Conjesero

by Carl Alves

San Francisco homicide detective Kevin Russell has arrested serial rapists, murderers, and more sadistic thugs than he could remember. Nothing he has ever accomplished can prepare him for Conjesero, a supernatural serial killer who has been terrorizing the Americas for centuries. Conjesero—a creature with extraordinary intelligence and a vicious nature that has created a trail of bodies from Mexico to San Francisco—has always made law enforcement cower in fear and pretend that he doesn't exist. Only Kevin is willing to stand in its path. His desperation takes him on a journey inside the killer’s twisted world. There is nothing that he is unwilling to do, even if it means making a deal with the devil to stop Conjesero or die trying.

Genres: Horror, Mystery

262 pages, Paperback

Published January 22, 2016

Reviews

[Laurie (barksbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conjesero is about a homicide detective whose latest case involves a murderous monster of the non-human kind. Kevin is at the top of his career, having just caught a murdering rapist, when his friend is mauled by something he claims resembles a werewolf. This isn’t just some large man in need of a haircut and shave, says his friend, it was a genuine monster.

And he’s not lying.

This is a monster/police procedural thriller that has a high death count and a monster who isn’t afraid to kill children so be warned! It features a little something for everyone who likes these sorts of books and the writing reminds me a little of Dean Koontz, at least the version of Koontz who isn’t being preachy, speechy and long-winded! It moves at a fast clip, the characters are relatable and there’s even a little romance a-brewing.

Two things did leave me perplexed, however. One is the age of one of the kids. Unless I was hearing things wrong, which is entirely possible, there’s a boy in the story who is described as being in the third grade and going to an elementary school but he and his friends speak and behave more like kids in high school or, at the very least, middle school. Their plot line just didn’t jibe with the age and it niggled at me. The other perplexing moment comes near the last act when Kevin decides to enlist the help of untrained civilians (one of them is his love interest, FFS!) to assist in catching this supernatural bad guy instead of putting together some armed SWAT team or something. It was a really dumb turn of events for such an accomplished detective and even I couldn’t suspend my disbelief that far to go along with his hapless plan.



I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook and recommend doing it that way if you enjoy audiobooks. Steve Rausch has a commanding voice and does a very good job voicing Kevin and the men though, I cannot lie, he is a little cringy when it comes to the women and children but that’s usually the case when there’s one narrator and he has to voice varied characters that aren’t in his range. He keeps a good pace and kept me tuned in which is more than many narrations tend to do.

I’ll give it a 3 ½ but will bump up to a four because, damn GR, why no ½ stars?

[Vera mallard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Monster is Loose
Can One Man Stop Him?

STORY LINE:

Kevin Russell, homicide detective with the San Francisco Police Department, has just caught the most infamous serial killer since Manson, the Hail Mary rapist. It was an arduous investigation but he gets his second wind when he receives a call from his best friend Paul Richardson. Paul has a flat tire and needs Kevin to come to his aid. Before Kevin can reach Paul, a monster out of deep and dark nightmares, almost kills him. Rushed to the hospital and treated by Dr. Wendy Davis, his injuries will heal physically, however emotional healing will take time. Telling Kevin what attacked him, leaves Kevin wondering about his friends mental state, but he promises to investigate thoroughly. This investigation will take Kevin from California to Mexico and back as he searches for answers.

What follows is an action packed suspense thriller urban fantasy novel, with a little romance thrown in for good measure, that will leave you breathless. Come along with Kevin, Wendy, Paul and friends as they fight a monster for their lives and the lives of the residents of San Francisco.


CHARACTERS, PLOTTING, DEVELOPMENT:

Author Carl Alves starts this novel off with an explosive beginning and the action does not end until the last chapter. He hooks you in the first few pages and never lets you go. The plot was intriguing and well constructed as Mr. Alves leads us through the investigate of evil incarnate and the lives this monster has affected since his inception in Mexico.

Mr. Alves characters are full-bodied and grow throughout the story-line. The secondary characters were skillfully crafted adding depth to the story-line. Mr. Alves included everything needed to make this an interesting and successful story including a sweet clean romance between Kevin and Dr. Wendy Davis.

The pacing of the story was on target with the length of the book. This book is a roller coaster ride of action, evil, and explosive violence. The book never slows or lags and will leave you wanting more from this author. I love a good monster story and things that go bump in the night which leave me with chills and wanting more. If there were any editing errors, they were so small they did not impact the pace or story-line. Mr. Alves writing style was clear and clean; his descriptions of the violence this monster inflicts and the personas he wears were vivid and descriptive.

