Reviewed by Melinda Hills for Readers' Favorite

Sixth grader Benny Cartwright tries to do the right thing when he suspects there is something wrong with his friend, Toby, but no one is prepared for what the problem really is in Demon King by Erik Henry Vick. Switching back and forth from the original incident in 1979 to the climax in 2007, the problems in Oneka Falls, NY, arise, grow worse and finally come to a breaking point.

Three children had been abducted by an ancient evil that thrived in the town and the culprit was never discovered. Each was seriously damaged emotionally by the incident and relied on various coping mechanisms to deal with their experiences. In the ‘present’, three strangers come together in the town to ultimately root out the evil and put an end to it as well as their own issues with the past. From the confines of a mental institution and the halls of a university, two men arrive in Oneka Falls, along with a mass murderer with ties to the evil forces behind the abductions and deaths. When the pieces fall into place for a showdown, the only question is whether there is any hope for good to prevail against such a strong and insidious presence.

Utter terror and spiraling demonic involvement drive the plot of Demon King by Erik Henry Vick through intense action and psychological turmoil. Extremely well written, with clearly defined characters and steady action with surprising twists and turns, Demon King is a novel that is impossible to put down. Gripping and intense are only two words to describe the effect of the story, but if horror is your pleasure, that is all you need to hear. Erik Henry Vick is certainly an author to fill you with nightmares. Fabulous story. I loved it!

Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite

Mystery, the occult, adventure, and the supernatural are all melded into one fantastic story in The Last Odinian by Alec Arbogast. It’s a novel with a strong appeal to fans of urban fantasy. Guided by a telepathic message from his daughter, Edward Koenig comes to Pinemist Bay to find his family. In a town where nothing is what it seems, he knows his wife and daughter are in danger. Pinemist Bay has a shady past intrinsically linked to a pagan Scandinavian rite that has long been forgotten. Follow this character as he acquaints himself with a dangerous cult and navigates the less trodden paths of this mysterious town, risking the darkness that could swallow him. Can he confront the dark past of this town and still be same again? Will he be able to reconnect with his family and save them, with many evil eyes around him and strange happenings?

There is a lot to enjoy in this novel and what caught my attention is the meticulousness with which Alec Arbogast handles the setting. One gets the feeling that this is a story as much of a place as it is of the protagonist. The descriptions plunge the reader into the details of the woodlands, the strange topography, and the peculiarities of the city. The sense of mystery is so strong that it arouses the reader’s curiosity and builds the tension. I got hints of Norse mythology in the writing and it is skillfully woven into the language. The pacing is measured, neither too fast nor too slow, but it is the author’s ability to sustain the reader’s attention that makes the story stand out. The Last Odinian will grab hold of your attention if you love beautiful and descriptive prose.

Reviewed by Susan Sewell for Readers' Favorite

Siege At Hawthorn Lake (Murder On The Mountain) by Paul G Buckner is an exciting thriller about an extreme encounter with Cryptid creatures. Troy Turner is a writer and thought that the solitude of living in a quiet and secluded area would be the ideal place to relax and work. He bought several hundred acres and a beautiful two-storey cabin nestled in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It is deer season, and two of his closest friends are eager to go hunting on his magnificent property. The morning after their arrival, they start out before sun up and go to their separate hunting stands. A storm front begins to move in and they decide to call it a day. As they gather their gear, the storm picks up, and in its wake something unprecedented happens. They are brutally attacked by a massive beast.

Stunned and injured, they become separated in the storm. Wounded and concerned for his friends, Troy takes his friend's Jeep and drives to town to get help. The storm escalates, causing the roads to become hazardous. Troy wrecks the Jeep and lies unconscious in the gathering snow. Someone driving by happens to see his vehicle and rescues him. While he is unconscious and in the hospital, one of his friends is found dead and the other one is missing. Troy is the prime suspect for the murder of his two friends. With the murderer being nonexistent, how can he prove his innocence?

