Tales from the Fringes of Fear by Jeff Szpirglas, ills. by Steven P. Hughes

Most kids don't have to stress about things like exotic insects with a taste for human flesh when they go to class. But students at this school have to be ever vigilant. You never know when a supernatural pastry or a clay monster bent on revenge might be lurking just around the corner. Even a simple field trip to a local animal sanctuary can have ssserious consequences.

Dragged fresh from the grave and pulled out of the haunted corners of a school locker, these thirteen new stories are a nod to the storytelling style of Tales from the Crypt and The Twilight Zone. They are guaranteed to make you laugh like a hyena, shake your head in wonder or tremble with fear.

A companion volume to Tales from Beyond the Brain

This is a collection of 13 fun and freaky stories with a target audience of middle graders and yet you really don't have to be a kid to enjoy them. My favorites were Sweet As Pie where a trip to a farmer's market and a sweet treat turn into a nightmare for one unlucky girl, and The Way Of The Golem in which a lonely friendless boy creates some otherworldly companions. While the other stories were spine tingly fun those 2 were full on scary. If your kids have enjoyed Goosebumps or they watch Creeped Out I would highly recommend this book for them, and even for you.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

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About the author

Jeff Szpirglas has had a varied career. He's shoveled manure, worked in a steelyard (he hails from Hamilton, after all), and even frolicked in the offices at CTV Television and Chirp, chickaDEE, and OWL magazines, where he was the kids' page editor. His manure-shoveling days long behind him, Jeff currently teaches children by day and writes books/fights supervillains by night.

Boy in the Box by Marc E.Fitch

Ten years ago a mysterious and tragic hunting accident deep in the Adirondack Mountains left a boy buried in a storied piece of land known as Coombs' Gulch and four friends with a terrible secret. Now, Jonathan Hollis and brothers Michael and Conner Braddick must return to the place that changed their lives forever in order to keep their secret buried. What they don't realize is that they are walking into a trap - one set decades earlier by a supernatural being who is not confined by time or place: a demon that demands a sacrifice.



The story begins with a funeral, and though it is literal I also took it as a symbol of the death of a friendship that never quite survived the events that occurred a decade earlier. Four best friends had set out for a last hurrah, before one of them tied the knot. They returned forever changed. Now the four best friends are merely three. Three who struggle to live with the secret and yet will do whatever it takes to make sure it stays hidden. It is with this goal that they set out to Coomb's Gulch, a forsaken and desolate area where they once hunted but which now holds less of nature and more of the supernatural. These earlier pages moved a bit slow for my taste but once we passed the heavy atmosphere of the road trip and reached the destination the fear factor kicked up several notches and I was hooked. You can't go to Coomb's Gulch and expect to live happily ever after, but God help you if you get out the first time and go back for more.

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author
Marc E. Fitch is the author of Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs, and Bigfoot (Praeger) and the novels Old Boone Blood and Paradise Burns, which is forth-coming from Damnation/Eternal Press. His fiction has appeared in such publications as ThugLit, The Big Click, eHorror, Horror Society, and Massacre. He recently won the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship for his upcoming work, Shmexperts: How Ideology and Power Politics are Disguised as Science. His nonfiction has appeared in the Federalist, World Net Daily, American Thinker and The Skeptical Inquirer. He currently lives in Harwinton, CT with his wife and four children and works in the field of mental health.

Seven Cleopatra Hill by Justin Holley

For the idyllic mountain town of Jerome, Arizona, a blizzard is coming. A storm of such magnitude, the likes of which the town hasn’t seen in thirty years. Nestled at the top of the mountain is the Jerome Grand Hotel, a historic inn rumored to be haunted. The perfect setting for both a Romance writer’s convention and ghost hunter enthusiasts, alike. James Landes is neither, but his wife Victoria is a writer, and he’s hoping for a weekend away at her convention filled with sex, food, and fun. But in this blizzard, there is more than snow and ice. There is an evil born from rituals of long ago, and only Jerome’s lifelong residents know how to stop it. James never believed in the supernatural, but if he wants to make it out of this weekend alive, he will have to embrace it.


If I told you I just read a creepy book about people trapped in a haunted hotel with a raging blizzard on the way you might think I just finished The Shining. You'd be wrong. I just finished Seven Cleopatra Hill.
What seems to start off as a simple ghost story soon morphs into murder and mayhem when romance writer Vic and her school teacher husband James decide to ride out the storm instead of getting the hell out of dodge when they had the chance. Also stranded at the hotel are a couple of ghost hunting kids who have experience that may come in handy if only the spirits were the worst things to fear. The ghosts in the hotel are pretty tame compared to what's out there in the blizzard and heads will roll if it doesn't get what it wants. If you're looking for a gory good time, this is it.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

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About the author
Justin is the author of the novels SEVEN CLEOPATRA HILL, BRUISED, WEDNESDAY'S CHILD, and THE GULLIES, as well as, several short stories published in magazines and anthologies around the world. BRUISED was mentioned in Brian Keene's "Top Ten Books of 2015". He also investigates the paranormal with a TAPS-family group and plays volleyball twice a week. Correspondence from his fans is encouraged, and the best way to contact him is through his website: www.justinholley.com

The Beetle by Richard Marsh

Description

A creature that seems to have crawled out of our worst nightmares...

Meet Paul Lessingham: an up-and-coming statesman, known for his unflappable calm, winning the respect of his peers and the admiration of the people with his powerful convictions and finely crafted speeches in Parliament. A man at the height of his powers, politically and personally, recently engaged to a beautiful young woman who adores him. A man on top of the world—reduced to a cowering, sniveling heap of abject terror at the utterance of two words: "The BEETLE!"

Set in London at the end of the nineteenth century, this blood-chilling tale is told from the viewpoints of four characters who have the distinct misfortune of stumbling into a diabolical scheme of revenge, with a scorned would-be lover—a strange, seemingly magical creature—at its core. Snubbed marriage proposals, secret engagements, deadly chemical experiments, and mysterious visitors all weave their hypnotic spell upon the reader, culminating in a desperate hunt for an abducted young woman whose life, it seems, is the price to be paid for her lover's indiscretion some twenty years prior.

Though published the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Richard Marsh's The Beetle was far more popular in its day. This curated edition, based on the original 1897 publication by Skeffington and Sons, London, will horrify and delight the modern reader with its timeless tale of jealousy and its many hideous faces—as relevant today as it was over 100 years ago.


When I saw that this was published in the same time frame as Dracula and was for a time even more popular than Bram Stoker's masterpiece I knew I had to read it. Now for me that comparison is a high standard to live up to, and The Beetle did not quite make it.
A homeless man climbs through a window of what he thinks is an empty dwelling, in a desperate attempt to find shelter from the cold rain. Instead he finds himself under the control of a strange being with supernatural powers. After this fascinating start it began to lose me towards the middle and just did not measure up to it's contemporary. Others may enjoy it more than I did.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

About the author
Richard Marsh (October 12, 1857–August 9, 1915) was the pseudonym of the British author born Richard Bernard Heldmann. He is best known for his supernatural thriller The Beetle: A Mystery, which was published in the same year as Bram Stoker's Dracula and was initially even more popular. The Beetle remained in print until 1960, and was subsequently resurrected in 2004 and 2007. Heldman was educated at Eton and Oxford University. He began to publish short stories, mostly adventure tales, as "Bernard Heldmann," before adopting the name "Richard Marsh" in 1893. Several of the prolific Marsh's novels were published posthumously