Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 250

Spotlight Feature: TRUTH OF THE SHADOWS by Slade Templeton

 

Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

 Cottage Grove Oregon is a sleepy little town, but in the surrounding forests, an ancient nightmare is growing stronger. Dr. Joseph Hoffman, head psychiatrist at Cottage Grove Hospital, wants to believe he has all the answers to his patients' problems, but there is a darkness within him that always lurks beneath the thin veneer of his competence. That veneer is about to crack.

In his Victorian home at the edge of the forest, his troubled memories hide in untouched rooms under a thick blanket of dust. He thinks he has them under his control, but as he delves into his patients' twisted stories, the shadows of their insanity begin to follow him home. In order to see what is happening to him, Joseph must turn everything he knows about his past, and his reality, upside down.

As he gets closer to discovering the source of the malevolence that surrounds him, he feels his sanity slipping away. Joseph must uncover the truth before it consumes him. Something terrible is taking over, and he may be the only one who can figure out why.

 

 

Excerpt:

“A self-aware shadow is something to fear. It will always be part of
you, without ever realizing it is of its own mind.” —Greek engraving
(circa 180–220 BC)
Noise filled the halls that night. Whimpers and cries coming
from the rooms. Footsteps resonated down the hallways
from the direction of room 207. This was where the Bibleclenching
Matthew liked to pace in circles at night. Whenever he
wasn’t in the hospital’s chapel, he was preaching his way through
the hallways. Quick, frantic skin-to-tile slapping struck the floor
as he vigorously read the words of God.
“Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones! He
will come to execute judgment upon all and to convict all the
ungodly of all their ungodly deeds, which they have done in an
ungodly way!”
In his mind, he stood before a thousand worshippers at some kind
of twisted religious rally. He then held his Bible in the air with
both hands.
“The angels! I see them! They come to me in my dreams, and I see
them in my waking life! I see them everywhere around me! Don’t
you see them too? The beautiful angels walking the earth to
protect us! With the fire in their eyes! It must stop! They must
stop taking us from our loved ones! They hunt for the weak, and
only God will prevail! Am I the only one with this gift to see? You
will believe me when it happens and—”
The slam of a metal door coming from another hall halted
Matthew in midsentence. The door slammed so loudly that the
entire C Ward went dead silent. The crying ceased. No more
laughter. “Reverend Matthew’s” words of God froze in his throat.
Running boots replaced the sounds of Matthew’s footsteps.

They wheeled an old restraint chair down the hall toward
Matthew’s room. On C Ward, the sounds of boots meant one thing:
the nurses were coming. With one thing in mind, they came to
shut Matthew up and give him a good dose. Scrambling back
toward his room, Matthew almost made it, but they grabbed him
and forced him into the harness of the restraint chair.
“You can’t blind me from seeing any of this!” Matthew shouted.
“You must obey! This truth is the only truth! You... musst...
underrrrrr...” His preaching drifted off like a vinyl record slowly
coming to a stop.

 

My review:

Dr. Joseph Hoffman was the head psychiatrist working with a variety of patients.

The writing was good, but it harbored a slow pace as we hear about each patient and what their psychosis was all about. The doctor eventually starts getting anxious when he hears noises in the hospital ward. That starts sending a chill in the reader, until, once again, we get back to the patients. Why did we have to listen to all the patients? Couldn’t some of those scenes or dialogues have been limited? The doctor soon starts questioning his own sanity, which was classic. A psycho doc thinking he’s psycho?

I would’ve liked this better if it had been quicker, which would’ve lent more excitement. I see that it was aiming for a dark and chilly mood preying on the psychological fear and folklore, but it just quite get there for me. It’s a decent horror tale, but I just think it needed more.

 

My rating: 3 stars

Review: SERIAL DATER by K.T. Jayne

 It has a nice cover! But it also had an odd start. A man with son comes home to disarray (missing wife or something?) In any sense, it wasn’t quite as titillating. Maybe it was the narrative I was put off with. The dialogue was kind of awkward and abrupt. There’s also not much clarity, because I wasn’t too sure what was going on. You almost want the story to move quicker just so that something would happen already. This wasn’t that great.

 

My rating: 2 stars

Review: WATCHING OVER YOU by Sheena Fleming

 

The daughter of a wealthy conglomerate was missing and a ransom was demanded for a half a million.

I thought the concept sounded interesting, but getting into it really wasn’t that exciting for me. The writing makes it feel like the story was just thrown together. There was no natural flow or build up; it just felt awkward to me. I mean, if you ignore it, it reads decent enough, but it’s not very compelling. It could’ve used more editing to fix some sentence irregularities. Although the cover was an improvement on the previous one, it’s still not that impressive.

I thought this would be pretty good, but it just fell flat.

 

My rating:   2 stars

Review: SHADOWS OF DOUBT by Timothy Baldwin

 

Marcus was a high school athlete along with his girlfriend Alissa. His father was the coach and something was bothering him, otherwise why would he start drinking?

The start was rather slow and mediocre, but it does offer some observations and clues between the POV’s of Marcus and Alissa. The simple writing made for an easy read. The kids mostly talk about sports, school politics and the red-tape administration as Marcus tries to figure out what’s wrong with his dad. Eventually the kids turn into the Scooby gang to try to figure out the school’s secrets.

