams who is in serious need of a pint.

Now the fabled landlord of Peacebattle, he’s the only person who can stop the world from screaming for the rest of time.

But why chose a loser to save the world? What is the truth at the heart of the Binding Brothers’ dark religion and the monsters who thrive in its heart? And will Mark survive long enough to remember the most important advice of his entire career:

Don’t scream.
Whatever you do.
Don’t scream.



"And we keep on running. On and on and on. Around every corner and across every single bloody cobble in Dogwood Falls. Arnold's got me tossed over his shoulder, and all I can see is what we're running away from. They're coming."

Mark Adams, recently unemployed is offered a fresh start and a new job, managing a bar in the middle of nowhere. Of course there have been a few minor details about the bar kept from him, for example that it hides the doorway to another dimension where strange beings are expecting him to save the world.
Sharp wit, dark humor, and mystical beings made this story a page turner.

I received an advance copy for review.
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The Desire Card by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Any wish fulfilled for the right price. That's the promise the organization behind The Desire Card gives to its elite clients - but sometimes the price may be more menacing than anyone could ever imagine. Harrison Stockton has lived an adult life of privilege and excess: a high-powered job on Wall Street fuels his fondness for alcohol and pills at the expense of a family he has no time for. Quite suddenly all of this comes crashing to a halt when he loses his job and at the same time discovers he almost certainly has only months left to live. Desperate, and with seemingly nowhere else left to turn, Harrison activates his Desire Card. What follows is a gritty and gripping quest that takes him from New York City to the slums of Mumbai and forces him to take chances, and make decisions, he never thought he'd ever have to face. When his moral descent threatens his wife and children, Harrison must decide whether to save himself at any cost, or do what's right and break his bargain with the mysterious group behind The Desire Card.

The Desire Card is a taut fast-paced thriller, from internationally acclaimed author Lee Matthew Goldberg, that explores what a man will do to survive when money isn't always enough to get everything he desires.

Harrison's life is falling apart. Faced with a crumbling marriage, a failing liver, and loss of his job, he makes a choice that will effect not just the rest of his life but put others in danger as well.
With his wife too wrapped up in her activities, and his kids grown accustomed to his frequent absences none of them notice how seriously ill he has become, and he chooses not to share his diagnosis. Normally I'd have had some sympathy for such a character but Harrison was such an unlikable and weak willed person it was hard to muster up much concern for his well being. However, the events that unfolded after he received his "Desire card" as part of his severance were intriguing  enough to keep me glued to these pages through the surprising reveal at the end. Regardless of my feelings for Harrison the author did a great job of conveying his sheer heart pounding terror and desperation.
4 out of 5 stars
I received a complimentary copy for review.

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About the author

Lee Matthew Goldberg is the author of the novels SLOW DOWN, THE MENTOR, and THE DESIRE CARD. He has been published in multiple languages and nominated for the 2018 Prix du Polar. PREY NO MORE, the second book in The Desire Card series, is forthcoming. His pilots and screenplays have been finalists in Script Pipeline, Stage 32, We Screenplay, the New York Screenplay, Screencraft, and the Hollywood Screenplay contests. After graduating with an MFA from the New School, his writing has also appeared in the anthology DIRTY BOULEVARD, The Millions, Cagibi, The Montreal Review, The Adirondack Review, The New Plains Review, Underwood Press and others. He is the co-curator of The Guerrilla Lit Reading Series (guerrillalit.wordpress.com). He lives in New York City. Follow him at leematthewgoldberg.com and @LeeMatthewG