Siege At Hawthorn Lake (Murder On The Mountain) by Paul G Buckner is an action-packed, mind-blowing thriller. This is an exciting and fast-paced novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. My attention was caught at the very beginning by the breathtaking description of the scenery; it was idyllic. It gave the story a hint of mystery, and I was holding my breath, just waiting for something to happen. Then the creature makes itself known, and I couldn't put the book down until I reached the final word. This is an enjoyable and stimulating novel, and I recommend it to those who love thrillers and have an interest in Cryptids. If you love stories about Bigfoot and Sasquatch, then you'll love this book!

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Dante's Town of Terror by Patrick R. Delaney is the first part of the Infinity Killer trilogy. A camping trip. It should have been the perfect weekend for Brian, Bill, and Cathy but it turned into the weekend from hell. Taking a wrong turn on the journey, the trio finds themselves lost in a deep forest. This is no ordinary forest though; it isn’t just full of wild animals but monsters too. Monsters that are hungry for blood. On the run, they manage to find their way to a deserted town, a place they should have been safe in. But their hell was only just beginning. Constant rain, dead bodies everywhere, blood all over the place, a mysterious person from the past, everything conspiring to stop them from escaping. Just what is this town and can they get away with their lives? What should have been the perfect weekend is now a fight to survive.

Dante’s Town of Terror by Patrick R. Delaney is a gripping story, alive with vivid imagery. The story is a little slow getting off the ground but when it does, you’d better hang on for dear life. Patrick Delaney has a real talent, a meticulous sense of detail that will leave nothing and everything to your imagination. The descriptions are excellent, bringing the story alive in your mind, seeing it, living it, and every chapter will leave you shivering in anticipation for the next one. Be prepared to enter a world like no other, a world of suspense, terror, a new dimension. Don’t bother trying to work out the ending; every time you think you have it, you’ll come up against something that changes everything. The characters' stories are brought out gradually and they are developed slowly but surely. Really looking forward to book 2; I hope it’s as good as this one.

Reviewed by K.J. Simmill for Readers' Favorite

Phase one, infect a local population and turn them into engineered zombies. Phase two, relocate the patients who had the mutated strain for further experimentation. That appeared to have been the plan for Baseborn Identity Research, or at least the immediate one, but they hadn't taken into account Dave Pulaski and his insatiable desire to avenge his wife's death. They were playing the long game, but Dave's plan was simple - find Walt Freeman, the man responsible for his wife's death and the carnage in his home town, and kill him. The zombies, however, have upped their game; they've evolved once from draggers to cutters, and now they flay their victims alive. Whilst Dave will stop at nothing to deliver his judgement, fate puts someone in his path who gives him a whole new purpose. This person is Sasha, and she is the key to everything. But those in charge won't simply stand aside while he claims what could be their greatest triumph. Now he has a purpose, something other than revenge to die for, and nothing will stand in his way.

If you're looking for a suspense-filled, creative, well-executed, zombie apocalypse style read, then you really want to give the Tell Me When I'm Dead series a try. I came in at book three, Even the Dead will Bleed, but Steven Ramirez does an impeccable job at filling in the need to know details in order to make stand alone reading possible. I really appreciated the insertion of Spanish phrases as appropriate, and as a fairly competent speaker I was able to translate. However, the sentences are structured in such a way that the meaning is clear even with no knowledge of the language. This action-packed zombie gore-fest is not for the faint of heart as carnage and rising body counts are described in stomach churning, gruesome detail, but at no point is character development sacrificed. There is a perfect balance of character growth and development, action, intrigue and suspense that will keep the reader hooked from the first page to the ultimate conclusion. I've read my fair share of zombie style books, and this one certainly stands up there with the best. It's not your run of the mill, mass produced, zombie book; rather it is intricately designed, well-executed, imaginative and plausible. There's a lot to the plot, and I enjoyed every revelation.

Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite

Madness by M.L. Banner is the story of Ted and TJ, a married couple with twenty years under their belts, embarking on a transatlantic cruise out of Malaga to enjoy some of the limited time they'd finally found together. From its onset, the trip seems doomed with flight delays and a near fatal dog attack as they are "luckily" able to secure a car to get them to their hotel. But this isn't just a normal pleasure cruise. As things begin to further unravel and animals begin to attack en masse, the pair finds themselves confined to the boundaries of a ship in what can only be described as the beginning of the end.

Madness by M.L. Banner packs a massive wallop from the first page of its prologue, a contaminant in 1712 Tenerife. Red eyes, crazed animals, and the gory demise of a man and his son set the tone for Ted and TJ's own cataclysmic voyage centuries later. The story is well executed and invites both thrills and horror from its onset, not a simple task in an age where apocalyptic novels abound. Banner has the skilled hand of a seasoned author where suspense building applies, and the descriptions in Madness read like a movie script...they are wonderfully detailed and fleshed out (bad pun regretfully intended). I'd recommend Madness to anyone looking for a fresh, unique, and exhilarating twist to the horror genre, but must warn readers that once they've picked the book up, they'll be hard pressed to set it back down. I loved it. Really, really well done!

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

The Muse: A Novel of Unrelenting Terror by Arjay Lewis is the story a very famous and enigmatic writer named Jack Court. He is wealthy, young and handsome on top of being successful. But all of this comes at a price. Jack has a sinister secret. Sure, he is very talented; however, that does not mean he did not get any help. He has a small yet menacing creature living inside him that demands Jack shed blood for his talent and his fame. This is a price that Jack gladly pays by becoming a serial killer, but things are about to change in his life.

When he is in an accident because of a reckless driver, the creature leaves Jack and finds refuge in an unsuspecting writer named Harold Godwine. Harold has no idea why all of a sudden he is writing better and neither does he know why he is having intense dreams of blood and bloodshed. He is perplexed, yet he has no idea how to stop them. Now Jack is on Harold’s trail to get his creature back, but it is not that easy anymore. He is losing his humanity and an FBI agent is after him. What can Jack do now? Will he ever get his creature back?

Oh boy, this is one intense and wildly entertaining novel. Just saying that I enjoyed this novel would not be enough. I loved, loved, loved the way Arjay Lewis took hold of the story and took it to great heights. The novel is fast paced, engaging and simply too amazing to put into words. I loved and hated Jack, his development was on point. The suspense was killing me, but it was exciting and I didn’t want the story to end. The Muse is truly an amazing novel. I wish I could forget it and read it again for the very first time! Intense, demanding and really good!

Reviewed by Rabia Tanveer for Readers' Favorite

The Tegen Cave by Inge-Lise Goss is an amazing horror fiction that made me sweat and that is not easy, I can tell you. Sara Jones, the protagonist of the story, knows that her life will not be the same. She ran away from her boyfriend and his crime family and started a new life in a new place. She even has a new boyfriend and her life is finally picking up. Things go downhill quickly when she receives a mysterious package. Inside the package is a spider. Despite being confused, she knows that somehow she and her family are compromised.

Now people around her are dying of mysterious poisonous spider bites. What is even more mysterious is the fact that these spiders and their poison have no effect on her. She is immune to them. And now that she is 25 years old, something about her past and her heritage is coming forward. Can she trust anyone in this world? With everything happening around her, can she keep herself and her family safe?