Mr. Alves wove a solid urban fantasy that is well constructed and written.


RECOMMENDATION: 4 STARS

I recommend this book to anyone that likes a solid well-written thriller/fantasy. This book has a clean romance, however it does contain violence. I recommend this book to young adults and adults due to violence and vivid descriptions of said violence.

I received this book from the author in return for an honest opinion and book review. All book reviews of any novel are dependent on the book review author’s opinion; all book reviews on line, on my blog and under my name are my opinion.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carl went to Boston University majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Carl graduated with a BS degree, and has since worked in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. He later graduated from Lehigh University with an MBA degree. He is the author of three published novels. His most recent novel, Conjesero, was released in 2016 by End of Days Publishing. His short fiction has appeared in various publications such as Star Quakes, Crossroads in the Dark, and Dark Eclipse. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and has attended the Penn Writers Conference. You can visit his website at http://www.carlalves.com.

[Dan Absalonson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great supernatural crime thriller. It had heart, great characters, and was really exciting. I really liked the San Francisco homicide detective Kevin Russel. It was fun spending time with him as he tried to track down the monster Conjesero. It was awesome seeing him investigate the case. I really got a feel for what his life was like as a homicide detective. There were a lot of characters in this book and they all felt real and added a lot to the story. The college student was a great character too. I would have given this book 5 stars if it had been edited a little better. There were just lots of little things here and there like missing words and stuff an editor would have caught. They didn't detract from the story though, it was great. I just kept wanting to turn the pages as the story unfolded and the killings kept piling up.

There was one part with a lot of fun detective work that I feel could have been made way better if it was swapped to a different time in the story. We get to learn how a serial killer was hunted down and captured but it's all after the fact. We already know he was captured. That took some of the fire out of it and it read as more of a recap of what happened than a fun few scenes where you get to see them making some awesome smart moves to get the guy. Those great scenes should have taken place in real time alongside the character rather than after the fact. It would have been way more exciting to read. They were still great scenes though. Awesome action ending with a sweet chase scene. Also the rest of the book was packed with great action scenes. Trust me there's no lack of intense action in this book. The monster makes sure of that.

The villain in this book is intense. I don't want to spoil anything but let's just say you wouldn't want to come across this character—ever. The things that he did to the characters were very gruesome. The scenes where he killed people were described in detail. If stuff like that bothers you you might want to skim those sections. I have to say however that even though the scenes were gory they didn't seem to be that way just for the sake of shocking the reader. This monster has incredible abilities to maim and kill and he uses all of them to great effect and you as the reader see pretty much all of it happen in real time. It's really intense.

I don't like gore in stories but in this one it just made the monster scarier to me which I thought was an awesome experience as a reader. I think another great thing the writer did was portray characters' reactions to the dead bodies that the villain left behind. This made the antagonist seem even scarier then if you had just watched the horrible actions unfold in the scene only. So the author did a tremendous job of building up the villain in this book. He was an awesome bad guy and had a really cool and interesting back story—so it's not just some creature. It's a monster with a dark past and a history of becoming the killer it is in present time in the story.

Lastly, the author pulled off the ending really well. It was a great conclusion to the story and felt very satisfying to me. The climax was edge of your seat action and the little bits after that left me in a great place as a reader. This was a really fun book.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an E copy of Conjesero from the author in exchange for an honest review, I am really surprised that more people have not read and or reviewed this book as of yet, Mr. Alves seems to have put a lot into this storyline and I feel that it all ties together very well.

Detective Kevin Russell has just arrested the Hail Mary rapist and by doing so stopped a string of serial killings that were beginning to look to go unsolved, right in the middle of this his best friend Paul Richardson is attacked and left for dead by a creature he describes as a werewolf, assuming this description is due to Paul’s head injury Kevin takes on the case to find his attacker, thinking it to be a normal investigation which is so far from the truth.

A string of murders begin piling up with injuries so severe that they cannot possibly be human made, now its up to Kevin to find out what or who is committing these grisly murders.

A few different stories are told in this book, one of which is a young man named Manny who is a college student desperately trying to do well in school and at the same time help raise his younger brother and keep him out of trouble, I really liked the Manny character and hope to see him again in future writings by this author.

