“No evil ever came from a woman’s womb that wasn’t placed there first by a man.’... Tantie Neptune, Lucifer's Key by Charles A. Cornell”  ― Charles A. Cornell

Evil is such a simple thing. Insidious. Creeping silently on feet of fog, twisting into the home. The heart. The mind and soul. Evil. Darkness walking, talking. It slips along in the night, struts boldly through the light of day. Christians cry, Muslims mourn… but for the followers of Voodoo? Blood rains. Chicken blood. Human blood. All the same, the same, the same. Voodoo worships life, worships health and well being.

Until the darkness comes.

And with the darkness, Papa changes, turns.

Popular media would have you see Papa Legba as a baby-eating, cocaine snorting monster, American Horror Story style. Nothing could be further from the truth. Papa is the guide, the communicator, speaking to the living and the dead – the guardian of the gates to Heaven. No Lwa Baron Samedi, Papa is kind. Until, as with the Christian Devil, He is twisted, changed, darkened . . .

 “We used to know we were stronger than the devil”- Amiri Baraka

The Dark Voodoo reigns in Voodoo on Bayou LaFonte. The swamps have always been dark and dangerous, filled with things that go bump in the night. Things that roar, and grunt, and swallow the unwary. But now, a darker thing creeps about. A ‘thing’ that steals Remy Steinberg’s child. And if Remy, a Houston police officer, is to get her back before the unthinkable happens, he must overcome his (well earned) terror of the swamps.

I am impressed by Susan C. Muller. A Texan, she paid attention to the meanings behind Voodoo, not falling into the “If I don’t understand it, it is evil” mindset. VoBlF has a paranormal bent, but not overwhelmingly so. Instead, it is a study in the ubiquitous banality of evil. Of the monotony of ignorance and inbreeding, and the dreary predictability of avarice. I haven’t read a lot of good books lately, just because I haven’t gotten off my backside and searched them out. (Easily distracted much? Yep.) But Muller has encouraged me to move away from my ‘book slump’ and get back to reading.

If you are at all interested in a good book with a touch of voodoo, a dollop of Louisiana, and a strong insight on just how screwed up being poor in the US can be – read it. I really liked pretty much everything about it.

(Lost a full star for bad editing)
“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
― William Shakespeare, Macbeth

On the banks of the Mississippi, the tiny town of Duncan, Iowa seems so very quiet. Historical Duncan, an oddball blend of shabby industrial plants and quirky, charming historical districts. But Duncan will never be the same. For in the darkness, the Tik-Tik bird sings.

Tik-tik, Tik-tik, tik, tik, tik . . .

The sweet birdsong of Hell.

It begins in the silence of the dawn, above the river, where Police Sergeant Erin Vanderjagt ends her early morning run. Tik-Tik. Tik-Tik. The flap of leathery wings, a monstrous shadow. And then, silence. Silence filled with terror. With pain. And with the cold assurance that nothing will ever be the same – in the worst, most horrific ways imaginable.

A house explodes, taking a neighborhood with it. Bodies begin to fall. And the only person who may hold all the answers is badly burned, locked in a hospital isolation ward – and apparently doesn’t even speak an understandable language. Aswan! Mennon! Gal! Tick tick! Tick tick!

When the Tik-Tik Sings is one of the more creative horror stories I have read. The story is chilling in its very inanity at points – simple sounds, shadows in the night. The beat of wings and the simple Tik-tik from the dark.

A police sergeant. A fireman. A simple man with the mentality of a seven-year-old and a gentle heart. And, an undying monster. Will it end? Or can it?

A story for campfires and dark nights, When the Tik-Tik Sings is the perfect shivery, bump in the night tale.

This is the first Doug Lamoreaux book I have read, and as much as I loved the story, I admit to being disturbed at how a book by an author nominated for the Rondo, Lord Ruthven, and Pushcart prizes, as well as the first-ever recipient of the Horror Society’s Igor Award for fiction, could feel comfortable publishing a book with the number of editorial errors I found doing a simple read, not even looking for them. It was disappointing.

