Your Guide To Books

One of my all time favorite vampire novels is Fear Me by Stephen Laws (Leisure, 2005). It is scary and suspenseful. Everything you look for in a horror story.

Prologue

Three women, Yvonne, Bernice, and Jacqueline meet in an underground parking garage with plans to kill a certain man who has literally made their lives a living hell. Yvonne seems the most fragile and frightened of them, but when the man they know as Gideon makes his hideous appearance they each, in turn, fire the gun that finally leaves him unmoving and dead. Or is he?

Part I

Paul visits his mother in an asylum. The doctors have said she suffers from Alzheimer, but she had been in exactly the same state for 12 years. She is always verbally abusive to her son on his visits. Even so Paul felt a duty to be with her as frequently as possible. Later, after Paul has left, his mother wakes up hearing the mesmerizing voices of the trees singing to her. This often happens, and she is the only one who can hear. Sometimes their song is a comfort other times not. The singing today seems a mixture. Still she unhesitatingly follows their command to leave her bed and walk outside the hospital. When she arrives at a forested area a stranger appears with a shotgun, aims it at her and fires.

Soon after, while at the house, Paul and his father are confronted by a young man who storms into their house and attempts to murder both of them. With great difficulty Paul overtakes the man. The father, badly injured, tells Paul he must run and hide because it is Paul they seek. Before he can explain what this means, he falls unconscious. Now Paul is left to his own devices which turn out to be more horrifying than he ever imagines.

My Opinion

Laws understands how to build suspense and keep the spook factor high. This is not a book to read on a dark and stormy night although, even as I say this, I must admit that yesterday evening I was so engrossed in the story that I kept reading even with a terrifically loud thunder storm overhead. Fortunately the lights stayed on.

Dead On is a thrilling, intellectually fearless novel that seamlessly blends horror, mystery, and the paranormal, to deliver a fast paced, provocative and highly entertaining read.Ann Yang hoped to escape the ugliness of her divorce and start over in the quiet Pennsylvania suburb of Doylestown. Settling into her job as Medical Examiner, with renovations to her house underway, she was putting the past where it belonged… in the past. However, that notion is short lived as a ruthless killer begins to hone his sinister craft in Ann’s backyard. When bodies are discovered, obviously staged, the killer’s one-of-a-kind signature placed beneath the tongue, taunting police, Ann finds herself in the middle of a madman’s reality. With her colleagues unaccustomed to high profile crimes and mystified by the murders, Ann calls on close friend and retired FBI profiler, Tony Cole for assistance. Together they follow the clues from Pennsylvania to New Orleans, only to find themselves wrapped in an unending enigma of impossible to answer questions.

Adding yet another dimension to this multi-layered story is the discovery of an old diary that immediately captures Ann’s attention and captivates her unusual abilities of perception. Dating back over a hundred years, the time worn pages reveal intimate details surrounding the disappearance of a young girl, which remained unsolved. Could this be related? Are the hypnosis induced visions of being murdered in past lives clouding or possibly shaping reality? The one thing that is abundantly clear this psychopath has Ann squarely in his sights and she has unwittingly become the ultimate pawn in a high stakes game of cat and mouse.

The characters while sharply drawn are as fluid as the ink of this phenomenal author’s pen. The expert use of dialogue brings the characters to life and delivers a disturbingly delicious reading experience. Although a quick read, Kelly spares no punches when it comes to complexity, depth and suspense. Palpable tension builds as the story speeds, almost recklessly toward the shocking but satisfying conclusion.

Ann Kelly’s tantalizing debut novel is well researched, intelligently portrayed and delivered with unbridled passion. The subtle clues embedded throughout keep the reader involved and guessing, without preemptive spoilers. The mystery within a mystery allows Kelly to simultaneously develop multiple angles, cleverly weaving an intricate web of murder and mayhem, past life regression and brilliant detection. Dead On is an absolute knock out!

Happy Reading!