This novel has romance, action, drama and a lot of thrills for readers who love horror novels. You can actually feel your skin crawl when you read scenes about spiders. I loved Sara; she is relatable and she is strong. She is a level-headed character and very deep. Even with so many things happening in her life all at once, she was resilient and this is the reason why I loved her. This is definitely one of the best novels I have read this year. It was wonderful and truly well written.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Graven Images is a horror novel written by Sherrill Wark. Shaw Falls Police Chief Steve Simpson has a mystery on his hands -- three bodies' worth of mystery. They were all discovered in a fairy tale-like stone cottage hidden on the old Graham property. No one went there anymore, even old Bessie Graham who has the reputation in town for being a black witch. Two of those bodies were long dead: the elderly man's body had been there for decades, while the young girl only a number of years. They might never have been found at all as the cottage was so well hidden except for the adventure and dare of the three young boys who decided to go on a camping trip in the woods. The Collins brothers had slept outside the cottage, while Joey Melzik had brought his sleeping bag inside and camped in the summer kitchen. In the morning, Eddy and Ricky were horrified when they were unable to wake up their friend. Ricky would later tell investigators that Joey had tried to leave the house at one point in the night and complaining that he felt dizzy, but the other boys persuaded him to stay the night. Simpson and his sergeant, Gary Murphy, had never seen anything like that little cottage. The walls inside were filled with elaborate, lifelike, and oddly troubling carvings hewn out of black walnut. The three bodies were perfectly preserved albeit thickly covered with dust. Searching the building, they discovered countless bodies of small animals and insects that were likewise untouched by rot or putrefaction. And only those carvings remained free of the dust that filtered through the air and layered itself inside the cottage. Murphy and Simpson could feel the sheer dread and wrongness emanating from inside that cottage, and a strange sense of lassitude. Relief surged through them as they breathed the outside air again. What had happened to those people and Joey, and would it happen again?

Sherrill Wark's horror novel, Graven Images, blends a paranormal police procedural with one of the most shudder-inducing elder gods stories I've run across. Anyone who has ever thrilled to H.P. Lovecraft's tales of the unearthly elder gods, and the legacy of Cthulhu mythos stories spawned by his creations, will instantly feel that rush of excitement as they begin reading this book. There’s even the epic forbidden tome, the Necronomicon, which resides in the library of parapsychologist Rachel Graye, who together with John, her protege, Miranda Jamieson, the niece of Bessie Graham, and fundamentalist minister, Andrew Coleman, are assisting the police in discovering what is killing people in Shaw Falls and how they can avert an impending catastrophe of earth-shattering significance.

Wark's team of characters is superbly put together. Watching them work as a team and complement each other's strengths and weaknesses is a joy. While I'm sometimes wary of starting a new horror book and discovering the same old zombies hiding within its pages, I was awed by the original, exciting and very spooky story lurking behind the title Graven Images. Fans of psychological thrillers, dark fantasy, police procedurals and the literary tradition of Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos will no doubt find something in this work that makes them smile and keep on reading. I stayed up all night, unwilling to put the book down until I reached the conclusion -- and it was well worth the lost hours of sleep. I'd love to see the characters I've come to know and admire in future books -- they're just too well developed not to merit at least another outing, another weird and eldritch mystery to unravel. Graven Images is a classy and original horror novel that delivers high intensity shudders, unearthly horrors and non-stop action. It's most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Joel R. Dennstedt for Readers' Favorite

Raven’s Peak by Lincoln Cole starts off with a bang and rarely lightens up its drama. The explosive prologue delivers a decidedly necessary orientating mix of intrigue, violence, and “demoness” to introduce the reader properly to the definitively alternate world that he is entering, as well as to encounter two most pivotal characters, one of whom – the self-flagellating Reverend - yet remains only as a motivating background to the remainder of the story. The young woman, Abigail, whom he delivers from possession, remains central. This meaty introduction is followed by another in Chapter One; still intriguing, but much less gritty … for now. Haatim, a bright but emotionally battered young man, is hired by a stranger to investigate a stalker. Sounds conventional enough, except the demons and Abigail are much closer than you think.

Lincoln Cole does a masterful job in Raven’s Peak of developing his demonic version of the world. His more dire explanations for the evil embedded there are consistent and convincing, and one feels comfortable – if that can even be an appropriate feeling here – with suspending disbelief in order to engage more fully. But the author does more than just create a personal demonic version of events; he creates characters whom we care about and root for – one, a bit more heroic than the other. Mr. Cole also has a talent for realistic dialogue and the mundane moments of normal human interactions, some much needed sardonic humor, and many well-thought-out plot developments to keep the reader active in his reading. This book is obviously the first in a proposed series, and Cole has done a proper job of preparing a most intriguing framework for future visits to this literally insane world.