by Thurdy Rating: **** Oddities  is an aptly named collection of eleven weird and quirky short stories that fall under the speculative fiction umbrella as they mash up and/or move broadly between horror, sci-fiction, and fantasy.   However, this description is rather too simplistic, frankly, Oddities , is a mixed bag of downright surrealism. There is a seam of subtle cynical humor through most tales, some are fairly similar in theme and a couple carry motifs from others. All,

by R. David Fulcher Rating: **** The Pumpkin King and Other Tales of Terror  is a concise collection of twenty horror shorts, some only a few pages, and all subtly different in form, perspective, and tone. There is a reassuringly classic feel to Fulcher’s horror anthology which opens with “ Eulogy to E.A. Poe ”. Overall, the tales are traditionally spooky, with a couple of exceptions, and combined with Fulcher’s measured yet descriptive prose provide spine-tinglingly creepy r

by Kathryn Amurra Rating: **** Val Nikolov was a skeptical nineteen-year-old when his Bulgarian grandmother gifted him an amulet, claiming it had magical properties. Seventeen years later, Val is wealthy and successful, thanks to the amulet, and about to oversee a lucrative acquisition of his company, Span Global. Temp contract attorney, Alex Weaver, is helping Span Global with the due diligence process. When an employee's departure places the acquisition at risk, she has to

by Chas Halpern Rating: **** The Physics of Relationships  is a lovely novel that I found a light, easy read although it explores subjects far from light or easy. Halpern examines issues including loss, relationship dynamics, and forgiveness through the reflections of Lexi, a recently widowed sixty-three-year-old. Using the immediacy of the first-person perspective, Lexi shares her thoughts, opinions, and internal conflicts as she navigates unexpected lodgers, strange proposa

Edited by Donald K. Hartman Rating: **** The Hypnotic Tales of Rafael Sabatini , edited by Hartman, contains two stories originally published in the early 20th century by Rafael Sabatini, a writer who gained immense popularity in the 1920s and 30s for his swashbuckling romances. These earlier stories deal with hypnotism, a theme he did not revisit in his career although he introduces the character of Dr. Roger Galliphant, an eminent authority on hypnotism, to help solve the m

by PD Alleva Rating: **** From the Carnival of Chaos to the Carnival of Souls, Jigglyspot, the half-human, five-foot clown presides over both and more for his demonic paymasters. There is nothing Jiggly won’t fix or arrange aided by his loyal troop of fiendish clowns and, with the Summer Solstice at the Cannibal Café approaching, he needs to find bodies, lots of bodies… Jigglyspot and the Zero Intellect is an intense and gore-splattered epic psychological horror that moves

by John James Minster Rating: **** The Vengeful Dead is a collection of 11 short horror stories, which, overall, as the title implies, have the connecting theme of revenge from beyond the grave. The Vengeful Dead is an addictive and readable anthology. The book will not change your life, but it will afford you a solidly entertaining, full-throttle, gore-laden few hours, and I enjoyed galloping through it. The stories do occasionally lack depth. However, there are contrasts

by Julie Cabitto Rating: **** William Newman was born in Virginia, in 1744. In his ninety-ninth year, two of his granddaughters, Martha and Varinda, suggest, given his remarkable life, that he allows them to write down as much of it as he can remember. William Newman’s Adventures is the record of that life, memory by memory… Cabitto has written a lovely, warm, and heartfelt novel which is unsurprising as Newman is one of her ancestors. His story and the time in which he live

by Andrew W. Pearson Rating: **** Forty-seven-year-old failed screenwriter Anthony Wilson leaves Hollywood behind to help run the Asian arm of his twin brother’s AI company. Once in Macau, Anthony’s client is a prominent and infamous casino operator, Cash Cheang. Cash wants Anthony to design a facial recognition software package for his casino and enlists him to help sell a new crypto coin. As the money piles up, so does the laundering, corruption, and betrayal. But is the bi

by Gail Ward Olmsted Rating: **** Forty-two-year-old Miranda Quinn has bounced back with a late-night phone-in legal advice radio show broadcast from her home studio in Old Lyme, Connecticut. It’s proving popular and Miranda’s life has turned around significantly in the last two years, things could not be better. However, when her best friend’s son is arrested on seemingly watertight sexual offense charges and then a creepy caller to her radio show starts to escalate his thre

by Chet Nairene Rating: **** Beginning in 1968 and spanning just under four decades, Pacific Dash unfolds the adventures of Dashiell (“Dash”) Xavier Bonaventure II. When his father’s tractor company posts the family to Hong Kong from rural Illinois, fifteen-year-old Dash believes it will be a temporary move. However, he couldn’t be more wrong and despite a sojourn back in New Hampshire, he spends the next forty years making friends, enemies, and an awful lot of money as he

by Lucy Lyons Rating: **** Alex Martin’s life seems to have stagnated as she approaches thirty with little prospect of things changing anytime soon. However, change they do when her Mum sends her a baffling machine that her late father invented. With the help of housemate, Antony, Alex begins to discover the true purpose of the strange gadget; it finds things. Anything. As the gravity of the machine’s potential becomes startlingly obvious, Alex knows she must use it to reveal

by Jennifer Wright-Berryman Rating: **** There appears to be no motive for the murder of Eric Graham, CEO of a green company start-up, although the words he whispers with his last breath to Shana, his Head Accountant, indicate otherwise. When Shana tells her terminally ill grandfather, Charles, about Eric’s murder, Charles knows this is a case for “The Dying Five”, (TD5) a secret society of, understandably, changing members operating from Courseview Hospice, all of whom are r

by B.C. Walker Rating: **** Idaho, 1885 and a young couple, Simeon and Esther Rapp, together with their eight-year-old daughter, Cassie, arrive to begin a new life as homesteaders. They quickly become central players in the pioneer community and Simeon is integral in irrigating the arid landscape. Modern-day New York, and Emma Rose, an emerging star in the motivational speaking and business consultancy world is trying to cope with the death of her father whose wish is to be b

by Tom Batt Rating: **** Set in London in the late 1980s, Street Siren tells the story of a prostitute, Devlin Hunter, whose partner Roxy is viciously murdered, and her death is filmed for circulation as a snuff movie. Despite clues as to the identity of the killer, the police investigation yields little and when Devlin uncovers a lead, she decides to act alone… Street Siren provides an excellent couple of hours of escapism, the novel is gritty as the subject matter would s

by August Hill Rating: **** Life isn’t great for twenty-four-year-old, Randi Matheson, but it’s about to get a whole worse when her relatives are murdered during dinner by a supernatural beast that bites Randi. During the next full moon, Randi transforms into one of the monsters, nearly killing the remaining members of her family. When she becomes herself again, she is in the employ of “Division X” a secret company that deals with paranormal threats. The Boss of Division X g

by Bronwyn Elsmore Rating: **** New to the town of Rushton, Heather is keen to make friends and get involved. When she is asked to join three women to make up the numbers at their monthly card morning, she jumps at the chance. However, it soon becomes clear that the relationship between the three; Joan, Merryn, and Cecily, stretches back a long way. Can Heather inject new life into the group or was it a mistake to think she could?... I thought I was in for a curl-up cozy read

by George Veck Rating: **** One Visit introduces the reader to twenty-year-old Frankie Gibbs, desperately trying to keep his younger brother, Dazzler, out of care and shield the worst of their father, Guy’s, drug excesses and abuse from him. When Guy is sent to prison, Frankie breathes a sigh of relief, but only briefly, as drug dealers begin to circle Frankie’s home in North Wales and any chance of leading a normal life begins to disappear in a haze of addiction and destruc