Broken Sigil by William Meikle is a dark and mysterious tale about an apartment building where a grieving person can live and remain in contact, although in an odd way, with a deceased loved one.  A NYC Internal Affairs detective named Joe Connors is investigating the shooting death of his former partner and (former) best friend on the force. This investigation is painful because the deceased had been having an affair with our protagonist’s wife. This affair ended over a year prior to the when the action takes place when the wife was tragically killed in an automobile accident. It is through this investigation that the still-heartbroken Joe learns about the apartment were residents can see into the realm of other-worldly. To say any more take away from uniquely dark novella.

Mr. Meikle is a remarkable writer who is able to stretch himself across genres and subplots of the horror and the supernatural. This work started with a decidedly crime/mystery novel flair. At first, I thought I was in for a moody whodunit, but the story progressed into the realm of the supernatural. Interestingly enough, I didn’t feel that the detective component of the story was all that gripping. In fact, I was thinking early on that maybe this would be a misfire of an effort. But once the plot took Joe into the apartment building, I easily slipped into the author’s pacing and I was completely absorbed with the author’s unnerving imagination. The ending may have been a little rushed, but the overall effect is unsettling.

Marrow’s Pit is the third Keith Deininger work of fiction that I have read. This particular read only reinforced the perception that I have about Mr. Deininger – that he has a wonderfully bizarre and twisted imagination and can produce dynamic tales that you don’t frequently encounter – at least I don’t. Marrow’s Pit probably falls under the genre of Steampunk, a sub-category of fantasy horror that I have not explored (or even have an understanding of).

The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the human race lives in subterranean dwellings connected by series of claustrophobic tunnels suggestive of interconnected submarines. The entire massive structure is powered by The Machine, some godlike mechanism developed before any of the current residents were born. No one knows what The Machine is or how it lives, but an intense theology surrounds its very essence.

The main character is Ballard, a manager of a maintenance crew who attends to the Machine. Poor Ballard is married to a woman he constantly demeans and emasculates him as a failure. After years of verbal abuse, he snaps and (accidentally) kills her with a single gunshot. There leads to a major problem: in the world of Marrow’s Pit, weapons are not allowed, and all crime is punishable by being tossed into Marrow’s Pit as sacrifice to The Machine. What is Ballard to do? He can’t go above ground where a monstrous storm rages constantly. He is so indecisive that he leaves his wife’s body in their bedroom. Time goes by, and she starts to, well…decay. The plot is on.

The story is a rather simple one. But the emotional turmoil of Ballard is well-described. His anguish and terror is overwhelming, but then so is the smell. Everything is intense in this novella. The feeling of being trapped in this underground world never leaves the reader. I couldn’t escape a feeling of dread as Ballard descended into madness. Even the smell of oil and the sounds of hissing steam and hydraulics permeated Ballard’s account. The author created an entire environment that took hold and wouldn’t let me go. Overall, this short novella is rich in detail and experience. And, the latter is quite creepy. Highly recommended.

Okay, I admit up front, that I am biased towards liking horror stories written by psychologists. I am not too sure how many there are beyond my immediate sphere of existence, but Gary Fry is a psychologist who writes riveting horror tales. His latest novella, Menace, is a brilliant piece of subtle horror.

Jane Marlow is a successful young model who finds herself pregnant after a brief fling with a TV actor. She begins taking as many modeling jobs as she can before her pregnancy starts showing. One is at an old coastal home in rural England where she is on a shoot that will end up on a book cover. In the process, she has a strange experience – noticing a group of small boys playing dangerously close to a cliff. She sees them only for an instance, and then they are gone. Was she just imagining them? She is perplexed, but diverts her attention to her developing child. When she sees the copy of the print which will serve as the cover, she is stunned to see the boys in the picture with her.

To offer any more information will detract a reader from a clever horror tale which is very shrewd in its delivery. The story is surprisingly complex and yet understated. The reader becomes increasingly uneasy as the plot advances due to incremental chills. Dr. Fry is a master of delicate writing that snares you against your will. I couldn’t figure out what was going to happen to poor Jane. I was essentially glued to my Kindle. Some reviewers complained about the abruptness of the ending, given the pacing that came before. That may be true, but I didn’t mind the resolution. Some also commented on how the ending has been done before. That is also true. Still, Gary Fry had the guts to give it a go, and he had me guessing. This is the third work of his that I have read, and he has jolted me with each one.  Highly recommended.

Man, it has been awhile since I've been on my blog. Let's see, there was the end of the semester activities and overall chaos, then my own kid's college graduation, and then I was knocked on my butt with an incredible nasty respiratory virus. I couldn't remember the last time I was this ill. Anyhow, during this time I managed to read Joe Hill's NOS4A2. This was a considerably longer book than I had been reading recently, so things just more or less got stretched out... So, on with the review.

Vic (short for Victoria)McQueen is saddled with quite a string of interesting, if not often bad, luck. As a child she had a supernatural power we here she could find lost things by mentally constructing a covered bridge to direct her to the missing object’s location. This bridge would appear, however, only when she was riding her trusty bicycle.  This had some pluses; she could locate the missing items after all. But there were downfalls as well. As a result of her travels across physical dimensions, she would suffer for days with headaches and fevers. Her home life wasn’t the best. Her mother was very intense, and behaved as if she had a personality disorder. Her father, though a fun dad, had a tendency to be violent.  As Vic grew into adolescence, she became an incorrigible teen which indirectly led to her to be in a position to be kidnapped by Charlie Manx. Charlie was more than your average sadistic child-abductor. It turns out that did his thirty or so victims prior to Vic were never found. And, we learn, the kids were essentially sucked dry of emotion. Charlie is a vampire of novel design.

Vic becomes the only one to escape Charlie’s clutches. As an adult, Vic is a run-down drug and alcohol addict due to her traumatic past. Though she is in recovery, Vic struggles every day with her sanity. She has managed to do a few things right though:  she has a great partner named Lou who is a lovable slob of a guy, she has a great 12 year old son named Wayne who is one of those great kids, and she has managed to publish a couple of highly successful puzzle books for kids. What could go wrong? Well, Charlie Manx for sure. Although he dies in prison, Charlie really can’t die. He comes after Vic and kidnaps her son. The chase is on.

Joe Hill has written a solid escapist horror piece of fiction. NOS4A2 has all the elements to make it work well. There is the main character with supernatural powers, a cool villain, an irresistible child protagonist, and a monstrous car. Mr. Hill has clearly taken to heart the ingredients used successfully by his father. And why not? They work well here because Mr. Hill is a good writer. I don’t think this book is as good as one of his earlier novel, The Heart-Shaped Box. The first half of the novel (when Vic is a child) is a tad disjointed. Likewise, Charlie does not quite instill the necessary chills a creature of his stature should. In fact, I thought, Charlie’s human sidekick, Bing, was a creepier guy, hands down. But, when the reader moves into the second part of the story when Vic is an adult and Wayne is kidnapped – hold on. The action takes off like a rocket and I had to hold on tight for the ride. The ending series of events is indeed very creepy and breath-taking.