I honestly don’t understand why this book is so popular.  The original title is “Men Who Hate Women” and it is accurate to the theme of the novel.  For the most part I found it boring; very slow to start, then it got more interesting, was pretty good in the second half and boring again at the end.  Michel Bloomquist (I listened to the audiobook so I have no idea if these spellings are accurate) is a financial journalist for Millennium magazine in Stockholm, Sweden.  He writes an expose about the fraudulent activity of a wealthy industrialist Venestrom.  Bloomquist is accused of libel and sentenced to a couple months in jail.  Between the sentencing and his jail time Bloomquist is invited to a small town to meet with an aging industrialist Vengar.  The majority of the small town are part of the Vengar family and work for the Vengar corporation.  The old man offers Bloomquist a job to write the family history which will be a front for his real work which is to get to the bottom of the mystery of his niece Harriet’s disappearance in 1966.  Bloomquist reluctantly takes the job and moves to the small island town where he begins investigating the family.

Meanwhile there is another important character in the book, the lady where the title of the book comes from. Lizbeth Salander is in her mid-20s, covered in tattoos, is a computer hacker and works as an investigator for a securities company.  One of the company’s clients asked Salander to investigate the background of Michel Bloomquist.  Salander came back with the most thorough report anybody had ever seen.  We also learn a little about Salander’s background as an orphan living with different caretakers and her last one was brutally mean to her, tied her to the bed and forced her to have sex with him  and withheld her own money she earned from the securities company from her.  She does get her revenge on him in a rather dramatic scene.  This is just one small aspect of the theme I mentioned earlier of men who hate women.  It actually gets much worse in the second half with a surprising serial killer and his proclivities for abusing, torturing, and murdering women.

The book didn’t start really getting good for me until Bloomquist and Salander meet up for the first time and end up working together on the Harriet case.  This was toward the second half of the book and what I thought was the most interesting part of the book.  I could care less about Venestrom and his financial frauds.  It took me a couple months to get through the book and I could only stand listening to about 15-30 minutes at a time.  There were maybe a couple nights where it gripped me enough to listen for an hour.

This is the first book in what is known as the Millennium Trilogy. The other two books are The Girl Who Plays With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest.  My mom told me that The Girl Who Plays With Fire is probably the best of the three and is more from Salander’s perspective.  I may or may not get around to reading it.  Finally there are Swedish movies made of this book and maybe one other from the trilogy.  They are currently working on an American movie version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.  Stieg Larsson has passed away and did not get to see The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo become the #1 selling ebook on Amazon.  Still, in my opinion, it wasn’t the best book I’ve ever read.

Tina Evans is newly divorced from her husband. Their marriage disintegrated shortly after their son, Danny, died in a tragic bus accident. He was only twelve years old.

Now, about a year later, Tina lives alone in the house that they once shared. She still works at the same casino in Vegas that she always has, except now, instead of a dancer, she is the director of a show that she hopes will be an amazing success. All of her time, efforts, and thoughts are focused on this show. She has plans for more shows after this one ends. This might be Tina’s way of dealing with her grief. At the start of the book, she is convinced that she sees Danny sitting in a car in the parking lot. Her hopes crash when she realizes that the boy she is looking at is not her son, after all.

At first, I thought I was reading a ghost story. Tina has left Danny’s room exactly as it was the day he died. She has a housekeeper who dusts and cleans it, but otherwise it has been untouched. One day, she comes into the room and notices that the chalkboard easel has been knocked over. As she picks it up, she sees that the words “NOT DEAD” have been written on it.

There is an excellent scene where the housekeeper experiences what appears to be poltergeist activity when she is trying to clean Danny’s room. The temperature drops. Ice forms on the window, and flat surfaces of the room. Model airplanes spin, and poster rip themselves into pieces while they are still attached to the wall.

The housekeeper is a no-nonsense woman. Koontz takes the time to fully describe her and her life, and I really enjoyed the short story about the housekeeper. She remains undaunted by the freaky events in Danny’s room. Here is my favorite paragraph from this book:

“But she didn’t believe in ghosts. There were no such things. She believed in death and taxes, in the inevitability of slot-machine jackpots, in all-you-can-eat casino buffets for $5.95 per person, in the Lord God Almighty, in the truth of alien abductions and Big Foot, but she didn’t believe in ghosts.”

Tina at first, believes that her husband is the one who has been breaking in, and writing on the chalkboard in Danny’s room, in an effort to mess with her head. Later, she changes her mind, and is concerned that a stalker is following her. She tells her concerns to a man she recently met, and has started to date, named Elliot, who just so happens to be a lawyer. Suddenly, the ghost story turns into a full blown thriller. There are secrets, explosions, and hastily made escape plans.