“Edit your manuscript until your fingers bleed and you have memorized every last word. Then, when you are certain you are on the verge of insanity…edit one more time!”
― C.K. Webb

“The serpent, the king, the tiger, the stinging wasp, the small child, the dog owned by other people, and the fool: these seven ought not to be awakened from sleep.” - Chanakya

Oh, Celia keeps on keeping on . . . and what she keeps on with is writing funny, insightful, and suspenseful and, yes, totally hot books that cheer me up and engross me. Mostly quick reads, always with an undercurrent of the human condition, Celia is, in a word, AWESOME!

So, here is the thing. She has a new series, Tiger Tails, that reaches, and in some ways exceeds, her other super-fun series. Ahhh… better than a cup of cocoa on a cold day. Well, even better when you can read her tales while drinking a cup of cocoa, just sayin’.

Now, it’s a tale of a tail – or rather, a bunch of tails. Being literally shoved out of the closet is never pleasant. And for the tigers, well, they never wanted to come out of the “Shifter Closet” at all, no matter what the lions and wolves and bears chose to do. But, things being as they always are, secrets don’t last. And this whopper is going to cause a world of hurt for the tigers. Because, well, grabbing a tiger by the tail has a whole other meaning in Celia’s newest world.

This new series by Celia is a blast. So far centering around the “coming-out-of-the-closet” of the tigers in her much-like-ours world, the first story, Fast and the Furriest introduces us to the tiger pride, and its leader, Ares. Poor Ares. Even though the lions and wolves and bears (Oh, My!) are “Out” to the public, the tigers just want to be left alone. And they stay hidden – that is, until they are rudely shoved out of the closet by an article, complete with photos, in a nasty little bit of yellow journalism. An article printed under the byline of the woman Ares thought was his. Oops. Of course, it doesn’t help that the article points out that, if you can pull a tiger’s tail, he (or she) belongs to you forever. Ah, Hell, thou hast no idiocy such as that of a human shifter stalker. “Uh, hey, lady? Really not cool to terrorize the poor pregnant tiger lady up a tree trying to pull her tail. Uh, yeah, I said PREGNANT tiger LADY.” Oy. Needless to say, it was a zoo. And it doesn’t help that DoPE (Department of Paraphysical Entities) is trying to capture high ranking female shifters in order to force them to mate with humans, so that said humans puppet masters can take over the shifter groups and control them (read: Turn them into war machines). Again, Oy.

As with all of Celia’s work, there is both a large dose of humor and an even larger dose of pathos to be had in her stories. Humans in this world pretty much suck – not surprising – and there are deeper stories here of the ‘human’ condition. But be prepared to burst out laughing in public as well, if you are brave enough to read on the train ;-)

I received Fast and the Furriest from Celia in exchange for a realistic review. I posted this review in a couple of spots, but I apparently pulled a Senior Moment and wandered away while posting, hence a late post to my site and multiple others. Oops! I still Love Ya, Celia!!!

Here is the thing, Celia. You are pretty much the Queen of Awesome-sauceness. So say I, and so say we all! And who couldn’t agree? Everything that flows from your pen (computer? Tablet? Whateves.) is a delicious blend of funny, dramatic, suspenseful, and just darn fun!

Take You’re Kitten Me. The newest series by Celia is a blast. So far centering around the “coming-out-of-the-closet” of the tigers in her much-like-ours world, the first story, Fast and the Furriest introduced us to the tiger pride, and its leader, Ares. Poor Ares. Even though the lions and wolves and bears (Oh, My!) are “Out” to the public, the tigers just want to be left alone. And they stay hidden – that is, until they are rudely shoved out of the closet by an article, complete with photos, in a nasty little bit of yellow journalism. An article printed under the byline of the woman Ares thought was his. Oops. Of course, it doesn’t help that the article points out that, if you can pull a tiger’s tail, he (or she) belongs to you forever. Ah, Hell, thou hast no idiocy such as that of a human shifter stalker. “Uh, hey, lady? Really not cool to terrorize the poor pregnant tiger lady up a tree trying to pull her tail. Uh, yeah, I said pregnant tiger lady.” Oy. Needless to say, it was a zoo. And it doesn’t help that DoPE (Department of Paraphysical Entities) is trying to capture high ranking female shifters in order to force them to mate with humans, so that said humans puppet masters can take over the shifter groups and control them (read: Turn them into war machines). Again, Oy.

