Review – Small Town Horror by Ronald Malfi

A brilliant, churning and feverish chiller, Small Town Horror is is a dark and compelling novel. As a Malfi fan, this is not one to miss. The narrative builds, accelerating, from a dreadful beginning to a terrifying conclusion full of burning secrets and drowning guilt.

Having escaped Kingsport, a small town on the Chesapeake bay, Andrew has found his place in New York. A lawyer with a career on the rise and a pregnant wife nearly at full term. The last thing he expected was a call from an old friend demanding his help. Kingsport is the last place he wants to return to. And his old friends are the last people he ever wants to see. But Dale did call and the implied threat was there; he needed Andrew’s help as his wife has gone missing.

Arriving at his childhood home, empty since the death of his father six years prior, Andrew is confronted by two things; the discombobulating familiarity of the place and the total strangeness of it all. There’s a deathly stink in the house and a squatter who turns out to be another old friend, Meach. An addict who’s lived his life in and out of institutions, Meach’s reunion with Andrew is unsettling. His speech full of dark hallucinations and terrible nightmares. But they aren’t without a basis. There’s something there surrounding Andrew and his former teenage friends, a truth that none of them have ever spoken about since that long ago night twenty years past. Meach is adamant they’ve all felt it, Dale, Eric (now the town sheriff) and Tig who’s taken over her parents bar on the wharf.

As Dale begins to unravel over his wife’s disappearance and Meach’s madness continues, Andrew just wants to escape back to New York and his wife. But something won’t let him truly leave and he’s pulled further and further into a twisted, convoluted mystery of which he is, intrinsically, part of. It’s here that the blend of horror and thriller combine perfectly. Subverting the very small town horror trope and turning it on itself, Small Town Horror plays on the dread of Andrew’s knowledge even as it ramps up the gripping thriller aspects. As the mystery deepens, the supernatural terror grows until the two entwine to produce an explosive conclusion.

It’s brilliantly handled. Deft writing that mixes Andrew’s first person perspective and narratives from the other friends, the story burns at a pace. As each layer is peeled back, more revelations are piled on until the plot explodes. A truly remarkable piece of storytelling, Small Town Horror is exactly what makes a chiller so gripping; dark, captivating and shocking all in equal measure.

It’s unsettling in so many ways, especially the reverse approach it takes to the horror trope at its heart. The dark kernel that each of the friends carry and how it’s affected them is an echo carried across time. But, none more so than Andrew, and it’s his guilt and secrecy, so painfully revealed, that speaks to the human need to worry at an issue until it becomes a comfort; the need to return, to repeat, to keep it close in the hope that it can be controlled only for it to spiral away like a firework unleashed.

Atmospheric and dreadful, compelling and dark, Small Town Horror is a twisting, chilling slice of horror as visceral as it is ghostly.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books

Review – They Lurk by Ronald Malfi

A collection of five novellas from Ronald Malfi, They Lurk republishes four stories and one new work to create an excellent and harmonious book full of dreadful horror. Themes of ominous uncertainty, strangeness and the unknown weave through each tale, building the tension and terror perfectly. Starting with the case of four lost campers and ending on a story of survival in the face of a mad killer, They Lurk is an exceptional look at the things that hide in the shadows.

When the parents of four teens hire a private detective, John Jeffers, to discover what happened on a camping trip the children took and why only one emerged from the forest, all manner of theories abound. And theories is all Jeffers has because the lone survivor is catatonic; badly injured and suffering such trauma that he hasn’t spoken a word since he was found. The local police seem reticent to explain what is happening with the case whilst the townsfolk don’t want to talk about the woods. But, as Jeffers digs and prods he discovers that the unknown is nothing short of terrifying. Skullbelly cleverly pits folk horror against the equally nefarious possibility of human evil and leaves it as open as the case of the missing kids. Cleverly constructed, it’s a great opening novella that speaks to that blend of thriller and horror Malfi has become known for.