I was kind of disappointed when I realized this wasn’t a ghost story. I wasn’t prepared to be reading a thriller, all of a sudden. Later, the book gets a science fiction flavor, and then it became interesting again. The ending answers the main questions that were posed at the beginning of the story, which worked pretty well. However, I was still left wanting to know what happened next. I would have liked to read the sequel, except I don’t think a sequel to this book ever got written. (At least, I am not aware of it).

I didn’t love this book, but I did enjoy it. It kind of jumped around with genre, and I didn’t feel like it completely pulled off each genre equally well. However, there were some real gems within these pages. I really enjoyed the mini story about the housekeeper. The book was written in 1981, and I found the scenes describing the computers the characters were using, (with the blinking cursors, and dot matrix printers) to be nostalgically entertaining. It’s a quick read, and there is a lot going on at the same time. But, it just didn’t grab me in the way that a good ghost story would have.

Have this ever happened to you? You meet a complete stranger, and for some unexplained reason, it feels like you have known that person your whole life. The two of you connect right away, and one of the first conversations you have includes the phrase: “Where do I know you from?” Sometimes you find out that you used to attend the same school years ago, or that you briefly met at some party through some mutual acquaintance, and you forgot. Sometimes, though…. there is no explanation for the bond that you and this stranger are feeling. It happens to a lot of people. It certainly has happened to me! This is the kind of experience that leads people to explore religious and mystical ideas about what, exactly, is the source of this strong connection. It is this intriguing concept that is explored in Stones Skipping on Water.

John Kincaide attends an art show, and sees the beautiful Vanessa Dean for the first time. The two are instantly attracted to each other, and this attraction quickly leads to a passionate relationship. Vanessa has been making art that centers around her need to find a familiar face in a crowd, and then exploring that connection. Each of the lovers has found a little piece of what was missing from their lives in the other person, as lovers often do.

Their bliss is broken when Kincaide gets an urgent phone call from one of his employees. Kincaide owns a company that has been manufacturing and testing a new drug called ClearThought. The drug was designed as a memory aid, something that would eventually be marketed to college students, graduate students, and other people who have the need for a temporary memory boost. John learns, from this frantic phone call placed in the wee hours of the morning, that something has gone terribly wrong.

Gordon Bischof, the inventor of ClearThought, appears to have gone crazy. Bischof has been secretly sampling ClearThought, and the result is that he has lost his mind. He is sitting in the lab, with a gun, and a bottle of alcohol, demanding to speak with Kincaide, and calling his coworkers by names that are not actually their names. The most terrifying aspect of this extremely unsettling scene is that Bischof believes that ClearThought has enabled him to see and experience past lives.

As if that weren’t bad enough news, there is more. Bischof firmly believes that he has discovered exactly who Kincaide was in a past life, is angry about what transpired, and is interested in settling the score. It is a grudge held onto from a lifetime ago. Passion and rage, multiplied by time, equals an imminent explosion.

What follows is an intense roller coaster ride of a story, as Kincaide, Vanessa, and Bischof try and make all the little pieces fit into the big picture. The reader sits somewhere inside Kincaide’s head, as he struggles to figure out what is fact, what is fantasy, and what the right move is as the situation continues to intensify. There are many chapters that ended with statements so shocking that it literally made me gasp, and quickly devour the next chapter, dying to know what happens next. Readers who appreciate stories that do not fit neatly into a categorical box created by big chain bookstores will greatly enjoy this book. Those that crave a thriller with a touch of metaphysics will not want to miss this book.

In some ways, Arson, is a typical teenager. He has a part time job at an ice cream shop, with a horrible manager, and coworkers who like to slack off and make Arson do most of the work. He’s definitely not the most popular guy in his high school… far from it! Arson is a social outcast, and most people think he is weird. Arson, like many teenage boys, has an intense crush on the most popular girl in school. She’s blond, and beautiful, and completely out of his league. In these ways, Arson is normal.

However, there are things about Arson that are unusual. He lives with his grandmother, instead of with his parents. His closest friend is a girl who chooses to constantly wear a Halloween mask. She has some very valid reasons about why she selected this strange choice of accessory, but still, it’s not the sort of thing that helps a teenager make friends. Arson has an unusual name. It’s really a nickname, but he has gone by it for so long that it has become his name.

The oddest thing about Arson is that he sets fires. Only, he doesn’t need a match, or an accelerant. Arson can start fires just by thinking about it, and he is still learning how to control this ability that he hates, that he loves, that defines him.

Estevan Vega is the author of the book The Sacred Sin. Both books blur the lines between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral. Vega’s books contain characters with lots of layers, each with their own demons to face and fight with. I’ve greatly enjoyed reading his work.

Estevan Vega was kind enough to do a second interview with me for Book Sandwich.