In this second book, the women are still under attack, and the stakes continue to get higher. A few women have been taken or attacked and had their tails pulled – Ares sister among them. And the daughter of the national wolf alpha, Veronica, “Ronnie” to her friends, has been attacked twice. Desperate to protect her, her father sends her back to the tigers, where her best friend and Ares mate, Zoe, lives. Only, they aren’t on the ground for ten minutes before Ronnie is attacked by humans – twice. Though she has a knife at her throat, the human press don’t catch that part, only the part where Ares’ Second, Branden, and two of his security team kill two of the attackers and critically injure one. Don’t mess with an Alpha Second when his ‘gonna be mate, no matter if she is a wolf or not’ has a knife at her throat. Ah, well. So much for the whole “We really are just harmless little kitty cats” motif. And of course, DoPE (perfect acronym, BTW) jumps on the opportunity to lock up Branden, his security team – and Ronnie as well. And you can just bet what will happen to poor Ronnie if a certain manipulative General gets his hands on her. Daughter of the National Wolf Alpha, chosen of the National Tiger Second? Score for General Disgusting Monster, all the way around. Hum… you know, as usual, the humans come off as the true monsters. Well, yeah, I can see it. If shifters showed up amongst us tomorrow, you can pretty much call it from the UF books – some salivate to get themselves a piece of ‘critter ass’ while others variously hate, intend to kill, and intend to force them into military service – or onto autopsy tables – in the name of ‘National Security’. Sigh. Hey, as if the guy next door who mowed your yard for you when you were sick and his wife who brought you chicken soup are suddenly monsters just because you suddenly found out that they like to run on four legs when the urge strikes. Ugh. Humans. The gift that keeps on needing a good gene pool cleaning . . .

So, again, Celia is Awesomesauce to the Max! And you really should rush right to your reading device, or local book store, and grab up everything she has written. But starting with the Tiger Tails series is a great start if you haven’t done so already. Enjoy! I absolutely did.

I sometimes get books from Celia in exchange for realistic reviews, but in this case, I just bought it. Couldn’t help myself – So excited to get the next in the series!

I had really fun Halloween. Well, a fun reading Halloween. Out here we don’t get trick-or-treaters, but I did get to read The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride by Kristen Painter. Truthfully, I am not a vampire lover. As anyone reading my reviews knows, after working in the morgue, the whole ‘kissing the dead’ thing just really doesn’t do it for me. But in this case, the mythology Kristen developed made it a whole lot more fun for me.

Delaney James is in a bad spot. After seeing her boss at the restaurant shoot someone, and getting caught at catching him, she is on the run. Slipping into a business to slip her pursuers, she finds it to be a dating service. Snatching a file off the desk, she finds herself posing as a match for a groom-to-be. Hummm . . . gunned down by a mobster, or faking being a bride wannabe? Easy peasy.

Only, it really isn’t. Because not only does her possible groom not actually not want to be a groom (those pesky moms and their manipulations in order to get grandkids can be a real pain – even if they are really, really old) he is a 400-year-old vampire. Uh. She certainly didn’t expect THAT!

The town of Nocturne Falls, where Halloween is a 365 day event, is a character in the book all on its own. A great one at that. This is book one, and I can hardly wait to dig into the next. Great fun with a light and fluffy attitude!

1865. While the US is enjoying the end of the Civil War, in London the Liberals take over Parliament in the form of Lord Palmerston, who died that same year leaving Lord John Russell as Prime Minister. And Lady Jane Grey has sent a note to her platonic love, Charles Lenox.

Dearest,

Would you come over before supper, perhaps at a little past six o’clock? Something has happened. Do come, Charles.
Yours, faithfully,
&c.
Jane

What follows is a tale of mystery, politics, society and the upper-crust formality for which the Victorian period is so well known. Lenox is no Lord Peter Whimsey – he is much more reserved, his intelligence sharp, but quieter and more reserved.