The Separation is a vastly different prospect but one which plays on the ambiguity of the horror residing at its heart nonetheless. Information is achieved almost via osmosis as the main character, Marcus, discusses the changes and mental decline of Charlie. A prizefighter going through a divorce, Charlie refuses to eat or sleep and appears to be unaware of his actions. For his friends and his manager it’s a difficult situation. Though Marcus is a therapist, even he is at a loss as to how to deal with Charlie’s decline. Written with a quirky cadence, Separation slowly unravels as what appears to be morphs into something else before ending with a brutal gut punch.

Absurd and infused with frustration, The Stranger reads like an older story, playing on how a ridiculous situation escalates beyond reasonable proportions. Driving through America, David realises his spur of the moment romance with Rhonda has curdled over the miles. However, that annoyance is only exacerbated when, stopping overnight at a motel, a stranger takes over his car. Unspeaking, unmoving, the man refuses to exit the vehicle even when the police arrive. The strangeness builds into something nightmarish and awful, almost beyond words. Written with and intensity and dread, it’s a bizarre and unforgettable story.

After The Fade is a brilliant and claustrophobic story reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Mist. In some ways, it felt like it could be the opening chapters for a much longer work. But, what it achieves is excellent. Planning to split up with his girlfriend, Tom heads to a local bar to meet her. However, it’s not long after Lauren arrives that the world falls apart. A young woman staggers into the bar with something awful and insectile attached to her head. What ensues is a nail biting tale of surviving the night. Replete with excellent characters, each of whom offer an insight into the apocalyptic situation, the first person narrative gives the story a terrifying and personal touch.

The only previously unpublished story in this collection, Fierce is a fascinating survival horror that twists and turns between the present narrative and a past incident. Each story dovetails perfectly into the other; each a story of bravery and determination. Driving home after a dinner with her father, Connie and her mother, Elaine, are driven off the road by a truck. When Elaine is then assaulted by the other driver, Connie escapes into the winter night, running through snowy forests in an attempt to flee. But, with no phone and nowhere to go, she returns to the accident hoping to find a way to get help. Discovering the scene of the crime has been cleaned up, she treks back to a remote farm house only to discover she’s entered the lair of her attacker. The narrative is broken up by flashbacks to a childhood camping trip where her mother protected her from a wild animal. Channeling that same resolve, Connie sets out to save her mother. Cleverly crafted, Fierce is a dark and compelling story that pulls at the heartstrings whilst ramping up the adrenaline. Probably my favourite of the collection, it’s a visceral and intense slice of horror.

Brilliant writing, engaging stories and a thrilling dose of horror, They Lurk showcases Malfi at his best.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books

Review – Ghostwritten by Ronald Malfi

A collection of four novellas, Ghostwritten cleverly plays upon the idea of its title whilst producing an intertwined series of dark and twisted tales, each one centred on the idea of a book. Evocative and atmospheric, the novellas form a tapestry of something engrossing yet sinister and truly brilliant.

Beginning with The Skin of Her Teeth, itself the title of the novel it concerns, the story delves straight into a situation of a missing screen writer. With a huge financial deal on the line for all concerned, including literary agent Gloria, it’s a problem that needs to be dealt with swiftly and quietly. As it’s her client that has gone AWOL, Gloria decides to take the journey out to his writing lodge and discover whether he’s gone off the rails or dropped dead. What she finds, however, is much worse.

Employed to turn a lauded novel into a screen play, the writer appears to have, instead, lost his mind. Gloria finds him disheveled and ranting about the book as though it were something alive. But, with the film company breathing down her neck and everyone expecting the finished film adaptation, she finds herself taking on more than she’d bargained for. More than a writer who’d gone off the deep end, the situation is something very strange and unsettling. Written with a pace and urgency that mirrors Gloria’s woes, The Skin of Her Teeth introduces a dark and weird idea with a truly cancerous idea at its core.