Jen Thorpe: Arson has a very special ability. One might even say he has a “super power”. I can’t quite decide if I think Arson is a superhero, or a super villain, based on his thoughts and his actions. Which do you consider Arson to be?

Estevan Vega: I guess I couldn’t really decide what he was either. He was a sort of ambiguous character. Is, and I liked that. It’s hard to say that any person is always good or always evil, because I believe as humans we have different sides to us. Sometimes we’re the hero and sometimes we’re the villain. During the story, Arson feels like a monster, feels like he’s the villain of the story, and at the climax I suppose people may come to the conclusion one way or another about what they think he is…but I’m rooting for hero…with divided sentiments.

JT: Do you prefer Marvel, or DC Comics? Who is your favorite superhero and favorite super villain? I’ve noticed that many little boys self-identify with a particular superhero (usually when they are between ages three and six). One of my brothers would tell people he was Spiderman. Which superhero did you identify with, (if any)?

EV: Since I was really young, I always loved Marvel characters. I think the reason was that I felt they were just cooler. I definitely like some DC stuff, but some of my favorite heroes (X-men, Spiderman) came from the Marvel universe. The character I really connected with was Wolverine. I remember this one time at band camp…I mean, wait, I was actually in the backseat playing with some action figures, and one of them was Wolverine. I said something, like, “I’m gonna kill you, punk,” something very Wolverine to say, and my mom said I couldn’t watch X-Men anymore. I was heartbroken. I loved that show. To this day, he’s one of my favorite characters. Maybe it’s the cool hair cut…or the claws…not sure.

JT: I always wonder what an author was listening to while he was writing his book. Did you listen to a certain kind of music while writing Arson? Was there a particular CD or artist that you gravitated towards while writing this book? Did you listen to podcasts? Or, were you writing in silence?

EV: I don’t typically like to write with music, not with lyrics anyway. I’ve never tried writing to Beethoven or the Star Wars soundtrack, though that might eventually prove to be an epic journey. I don’t know, I prefer to write in silence. Although I definitely got some inspiration from the song “Glass to the Arson” by Anberlin. I decided to name Arson because partly because of that track, so that was kinda cool.

JT: Emery is a fascinating character! There were so many layers to her personality, and she was such a strong person, (despite the personal tragedy she faced). Did you have any plans to include Emery in, if not a sequel to Arson, than in another story, someday?

EV: Yeah, she is. I’ve been getting a lot of feedback on her character. It’s funny, because she was never initially part of the book. When I originally started writing the book, I had no idea a character like her was gonna be in it, but I totally love her, and she is a huge part of the story. I am working on book two right now, trying to finish that up. Hopefully it’ll be out next year, though I am terrified of setting goals for myself. But yeah, you’re not done with Emery yet. She rocks.

JT: Where can my readers find you on the internet?

EV: Check out my website: www.estevanvega.com. All things ARSON are on there, plus some info about my current book tour and where I’ll be heading next. Also, there’s some stuff on there about my other books. My email’s on there. I love getting feedback, so write me and let me know what you thought of ARSON!

You can also check me out on twitter and facebook. I frequent those sites way more often than I should, so there are plenty of ways to find me. Don’t tell the government!

Now please go out and pick up ARSON…and tell everyone you know to get a copy! Let’s get Hollywood’s attention!

Jen Thorpe: Thank you, so much, for doing this interview with me for Book Sandwich!

Estevan Vega: No problem. Thanks for having me.

Freedom’s Call is a fairly mediocre novel wrapped around a somewhat intriguing concept. The year is 2013. The book’s protagonist, Johnny Locker, is the leader of the Social Security movement. I don’t recall if this movement’s purpose is specifically described anywhere in Freedom’s Call, but Locker is its leader. And a quietly reluctant leader, at that. A former media personality (radio talk-show host, I think), he had become the figurehead of the movement, presumably due to his outspoken opinions on… whatever it is the Social Security movement is protesting. The novel begins at a rally in Washington, D.C. Locker is there, leading a march on the American capital. From out of nowhere, he is scooped up by a group of friends who tell him he has to get out of there right away. Locker’s buddies are all military types, and even though all of them (including Locker) are in their sixties, they’ve got the stamina to escape the crowd through a chain of events that’d put a James Bond film to shame. There’s gas masks, a secret passage in a subway, some impromptu swimming, an old boat and for some reason, a 1958 Pontiac Chieftain. (Not sure why the vintage Pontiac was included here. The author describes it in such loving detail, I kept waiting for it to return at a future point in the book. Alas…) Our heroes manage to make it to an airfield. They commandeer a plane and fly away from the city, all the while, Locker is stunned, having no idea exactly why he’s been taken on this adventure. Not long after their plane is a safe distance from Washington, D.C. the crew learn that a nuclear bomb was set off within the city. Whew! They made it out just in time.
(more…)

This is one of those books that can be looked at from several different viewpoints. On one hand, this is the story of a single mother, pushed to the edge by circumstances beyond her control, who is desperately trying to protect her son from the situation. Another view is that this is the story about how much more difficult life can be for a parent of a child who has high-functioning autism. Overall though, this book is also a thriller that centers around an especially outrageous and tragic crime.