This is very much a “Victorian Cozy” mystery, with interesting characters and a landscape that pulls you into the sights, scents and sounds of Victorian London. Honestly, I requested the book by mistake, as I wouldn’t normally read a historical (it simply isn’t my genre) but I still enjoyed it.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

This is Shannon West. I'm very grateful to my friends and fans for all their love and support for my series Dark Hollow Wolf Pack.  I have a new publisher for my series, and a smokin' hot cover to boot!  I hope you will indulge me for just a moment as I reveal the cover for my newest book - Kian's Alpha - which comes out on October 1st.  I hope you will all love it as much as I do!

- Shannon West

The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead

One Breath Book review of The Children of Húrin — for Hobbit Day!

I was so excited to get BSI for free on Amazon. I love "Supernatural Cop" stories, and this sounded right up my alley. Sadly, I was disappointed. The editing of the book is horrendous. It is filled with misused words, bad punctuation, and every other sort of editorial and writing mishap I can think of. It is curious that books this badly edited are still gaining five-star ratings? I see the author has several books out on the market, so possibly it is the "Gray" conundrum - a book or author is popular with a group and suddenly they can do no wrong? I would hate to think that readers these days are so inured to bad writing that they simply overlook the fact that books are poorly written and edited. That reflects poorly on readers and writers everywhere. I find it difficult to believe that writers simply don't care about the quality of their work, but I am sadly led to believe that this is the case based on clear evidence from the number of sloppy presentations I have been subjected to over the last months.

Oh, and BTW? Fingerprinting was being used in 1858. Sir William Herschel, the British Administrator in District of India, began requiring both fingerprints and signatures on contracts. In 1891 Juan Vucatich of the Argentinean Police Force began using fingerprints for identification of criminals. In 1892, Sir Francis Galton published the first book on fingerprint analysis, setting up a system that was known for the next century as "The Galton System." These are just a few of the highlights of the history of fingerprinting as a criminalistics tool. It wasn't something "New" in 1946. If you are going to write about technical issues, please do your research?

This book had potential, but to my great disappointment it was not realized and I finally gave up and DNF. I won't be reading any more of her books.

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here!” - Dante Alighieri

“He, who had done more than any human being to draw her out of the caves of her secret, folded life, now threw her down into deeper recesses of fear and doubt. The fall was greater than she had ever known, because she had ventured so far into emotion and had abandoned herself to it.” ― Anaïs Nin

A day and a half. A few hours, cold and weary. Lost. Afraid.

“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.” ― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Hell truly is dark. And it opens up in the mountains above Durango Colorado, in a ghost town forgotten for one hundred seven years. Abandon. Abandon all hope, for Abandon is the home of death. The home of the darkness which fills the human soul.

Twisting. Twisting.

Abandon was once a thriving gold mining town, filled with people, light and laughter. “The whores, the opium, the fun”, but hey, it was the gold rush, and everything goes. But then, the gold vein faded out, people wandered away. And by the time Christmas day of 1893 arrived, and only a small number of people remain.

Jocelyn Maddox, the barkeep and black widow, waiting for the snows to pass in the spring when she will be transported to Arizona to hang for her crimes. Ezekiel and Gloria Curtice, the local lawman and his wife. A preacher, a deputy, a few families. Abandon is dying. Dying.

Dead.

Now, six people return to Abandon. Scott Sawyer and Jerrod Spicer, mountain guides. Emmett and June Tozer, paranormal photographers. Lawrence Kendall, university professor and specialist on everything Abandon. And Abigail Foster, New Yorker, outdoor magazine journalist, and estranged daughter of Lawrence. They have climbed to 13,000 feet, then dropped 2,000 to the ghost town of Abandon. And then, they too begin to die.

Moving through the abandoned Abandon, you can almost see the town itself, in all its disintegration. Gasping in the thin, high-altitude air. The scent of firs and snow, the cordite scent of landslides. Dry rot and age. And then? Fear. Blood. Desperation. Death.

