Inheritance by Joe McKinney

Author Joe McKinney draws on his experiences as a San Antonio police officer and his instincts as one of today’s premier horror authors to spin a tale of familial strife and inner turmoil in this novel that features some strong horror elements. Paul Henninger is a rookie cop, who led a rough childhood where his sickly mother died early and he was raised by a demented father, who he killed at a young age, except that Paul doesn’t know the half of what really happened when he was young. It all comes back to haunt Paul just as he is starting off his career as a cop when police are murdered and dead junkies begin to rise. Paul has to learn about his past and face the destiny that his father laid out for him as well as the tremendous power that lies within him in trying to avoid an apocalypse.



What I felt as I was reading this novel was a real feel of authenticity whenever there were police elements in the story, which was frequent. I don’t get this in many other novels that involve police officers. Clearly, Joe McKinney knows his stuff. He also does two other things very well—build tension in this novel and create a growing sense of dread. He hooked me in as a reader very early on, although I did experience bits of frustration for parts of the novel, when I didn’t feel as if I really knew what was going on. The other trouble spots I found was in Paul’s character, which was generally well done, but he experienced some abrupt shifts in attitude in behavior which I found problematic. For the most part, McKinney pressed the right buttons and put together a horror novel that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of the genre.