A chance meeting between Manny and Kevin at the library, leads Kevin to Manny’s grandfather and a tale straight out of Mexico of Conjesero, an evil shape shifting Voodoo priest that is most likely the source of the killings, a supernatural being that can only be stopped one way, but can Kevin pull it off?

A well written book by Carl Alves that brings all of these storylines together in the end and answers the question, can Conjesero ever be stopped? There is only one way to find out, you really need to read Conjesero by Carl Alves.

[Sheila · Rating 4 out of 5]

A college student, a high-school misfit, and a grandfather with strange tales to tell form one half of Conjesero’s tapestry. Meanwhile San Francisco homicide detective Kevin Russel and colleague Rita Tedesco, plus wounded friend and a beautiful romantic lead, follow a parallel tale. But it all comes together halfway through Carl Alves’ novel, with instant celebrity Kevin tackling images of werewolves, contemplating love, and insisting against all odds that he must protect and serve. The race is on to ensure the conviction of a murderer and find the serial killer of unconnected strangers. At which point the story gathers serious momentum via interesting tidbits of criminal psychology, and fascinating mythology of the supernatural. By the end of the book, all these characters seem real, their challenges absorbing, and their road to recovery pleasingly laid-out.

Conjesero starts with a bang, slows down, then speeds to a frantic conclusion. The final action scenes feel perfectly plotted for a movie, and there’s a nice complexity to questions of whether breaking rules and allying with evil might be allowed in the cause of destroying a greater evil. In the end it’s not what’s seen that matters, but what lies underneath, both in relationships and in criminal investigation—a wise and nicely nuanced conclusion to a cross-genre novel with romance, action, suspense, police procedures, monsters and more.

Disclosure: I was given a copy and I voluntarily offer my honest review.

[Laura Ruetz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thriller with a supernatural twist. I thought the books was enjoyable, with a good plot and some enjoyable characters. I enjoyed the concept of Conjesero, but wish that they had delved further into the character. The character itself was a fascinating idea, going beyond the traditional shapeshifter idea, and it was a good take on the theme of shapeshifting. I would have liked more background on Conjesero itself, how it came to be, and more details, it would have added a little more dimension to that character. The other characters are all diverse and written well, and the plot flows very well.

The writing itself could have been a little more polished and edited better but that's a minor detail in an otherwise very enjoyable book.

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly horrifying. The horror builds from chapter to chapter. The cast of characters is mixed - police detective, a serial rapist, a doctor, a crime boss, a college student, an elderly man and a victim. Gruesome murders abound in detail. You can feel the fear building, but cannot put this book down. The plot is simple, but the execution is complex and holds you from the first page.
I highly recommend this to any lover of horror or very dark fantasy.

[Shirl Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hooked from the first page. This is how I love a book to begin! The book is a quick paced murder/mystery/paranormal, and the characters are well fleshed out. It moved quickly and kept my attention well into the night. The one thing I would love to see added to this book, to give it 5 stars, is a more detailed explanation about how Conjesero came to be. Other than that, I can see Mr. Alves in Manny, :) Thank you for such an entertaining read!!

[Ronald Keeler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this novel through my Kindle Unlimited (KU) subscription.

Conjesero by Carl Alves is a supernatural murder mystery. In many murder mysteries, there is a victim and the reader interest is devoted to finding out the identity of the killer. In this novel, we know the killer who goes by many names that hide one identity, a mythical creature known as Conjesero. The creature is a shape shifter that exists in a world which generally doesn’t believe in such entities. Disproving this belief is the principal task of protagonist Detective Kevin Russell. If he can’t cause people to believe in Conjesero, he at least has to find a way to kill the creature before the body count climbs much higher. The body count could rise to consist of people important to Kevin, people such as his friend Paul, his cop partner Rita, his new doctor girlfriend Wendy, and his student friends Manny and brother Alex. There are lots of gruesome killings and graphic descriptions of dismemberment throughout the story. As Conjesero learns of the involvement of Detective Kevin, he decides to concentrate on victims important to Kevin.