Blake Crouch is a master of edge-of-your-seat suspense. Horror on a human scale. Breathtaking terror so thick in the air the reader gasps, feeling the cold upon the skin, the terror deep in the heart and mind.

“Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people” ― Dante Alighieri, The Inferno

Enter at your own risk.

I received Abandon from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

“There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death.” - bell hooks

A meth addict mother. Check. A brutal, drunken stepfather. Check. Living in a hellhole of an apartment, waiting for said stepfather to storm into her room and rape her. Double check. Jayna Winston fled into the night on the very night that nearly happened. Bloody, beaten and alone.

Fast forward to the present day, and Jayna finds herself in a hell of a mess. In Paige Tyler’s mythology, werewolves are created at times of great terror and pain, and Jayna’s change came that terrifying night. Now, her alpha, Liam, has placed his small pack into the hands of the Albanian mob, locked them into committing crimes, from theft to murder. Murder. And Liam apparently doesn’t care that his tiny pack is in danger of being killed every time they commit a crime. That right this very moment Jayna’s life is in danger.

Because Liam said there were no werewolves in Dallas. Especially no alpha werewolves. But now, in a warehouse in a bad part of Dallas, Jayna and the omega wolves Liam has taken in – huge, ruthless, savage – are surrounded. Surrounded by a SWAT team composed completely of wolves. Alpha wolves.

A whole pack of alpha wolves. Toe-to-toe to one of said wolves, Jayna knows she will never survive. Until the alpha wolf dumps her into a packing crate, tells her to be very, very quiet – and then pours a shipment of very expensive perfume over the crate to block her scent.

What the . . . ?

Why did that happen? And to make it even weirder, the alpha, Eric Becker, tracks her down. But he doesn’t arrest her. He wants to help. Liam may have dropped Jayna and her tiny pack into certain death, but Becker wants to help. No one has ever offered to actually help Jayna. Now she and Megan, Moe, Joseph and Chris, three beta wolves, can no longer rely on Liam. And without Liam’s strength, they can’t leave, can’t fight back.

But Becker has a plan. First, he has to present himself as an omega, and be accepted by Frasheri, the Albanian mob boss, and his underboss, the psychopath Kostandin. And then? Well, here is what is going to happen . . .

Tyler’s mythology is interesting in its difference. Neither Jayna nor her pack members, or Becker himself, have been wolves for very long, all learning what it means. All have things to teach one another. Jayna is terrified, of course, of losing her much loved pack members, even Liam who sold them out to the mob in exchange for money and the illusion of power. To save them she will have to be stronger than she ever could have imagined. And she comes through beautifully. Becker and his people are strong, of course, but also very human in the best sort of way. A pleasant read.

I received In the Company of Wolves from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

“I never wanted to be pregnant. I want to paint. I don’t want to burp a baby, feed it bottles, change dirty diapers. Shit! You know that.” – Serena Middleton, wife of Dr. Jessee Bradford

Serena never wanted to be married. Never wanted to have a baby. But, she did both. Sophia is a beautiful child, and Serena seems to settle. She is painting, Jessee is working as a veterinarian in a 24-hour emergency animal hospital, and they are happy.

Then one day Jessee comes home to an empty house. And neither the FBI nor private investigators can find Serena and Sophia. Kidnapping? Or did Serena simply run, taking Sophia with her? Jessee doesn’t know and, subject to panic attacks and severe depression he decides to leave Santa Monica and return to his home in Iowa to take over his grandfather’s veterinary practice.

There, he learns to relax. To enjoy his grandparent’s company, and even finds someone to love. But then? A visit to a gallery changes everything. Is Jessee’s life destroyed? Or will all his dreams come true?

There are things I liked about the story, and other things that didn’t quite work for me. The book it written in first person, which sometimes works, but in this case simply led to “telling not showing.” It made the story slow going, and I found myself flipping pages to get past the boring parts. Delagrange also devolves into the trite and corny much too heavily for my tastes. For example, there is an instance at the very end, involving Laura, that was just too ‘smarmy on steroids’ for me. It was OK, but not a book I will keep in my stash.

