Writer and Editor C.B. Calsing/ G.G. Royale

William Friend’s "Let Him In” is quite possibly one of the creepiest slow-burns I’ve read in a long time. Told from shifting perspectives, it has the reader constantly questioning what exactly is happening and who is to blame.   Widower Alfie is trying to raise his twin daughters after their mother’s odd and tragic death. Of course they are going through some stuff processing their grief. And luckily, their mother’s twin, Julia, is a psychiatrist who is more than capable of treating them. When an imaginary friend joins the girls, Julia dismisses it at a as coping mechanism at first. Then the imaginary friend, Black Mamba, starts causing problems. Is Julia going to be able to help the girls with their psychological issues, or is something deeper and darker afoot?  Twins, an old manor house, a mysterious death... “Let Him In” gives us plenty of tropes we know and love from the horror genre. This is more than just a plain rehashing of old ideas, however. The tropes work to d...

I thoroughly enjoyed Nancy Gardner’s “Dream Stalker.” It’s an entertaining cozy mystery with a touch of the paranormal.  Lily Scott is an herbalist who’s gone through some rough patches. Her husband has died, and her daughter has just been released from prison after stabbing an abusive boyfriend. On top of that, Lily witnesses the suicide of her childhood friend, Kitty. But there seems to be more to the death than first appears. Lily must use her special ability, entering other people’s dreams to see their repressed memories, in order to solve a mystery that encompasses the town of Salem, Massachusetts.  There were quite a few twists and turns in this story, with plenty of red herrings as well. The setting of Salem around Halloween had me wishing for cooler temperatures and fall festivities. I enjoyed many of the secondary characters, though a few of them could have been fleshed out a touch more. The narrator, Karen Krause, gave me Bernadette Peters vibes, which I loved. I com...

“The Horror at Pleasant Brook” by Kevin Lucia is a trope-filled, small-town horror with plenty of gore.  Pleasant Brook is a hamlet in the Adirondacks with a constable and a few businesses. Only a handful of people have ever left the small town, and when they do, they tend to return. When one of these wayward residents comes back to find a creepy mask in an abandoned house, quiet life in the small town quickly unravels. Fighting the slowly growing evil is a teenager who conveniently knows a lot about horror plots, the town librarian, and the constable. To the reader, it is obvious this force is woefully inadequate, and we must wonder if Pleasant Brook can be saved at all.  This book took me a long time to finish. I had a hard time getting back into it every time I picked it up. I enjoyed the construction of the evil. It was an interesting take on a new monster, integrating Celtic mythology and maybe a little alien invasion. My main complaint is the same as a few of the other r...