Taking a very different approach, The Dark Brothers’ Last Ride details the delivery of a package by two couriers who operate within the underbelly of society. Tasked with taking a book to a place that doesn’t appear on any map, the brothers Danny and Tommy are told to never open the locked briefcase and, under no circumstance, to hold the book. As different to their usual nefarious jobs as could be, the brothers, nonetheless, agree to the terms.

Yet, with Tommy’s wild streak at the forefront, and following a map as convoluted as possible, the job quickly spirals out of control. The roads which the brothers follow seem somehow other, and the places they stop at appear very wrong. As reality and nightmare merge, elder brother Danny finally gets them to their destination only for things to become even weirder. The answers he receives seem to have a meaning behind them almost too strange to grasp and, yet, Danny does his best not to forget.

Slipping across to another place, This Book Belongs to Olo features a lonely but gifted child. Homeschooled and isolated, Bartholomew Tiptree (Olo, if he had friends) is determined to invite the local kids to his birthday party. Recognising he lives in the mansion on the hill, and sensing an easy target, they ridicule Olo though he seems unfazed. Much like the indifference he gets from his cold but successful mother and his bitter, failing step-father, Olo maintains his cheery demeanour – and his plastic clown mask.

Still worried about the disappearance of his tutor a month ago, a detective visits the house again and Olo, again, manages to charm with his weirdly polite, unflappable countenance. What it hides is terrifying. As talented as Olo might be, it’s his secret book that is his greatest achievement. A book that only he understands and can control; a book that, much like the others featured in these novellas, opens up to places beyond and other. Once again hinting at the previous stories and their books, This Book Belongs to Olo ties into and suggests links to a bizarre and frightening place made real through the power of fiction and the vessels that contain them.

From the childish but nightmarish quality of Olo’s book, The Story is a modern twist on the idea of a book – and a choose your own adventure book at that. Blindsided by the suicide of his former podcast partner, Grady discovers that whatever drove his friend over the edge was inexplicable and mind bogglingly weird. Whilst he hadn’t spoken to Taryn for months, it’s clear she was struggling; obsessed with some audio files and forgoing her own health, she’d gone down the rabbit hole of a very strange internet mystery.

When Grady is asked to check out her apartment, the apparent craziness is almost too much. But, what he does see is like a hook to his guilt, pulling him into a maddening hunt for clues; a search which ends with his own initiation into the “Story” of The Story. Gripping and terrifying, the novella captures modern, internet fuelled myth with aplomb, once again linking to the wider scope of the previous stories brilliantly.

Playing on the idea of ghostwriting, Ghostwritten is a cleverly constructed series of vignettes. Moreover, each story operates as a metaphor for the idea of the power of books; the idea that a story opens onto another world. Yet, here, that world is one on the other side where that power is transformed, containing something dark and strange at its heart. And, with each story about a story, the mirroring effect becomes almost kaleidoscopic as they cut across and connect with the other novellas.

Malfi’s ability to adapt his voice is as impressive as the tales are inventive. Containing a kernel of mystery in each, the horror- thriller combination drives the plot forward as his excellent characterisations flesh out these weird and frightening tales. Brilliantly written, producing a disquieting sense of unease, each novella and how they connect forms a spectacular collection. Strange, dark, otherworldly, Ghostwritten is horror at its finest.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books

Review – Bone White by Ronald Malfi

A taut, unnerving story that treads a line between unreliable information and terrifying truths, Bone White is gripping horror thriller. Impossible to put down, it’s another example of Ronald Malfi’s consummate writing prowess.

After a local man, deep in the hills of Alaska, appears at a small town diner looking disheveled and crazed, only to confess to a series of murders as he sips a hot chocolate, a host of superstitions and fears are raised once again. In Dread’s Hand, few want to talk about the hills and woods from which the man came from; fewer yet will voice their worries that some evil spirit lurks in those cold, isolated mountains. Investigator Jill Ryerson thinks the man insane but when the bodies are discovered, even she begins to question what is going on.