I received Taken Away from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

The Afghanistan war has been something of a testing ground for women in combat, with coalition members including Canada, Germany, Poland, and Sweden deploying women in frontline units for the first time. No significant problems were reported in the British survey, and some militaries found that women officers were more effective at some tasks, such as gathering intelligence from female civilians. – Joshua E. Keating, “Foreign Policy: Women on the Front Lines” February 3, 2012

Women in combat. Wow. Now there is a discussion as ‘hot-button’ as religion in the US. And M.L. Buchman pushes that button, hard, in his “Target Engaged.” And he does a Kick Ass job of it.

Buchman’s book couldn’t be more “up to the moment.” The news for September 11, 2015 was full of the results of the Marine Corp study carried out to test women in special operations combat situations. There was some good news, but mostly bad. The worst? The Marine study didn’t follow the guidelines set up for the test!! Instead of doing what they would do with the men special ops candidates, i.e., choosing the very best the Corp has to offer to go through special training, they chose “average.” AVERAGE??? Oh, cut me a freakin’ BREAK! AS IF they would choose “Average” males to go through special ops training! So, they got the results they were going for. Most of the women failed. Well, here is a little secret – Most of the men failed as well! That’s why they call it ‘special’ training. They weed out the weak. Of course, the articles you find on the net are varied by exactly who was writing them. Hampton Roads put the worst (read, most misogynist) spin on the results, while Stripes Okinawa was the most balanced I could find. I am embarrassed for the Marines, that they thought it necessary to try their best to skew the results for a bad outcome.

Where Buchman gets it right, and thrills me that I was offered his book for review, is in how he handles this issue with his Delta aspirant, Sergeant Carla Anderson. Carla is what the Marines should have aspired to in their test. She is no unbelievable Superwoman. She is simply a Soldier. An Army Sergeant with experience, intelligence, and above all, a drive to succeed that is unparalleled. And Buchman makes her believable. She is the kind of woman I always dreamed of being. Tough and ready to face the pain, but at the same time she is kind. She doesn’t take shit, but she doesn’t turn away from it either. She faces it all head-on. And when you dunk a fellow recruit’s head in the slit trench when he tries that misogynistic, hateful crap on you, well, the others have a tendency to stand back and let you do what you are going to do.

Buchman takes you through Delta training without pulling punches. I, of course, have no idea if what the recruits go through is realistic, but hey, it didn’t feel ‘unrealistic’ so I am going with it.

And, hey. Marines? You should read the book. Of 104 who started, all but Carla male, only seven graduated to the next level of training. And only five of those survived. Now THAT is realism in your training, kids.

Anyway. After a month of weeding out the weak, another of perfecting and tuning, the five remaining members of the class, including Anderson, are sent on their first operation. Venezuela, home of the “elected dictatorship” that runs on guns and drugs. And of course, having a woman on the team, especially one who has gone through Delta training and has a perfect, healthy body is, well, the perfect distraction for a drug lord’s guards. Just swagger across the compound with your shirt unbuttoned and everyone’s attention is riveted – enough to assure that picking them off is a piece of cake!

With that CIA run mission taken care of, they move immediately to the next. And the next may take them all out before they have been on the job for a week.

This is high-action, ladies and gents. Well written, exciting, and believable I found myself glued to my reader screen. Who needs food? Or sleep? Not when I can be reading Buchman! I had never read his work before, but I am loading all of his work into my Wish List.

The only thing that made me uneasy? This is a member of the “romantic suspense” genre. As such, Carla and Special Forces Sergeant First Class Kyle Reeves, one of the five, have a relationship. Buchman actually handles it well, but the very fact of the relationship aspect gave me pause. One of the things that women in the military face is sexual harassment. One of the things the military faces is women in the military being in relationships, and getting knocked up by, other soldiers. This is something that soldiers like Lance Cpl. Callahan Brown, one of the two women who survived the recent Marine test, has to face every day. All she wants is to be the best possible combat soldier. However, it is made harder than it should be, not only by the military brass and their fellow soldiers, but by other women who don’t have the fortitude to “Ovary-up” and concentrate on business, not what is between their legs. Buchman handles it fairly well, but it was still a concern for me, that Carla was distracted a couple of times from the business at hand by drooling over her fellow soldier. Of course, he was distracted at times as well, so goose and gander.

