Every Sigh, the End by Jason S. Hornsby

I read this over the last few weeks of Fall semester and kept telling myself I’d collect my thoughts enough to write a coherent review of it eventually. Well, that day has come and the review is now up at DarkMarkets.com.

This a really, really unique read, one I probably wouldn’t have gotten to for quite some time were it not for placing in Permuted Press’s flash contest at this past year’s Horror Realm convention. It was one of my prizes (along with Derek Gunn’s The Estuary, which I will get to as soon as my review copies have been read and reviewed).

Bangkok Haunts by John Burdett

Sonchai Jitplecheep, one of the most sympathetic and complex police detectives in present day crime fiction, returns for a third round of heartache and murder in Bangkok Haunts. First there was a dead US Army officer inside a locked vehicle teeming with snakes. Then there was the brutal disembowling and castration of a lonely CIA agent in a rented hotel room. This time, Burdett has upped the stakes (and the brutality) by starting his novel off on the very first page with depictions of the cruelest violence imaginable.

Damrong, prostitute turned porn starlet, is murdered on screen by her costar during an erotic film shoot. Having been at one time, very briefly, one of her lovers, Sonchai is horrified to find footage of the act sent to him anonymously on an unmarked DVD. Along with friend and occasional partner Kimberly Jones of the FBI, Sonchai sets out to find out who killed Damrong and just how far the web of perversion reaches.

Like any other Burdett novel, Bangkok Haunts teems with violence, sexual depravity and Buddhist observation. Just as in the novels that came before, what should be a fairly easy case to solve (following the money trail is never too difficult in Sonchai’s world) becomes more and more complex by the page, until readers are overloaded with subplots, double-crosses, broken hearts and motives so imaginative and disturbing that in another author’s care would come across as incredibly hokey. Like any other Burdett novel, the twisting plot and improbable complications work like a charm, only this time around the dealings are way more spiritual (some would even say magical) than they were before.

Half incredibly violent crime noir, half exotic pornography, Bangkok Haunts almost left me wishing I had a ghost creeping up on my bed at night. Almost.

The fourth Sonchai Jitpleecheep novel, The Godfather of Kathmandu, came out two days ago, and already it’s at the top of my must-read list. Burdett is an exceptionally adept storyteller, and has an amazing talent for creating meaningfulness out of depravity.

8/10

HorrorNews Review of Derek J. Goodman's Apocalypse Shift

My first review for HorrorNews is now up. I reviewed The Apocalypse Shift once before, several months ago, but it’s a damn fine book and needs more publicity than it’s receiving at the moment.

THE APOCALYPSE SHIFT|Written by Derek J. Goodman| Book review|HorrorNews.net

Horror Reviews Going Elsewhere

While I fully intend for this little blog to keep chugging along, I’m now writing my horror reviews for HorrorNews.net. Interviews within the horror genre will also be more than likely posted there as well.

Any books or persons already covered on that site will be covered here instead. Several books in my TBR queue have already been covered by other reviewers.

I’m very excited to be a part of HorrorNews, even in a very minor capacity. I expect my first review to be up shortly, and we’ll see how it goes from there.