supernatural horror | Author, editor, caffeine-addict, wannabe ninja

It’s amazing what a good (bad?) earworm can do, and so this morning’s Festivus Book Pimping comes to you via ‘Jolene’. Seriously, I’ll be shit-singing this for days now. <shakes fist at Charles>

We’re side-stepping out of fantasy for a moment and diving face-first into supernatural horror via the Griffin & Price novels masterfully penned by two of my favourite people – James A Moore and Charles R Rutledge (yes, despite the earworm).

The series consists of three books (so far): Blind Shadows, Congregations of the Dead, and A Hell Within. Each follows the trials and tribulations of Brennert County Sheriff Carl Price and his best friend, ex-mercenary turned PI, Wade Griffin. Set in the town (and surrounds) of Wellman, Georgia, a lot of super and preternatural happenings pit Griffin and Price against a host of monsters and nasties.

I love this series, and the two main characters have a rapport beset with humour and sarcasm that’s right up my reading alley. The writing is slick, the monsters are quite literally killer, and the brewing tension between Sheriff Price and the otherworldly Blackbourne clan only ups the ante. The secondary characters add extra depth to the stories, and only build on what is an incredible cast (I’m looking at you, Jolene).

You should be reading this series.

Blind Shadowsblurb:

When private investigator Wade Griffin moved away from his hometown of Wellman, Georgia he didn’t think he would be back. Too many memories and too many bridges burned. But when an old friend is found brutally murdered and mutilated, nothing can keep Griffin from going home. Teamed with another childhood friend, Sheriff Carl Price, Griffin begins an investigation that will lead down darker paths than he could ever have imagined.
Soon Griffin and Price find that there are secrets both dark and ancient lurking in the back woods of Crawford’s Hollow. As Halloween approaches, something evil is growing near the roots of the Georgia mountains, and the keys to the mystery seem to be a woman of almost indescribable beauty and a dead man who won’t stay dead.
As the body count mounts and the horrors pile up, Griffin and Price come to realize that the menace they face extends far beyond the boundaries of Wellman and that their opponents seem to hold all the cards. But the two lawmen have a few secrets of their own, and one way or another there will be hell to pay.

Blurb for Congregations of the Dead:

It’s one of the hottest summers on record and a storm is brewing over the small town of Wellman, Georgia.
Still reeling from the horrific events of the previous October, all Sheriff Carl Price wants is to get back to a normal life. Unfortunately things aren’t working out. He’s got the Brennert County’s DA breathing down his neck for answers about what happened in Crawford’s Hollow. He’s been served with a lawsuit by the Blackbourne family. And just after he witnesses a child abduction, the one person who always puts his life into a tailspin shows up to add to the pressure.
Meanwhile, against his better judgment, Wade Griffin agrees to look for a teenage girl who’s gone missing. It’s not his kind of case, but he’s trying to establish his private investigations business and perhaps abandon his past as a mercenary. But Griffin’s luck isn’t any better than Price’s and he ends up crossing paths with the man behind most of the organized crime north of Atlanta.
Both lawmen have their plates full, but then they learn that there is something abroad in the night. Not the supernatural menace they dealt with before, but something even darker. Just what is the secret of the charismatic Reverend Lazarus Cotton and what is he hiding in his small mountain church?
Once again, Griffin and Price must call upon all their deadly skills just to stay alive and even in the middle of a pitched battle against things that shouldn’t exist they are reminded that sometimes the darkest evils reside within the human heart.

And the third in the series, A Hell Within:

Something dark is looming in Brennert County, Georgia. Sheriff Carl Price and ex-mercenary-turned P.I. Wade Griffin know well the other-worldly undercurrent that runs through the small town of Wellman, but with the Blackbournes trying to rebuild their strength, it seems they can breathe a little easier, Just a little. Griffin starts working a case when he stumbles across a massacre at a drug lab, and when Price is called to the scene of a brutal triple homicide, it has all the markings of Blackbourne retribution. Before the blood is dry, two more people are torn apart. As the body count rises, Griffin and Price find themselves in the middle of a turn war where bullets and black magic are the weapons off choice. Caught between the worlds of monsters and men, Griffin and Price enlist the help of associate Carter Decamp to put an end to the brewing battle. But the gates of Hell have been opened and the beasts won’t be denied their chance to feast.

And as a post-Festivus bonus, there’s a Griffin & Price novella to be released in the latest SNAFU: Resurrection anthology. Over 20,000 words of wicked horror in the form of Call up the Dead, due for release December 27 – pre-orders available here.

Recommended for those who love supernatural horror, horror, fantastic beasties, otherworldly monsters, crime, urban horror, and just general top-notch writing with killer characters.

Not recommended for those who have an aversion to violence, demonic shenanigans, gore.

Happy Festivus! Today I will be pimping author Hank Schwaeble. Yes, I did just read that sentence back but I’m gonna roll with it (minds and gutters, people). The reason for author over book pimping is there are two titles of Hank’s that I’ve read this year, and you need to be reading both of them.

It was American Nocturne where I was first introduced to Hank’s work – a collection of short stories that definitely sit on the dark side of fiction. Hell, it’s horror at its best, and I’d wondered why Hank’s writing hadn’t been on my reader earlier. I mean really, the man’s a two-time Bram Stoker award winner, so… mea culpa.

American Nocturne

Now before we delve further, both titles I’ll be discussing here are put out by Cohesion Press, of whom I’m the editor-in-chief, but as I’ve only managed to read eight books this year due to workload (I stopped counting when I hit four million words – that’s right, four million), there’s going to be some crossover between work and reading outside of work.

Okay, so now we have that out of the way – American Nocturne. There’s a definite noir feel to the stories in here, especially with the title story, which kicks off the collection. There’s so much to love about this collection, and while each story is so very different from the last, it’s Schwaeble’s voice, his storytelling that holds this collection together. Oh, and the twists he delivers with some of the stories are done with such a deft hand, it will have you rereading for an altogether different experience of the story (like two books for the price of one!). You can read a full review of American Nocturne over (here) over at review site Smash Dragons.

The next book of Hank’s is the novel The Angel of the Abyss, and if this cover doesn’t make you want to rush out and buy it, then you and I need to talk. Out the back. In a dark alley.

This is the third in the Jake Hatcher series, but can definitely be read as a standalone. I hadn’t read the previous two novels (Damnable and Diabolical), but I was immediately drawn into the tale of Jake Hatcher – military vet come demon hunter. But Hatcher is well on Hell’s radar, and as demons are wont to do, they mess with him every chance they get. And that’s half the fun, trying to sort the lies from truth while attempting to stop the one hell of a demon taking human form and walking the earth once more. As I’ve come to expect, the twists and turns in this book keep you guessing, they make you think, and there’s not much better than reading a book that involves you, that asks you to take the journey with the characters, because they know just as much as you do about what’s happening. Hatcher is a brash, sarcastic, takes-no-shit character who despite his protestations, wants to do the right thing. He just happens to get thrown into the crapper a lot. There’s black magic, demons, cults, secret military installations… yeah, it’s a heap of fun!

angel-of-the-abyss

You can read reviews of The Angel of the Abyss here and here. But trust me when I say, you’re in for a hell of a ride with this book, and there are more stories due in the series… and it’s only going to get nasty… or nastier.

Both books are highly recommended for lovers of horror, military horror, supernatural, and thrillers.

(Both covers were created by the amazing Dean Samed of Neostock. Check out his work.)