PUBLISHING DECEMBER 1, 2015

I received ”Target Engaged” from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own.

“Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity.” -- Zun Zi

“As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities.” -- Desmond Tutu

Plato, bless him, was wrong. No matter how intelligent he was. He said, “To prefer evil to good is not in human nature.” Possibly it was simply a blind spot. Or a “if wishes were horses” sort of thing. Because people, no matter who they are, or what they believe in, are balanced on a knife’s edge of savagery. Some more than others, of course. But for some? For some, there is no other choice but the darkness. Twisted, rotting souls, aching for the pleasure of blood and agony. Needing the death, the pain they bring to others. Then there are the soulless ones – the ones born with no conscience, no light. Those who live only for the game of death. A game.

Simply a game.

Emma know about the game. Her grandparents were pawns, many years ago, when the TBK Killer took their lives. As if “took their lives” could possibly portray the horror of their deaths. Torture. Blind. Kill. Only, the truly cruel part? They left her father alive. Her father, who never recovered. Who lives in hiding, drunk and brutal and broken. So, Emma tries to understand. She gathered all of the monster’s letters to his victims she could find. Created files. Notes. Timelines. She learned everything she could about the monster who destroyed her family. She isn’t educated, she likes big trucks and dirt bikes, and she has only a single friend. But she is holding it together, working as a mechanic and sculpting in left-over metal and junk parts. She is alive. Sort of.

Jacob. Jacob is different from Emma, but in many ways the same. His father was the cop who brought down Mitchell Land, the TBK Killer. Mitchell Land, who killed himself in prison. Jacob’s father was never the same after that case. Bitter, silent, he never recovered. His father treated Emma’s horribly – hounding the child until he broke from the pressure. Until Emma’s father collapsed under the weight of not only what he saw, but the brutality of the police who were so determined to catch the killer, they destroyed the child’s soul. So. Much. Pain.

Now, years later, Jacob is a cop himself. And one day, he receives a letter. Then another. Letters which, while not exactly the same, reflect those of the TBK Killer. When his politician lieutenant refuses to listen, blowing off the letters as the work of kids or a creep with a personal grudge and knowledge of Jacob’s history, Jacob turns to Emma, hoping her collection will help him to discover if what he thinks is true. There is another serial killer out there – and his next target is Jacob.

Now, the bodies are piling up. And all of them have a connection to Emma. The two of them will have to work together to save one another. And with the FBI shutting them out, can they protect one another from a monster? Oh, but there is more to it than that. A lot more. A type of sick savagery that is both horrific – and yet totally believable. A truth that surely has Plato rolling in his grave.

This is one twisted tale, delving into the darkest depths of what is so lightly called the ‘human soul.’ Or rather, the very fact that, realistically? There are a lot of people out there who simply don’t have what we so blithely call a soul. Homo sapiens so dark, so evil, that even giving them the name isn’t truly realistic.

Homo pravissimus.*

This is a dark and bloody tale, and totally, completely compelling. Well, I can say that with a proviso of sorts. Sidney Bristol is a romance author who happens to write “romantic suspense.” So, there is a lot of sex in the book. I found it disappointing, actually. I am fine with romantic suspense. I like it in fact. But it is when an author like Bristol, who is such an exceptional suspense writer, puts so much sex into a book that it overshadows the suspense, well, I am disappointed. Of course, others will find the sex part to be exactly why they like the book, so to each their own. Be that as it may, I am glad I was offered the opportunity to read the book.

I received Blind from the publisher in exchange for a realistic review. All thoughts are my own and are based upon personal literary tastes.

* prāvissimus – (Latin) Adjective - ‎(superlative of prāvus) 1. most or very deformed; 2. most or very depraved