Detective Kevin has become recently famous for the arrest of a serial killer known as the Hail Mary Killer. He doesn’t appreciate the public attention; he is just a cop devoted to the job and the few friends he has. When he gets a call from Paul asking for help with a flat tire, he responds to the place where his friend should be to find him beaten and bleeding but not dead. After a few days in the hospital, Paul tells Kevin that he was attacked by a werewolf. Although Kevin does not believe it, subsequent to the attack on Paul there are several attacks of a gruesome nature on several unrelated individuals. There is no obvious motive; there is no connection between victims. Pathologists cannot make a determination of what attacked the victims. Guesses range across the spectrum of the animal kingdom; bears, wolves, dogs, snakes, fierce birds, and various forms of reptiles. Whatever it was, it was big. And it enjoys the carnage.

At times, this novel appeared to be a collection of unrelated short stories. There is a story of high school bullying and gang warfare. There is a story about the careers of cops. There is a struggling single parent family story. There are some horrible graphic descriptions of murders that seem to be unrelated from a victim perspective. I found the pacing of the book a bit slow when it came to tying everything together. Although the plot lines were interesting, I occasionally had time to wonder about how the author was going to relate the individual events into a larger context.

Alves tied everything together in a larger supernatural killer context. Can Detective Kevin get his colleagues to believe him? And if the killer is a supernatural killer, how do you kill or stop it?
There are a few typographical errors where adjectives become adverbs. A reader’s eye stops at these. I only found a couple of these errors but they were annoying enough that I recommend another run through the editing process.

Graphic descriptions of the killings could be disturbing to the general reader but fans of supernatural horror fiction will take these descriptions in stride. On an Amazon scale, I would give it 3.5 stars but I don’t know how to do that so I will err on the side of generosity and give it four stars on Amazon.

[Richard Schwindt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carl Alves is an engineer and he has constructed a terrific thriller in Conjesero. Detective Kevin Russel is a classic tough detective dealing with the gritty crime of San Francisco. Now after his closest friend is attacked he is discovering that the assailant cannot be easily classified; either as human or animal. What makes this book work is the quality of the writing. Many similar books are poorly constructed and littered by bad prose. This is a smooth read; you are engaged quickly and the enjoyment continues throughout the book. Alves manages to sound like a human being writing a gritty book, not a machine. I also like the way he does a genre bait and switch. Highly recommended over black coffee, late at night.

[Brian Borgford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Supernatural Thriller
Well written police/detective story with all of the necessary components to make it interesting. But early on there is a hint of something less than normal. This extra component lingers in the background while many other interlocking stories are woven into a coherent thriller. It all comes together in the last half of the book with a suspense filled leadup to a thrilling climax. Lots of side stories to keep the book from being too one-dimensional.

[Charlotte Gerber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conjesero is a paranormal mystery/thriller that has plenty of twists and turns to keep readers guessing. I started out thinking that the murderer was one thing because of a sub-plot, and by the end of the book I found out that I had been wrong for most of the story. I became invested in the characters and worried for their safety until the end. It was a riveting story that was a real page-turner.

The characters are well developed, which made it all the more of an emotional rollercoaster ride. Without giving away too much, one of the secondary characters is killed by the Conjesero and I wanted to get revenge for them! I usually feel bad when a character is killed off in a story (when they are the good guy), but in this case it went a step further.

As for the gore-factor, it wasn’t so explicit as to turn off some readers. Yes, it was detailed, but in a medical examiner way of description. It reminded me of an old-time police procedural.

The only thing I continued to wonder about after the story was over was why did the Conjesero become what it was: the age old question of why does something good become evil.

My take-away: This book read like a detailed script for a movie. I could easily visualize each scene and character, though the Conjesero would be a challenge for the CGI folks. Detective Kevin Russell was a believable character who is dealing with carnage of epic proportions. Everyone around him is always at risk because of the awful people he interacts with. It would be an edge-of-your-seat type of movie.

I’ve always been drawn to books with a legend/lore angle, and this story did not disappoint. It is a book that is written for the mystery lover who likes to ponder all aspects of the story, like a Sherlock Holmes mystery. Because of this aspect, I highly recommend this book to fellow mystery lovers.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received a free copy for honest review.

San Francisco homicide detective Kevin Russell is wrapping up a difficult case when his best friend is attacked one night. The assault is unusual to say the least, his friend Paul swears he has been attacked by a werewolf. Several vicious murders follow and the evidence left behind at the crime scenes suggests that a serial killer that defies logic is on the loose. Det. Russell is in a desperate race to stop this supernatural killer before he strikes again.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were interesting and there was plenty of action.