Meanwhile, Paul Gallo whose twin brother, Danny, went missing a year before in Alaska, sees a news story about the mountain man and his confession. Realising it’s the same town that Danny disappeared from, he sets about looking for answers. Travelling up to the remote town to meet local police he finds that his brother isn’t amongst the recovered bodies. Instead of relief, Paul feels only frustration and concern as things in the town of Dread’s Hand seem very, very off. No one will talk to him. Instead, the locals seem determined to hide what they know, about his brother, the woods and the history that haunts the town.

Told from the perspectives of Paul and Detective Ryerson, an unsettling picture about a back woods town, isolated from civilisation and populated by insular locals is expertly built up. Paul’s attempts to find answers are constantly thwarted and sent off track whilst Ryerson’s investigation takes a strange turn as she discovers some disturbing facts about the case. Peppered with mysterious tidbits of information both Paul and Ryerson want to rely on objective truths but, much to their concern, the local superstitions begin to carry more and more weight.

The line between fact and fiction begins to blur and its this sense of unreliability permeating the story that keeps the tension high. It’s the obfuscation of truth that underpins the narrative as it slowly builds towards its conclusion that makes this such an engrossing read. Rich in superstitious lore, and set in a frozen, isolated wilderness that is poetically described, becoming a character in its own right, Bone White is a chilling horror thriller.

Perfectly paced and brilliantly written, this is a fantastic horror. What’s more impressive is that the mystery at its heart continuously keeps its truth hidden right to the end. Bone White is a cleverly constructed, unnerving and addictive read.

My copy

Published by Pinnacle Horror

Review – Come With Me by Ronald Malfi

Come With Me is a powerful, gripping novel; equal parts thriller, supernatural horror and ‘whodunnit’. Beautifully written with prose that almost sings, this is a superb piece of work that demands the reader’s attention.

I almost feel bad when I say I burned through a book in a day. As if I haven’t given the novel the time it deserves or considered all of its nuances. However, some fiction just won’t let you stop and put it down, and Come With Me is just one of those books. Written from the perspective of Aaron we are led on journey through grief, incomprehension and disbelief until we are deposited firmly out into the strange but no less powerful conclusion.

After Aaron’s wife is killed in a shopping centre shooting, by all accounts trying to stop the deranged killer, he is left adrift. His life is topsy-turvy yet small instances won’t let him let go of the memory of his wife, Allison. Radio songs, closet lights blinking on, strange peripheral images and echoing images. The title itself reverberates through the novel, asking Aaron – just as Allison did the morning she left to shop – to come with.

Yet, as Aaron goes through his wife’s belongings he discovers something unlikely. A small thing but one that opens up a mystery not only to Allison’s secret life but a whole series of dark happenings. Confused by why his wife would hide things from him Aaron begins to trace her steps and becomes inescapably embroiled in something far more terrifying than he could imagine.

The mystery at the heart of the book is two-fold. Not only is Aaron trying to discover who his wife really was, he is also trying to unravel the clues into a series of murders that Allison was apparently investigating. As the dual puzzles intertwine, dragging Aaron along, other ephemeral enigmas worm their way into his conscience. All of this is beautifully framed by an almost poetic prose that colours the book.

Set amongst a series of poor, isolated towns in America, the landscape is populated by a brilliant cast of characters, not least Aaron. It’s a story that pulls and flows as he tries to make things clear amidst his confusion. And, from the maelstrom, when things click together, the book drives forward at pace. Mystery upon mystery builds Come With Me to a forceful ending and a strange epilogue.

This was a real page turner of a book. The thriller aspect dovetailed into the horror elements so effortlessly it just refused to be left alone. A brilliantly written, stunningly executed novel.

Review copy

Published by Titan Books