The mystery was interesting, but it wasn’t as strong as I would’ve liked.

 

My rating: 3 stars

Review: CAMP LENAPE by Timothy Baldwin

 

Marcus and Alissa were camp counselors at Camp Lenape. While playing sports and doing all the fun camp stuff, the two were trying to set an example of character for the young campers.

Told in the shifting POV’s of Marcus and Alissa, story maintains a slow pace, ultimately taking its time to set the tone and the scene. It almost seemed like 2 different cases—2 different mysteries that Marcus and Alissa each were curious about (Marcus wondering about the men in the woods and Alissa curious about the missing camp girl from her bunk.) The different views can lend some different clues to the mystery, but sometimes items were repeated by each character, which took even more time.

An easy read with an interesting mystery. I was compelled by the darkness of the cover and intriguing summary, but the story didn’t fully meet up with the anticipation. As you read through, you uncover more and more clues, but the story really doesn’t going until Part 2 (about 70% of the way in.) I kind of wished this would’ve showed up earlier in the book.

Overall, it’s a nice read with an engaging dialogue that YA audiences will relate to.

 

My rating: 3 stars

Review: COLLECTION OF SHORT STORY THRILLERS by Lucy Appadoo

 

As indicated on the title, this is a collection of short story thrillers.

In “Evening Interrupted,” a night of passion becomes filled with terror and shock.  For a woman studying classic criminology, she sure failed to see what was right in front of her.

In “The Dream Catcher,” a woman sees the same frightening face from her childhood and fears that he will come for her.

These are quick, short thrillers that give you a cold chill. I wish it would’ve had more stories. Three just doesn’t really seem like a collection.

Overall a good read.

 

My rating: 4 stars

Review: TWISTED OBSESSION by Lucy Appadoo

 

Liz is a social worker who learned that her abusive ex-boyfriend was released from prison. Her fear would be that he would find her. One day, she gets a visit from a woman claiming to be the ex’s daughter and warns her that he was coming for Liz. It was starting all over again.

This had an interesting premise with a nice build-up, but dawdles every now and then. It keeps a rather consistent pace with dry banalities that don’t really add to the plot.

It turns out the daughter was a victim just like Liz and offers to help her out with a case involving an addict mother looking to get custody. It felt mostly concentrated on this aspect. In fact, the ex doesn’t make an appearance until chapter 11. You’d think it be more exciting after that, even though his cordial pleasantries in the scene were much too saturated and were fooling no one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fully develop from there. I expected to see how the case of the “twisted ex” would develop; I expected more of a chilling thrill. I mean, the writing was okay, but the story was just “eh.”

 

My rating: 3 stars

Review: A NEW LIFE by Lucy Appadoo

 

Valeria was leaving Italy and heading to Australia to meet her future husband. She was going to a new country with no job and no friends but was hoping for new opportunities for freedom and independence. It was decided that hers would be a marriage of convenience. I admired her strength, bravery, and faith.

While adjusting to her new husband and his family, she meets Luca, a crazed friend of the family that turns her world upside down. Nobody believes that Luca attacked her. Even though she was married to Roberto, Luca would not stop leering at Valeria. Did she leave an abusive household to be thrown into another?

Valeria was a young woman adjusting to her new life, new home, and new husband. Meanwhile, she made every effort to stay away from Luca’s violent and inappropriate behavior. Would she ever get her freedom? Would Roberto believe her—and protect her?

Story was well-written and easy to get into. An enjoyable read.

 

My rating: 4 stars

Review: MRS. JONES by William Cain (Book 1)

 

The beginning is kind of rocky because there’s a lot of things going on, such as an FBI covert op and a mafia dealing. There are characters named Biggie and Jennifer, and I was trying to figure out who’s who. What’s a “goomah?”

There were definitely some unclear angles here. If Elsie was dead, then she wasn’t Mrs. Jones, right? Then why was her husband named Jones? I don’t get it. And the characters have more than one name, making it harder to keep track. So Ken Jones (Elsie’s husband and Elsie could be Mrs. Jones) was Biggie AND Generato? Huh? Wait a second…Even after re-reading the first few chapters, it doesn’t clarify who the characters are, much less what’s going on.

All in all, this was a solid effort at an espionage mystery novel and I wanted to give this a try, but I was just too lost.

 

My rating: 2 stars

Review: ANYBODY’S DAUGHTER by Pamela Samuel Young

13-year old Brianna was excited about her secret boyfriend that she found online. She was finally going to meet the love of her life. Then one shove into the Escalade and she was gone—missing. When Briana realizes the dreadful and frightening situation she was in, she hoped her Uncle Dre would come and save her.
Angela Evans is a prosecutor currently fighting against child trafficking. Out on a date with Dre, she finds out about Brianna’s disappearance and helps out. Screw the police. Dre would do everything in his power to bring Brianna back.
Between a skilled criminal attorney and a street-smart hustler, they seek out the clues to save Brianna before it’s too late.
Story dives deep into the seedy world of the L.A./Compton ghetto. Definitely gets down with the urban street credo. It sounded interested, but it was long and daunting. It’s a slow search through the streets that lasts 100 chapters. Oh dear.
It’s a pretty good read and a race to find the girl, but that’s just what it’s supposed to be—a race, meaning a faster pace. That’s what it needed.
My rating: 3 stars