Danielle Parkman is a single mother, something that is never an easy thing to be. Her teenage son, Max, has been diagnosed with a form of high functioning autism, and this complicates everything. At the start of the book, Danielle is taking Max to see his psychologist, because she has become increasingly worried about some of Max’s behaviors.

He has become secretive, and moody, and a little bit violent, at times. There are signs that he might be suicidal. Max’s psychologist comes to the conclusion that Max really would benefit from being institutionalized at a place called Maitland, which is a top of the line psychiatric asylum. It seems that this is something that Danielle and the psychologist have discussed in the past, but the very idea still breaks Danielle’s heart.

Shortly after Max is admitted to Maitland, things begin to go wrong. The psychologists there feel that Max has many more problems than Danielle expected them to find. Max is having more frequent violent episodes. Danielle is getting pressured to return to work, after taking time off to deal with things. She is a lawyer, and has been working towards becoming a partner. However, her extensive time off has made her colleagues question if she was really should be made partner after all. If she loses her job, she won’t be able to pay for Maitland.

This is when tragedy strikes. Max is found unconscious, and covered with blood, in the room of another patient, who has obviously been murdered. Danielle believes he is innocent, and struggles to save Max from going to jail for a crime he did not commit. This isn’t easy, because all the evidence points right at Max. The rest of the book is one intense ride, as clues are discovered, cases are argued, and time ticks away. When you find out what really happened, you will be blown away. I certainly didn’t guess the ending, but once it was revealed, I was amazed at how well that all fit together.

What first got me interested in reading this book was that it had a character with high functioning autism. I have a sibling who has Asperger’s Syndrome, and was curious to see how well the author would describe a character who was like that. The author, van Heugten, has a child with autism, and I believe that her experience in real life led her to capture the essence of what it is like to know someone with high functioning autism. Max lacks some social skills, is very focused on computers, and also is extremely talented at using computers and the internet to gather information that he is interested in. That same description would fit my sibling quite well.

Another really cool thing about this author is that she was a former international lawyer. This is another area where the author’s real life experiences were used to enhance the book. The courtroom scenes felt extremely intense and believable, and both Danielle, and another lawyer who helps her, seem to know an immense amount about law, how court cases work, and what it takes to get evidence admitted into a case.

I really enjoyed this book, but there were some parts where I felt the need to suspend my disbelief in order to keep the story from falling apart. Danielle takes several risks in her efforts to get Max out of Maitland that could get her into legal trouble. Would a desperate mother take those risks? Perhaps. Would a mother who was also a lawyer, and “knew better”, take those risks? Well… maybe so. However, Danielle takes even bigger and bigger risks as the story continues. While this makes for an exciting storyline, part of me was questioning if someone as knowledgeable as Danielle was about the legal implications of her actions would still choose to do those things. I also wondered where Max’s father was, exactly, and why wasn’t he at least providing child support? How can a single mother find the time to raise a child with special needs and become a lawyer who is about to make partner? These things confused me. However, when I got to the part where the killer is revealed, I set all my questioning thoughts aside, because I was so impressed with how well that fit. It’s one of those moments where you learn the answer and think, “Of course!”, and then wonder why you didn’t see that coming.

It starts with rain. Actually, it starts with a torrential downpour that comes out of nowhere, late one night. Molly, a writer, happens to be awake when the rain starts. She notices that the rain glows, and smells funny, and comes with an ominous and disturbing feeling about it.

Molly decides to do what one would expect the heroine of a horror novel to do: she goes outside to investigate. A large group of silent and nervous looking coyotes have gathered on her porch. They seem to be afraid of the bizarre rain, or, possibly, some evil force that Molly can sense in the nearby woods. Amazingly, the coyotes have no problem with Molly when she impulsively decides to step out on the porch, and stand among them. This short scene feels very mystical, and is my favorite part of the book.

Molly’s husband, Neil, a former priest, also feels an ominous presence coming from the rain. He starts murmuring strange statements while he is still asleep, somehow.

From here, things get really freaky. Molly and Neil experience some seemingly impossible things. Molly’s collection of music boxes spontaneously go off all at once. They both start to see a shadowy form that appears to be right behind them when they look in the mirror, but does not seem to be in the room with them.

They turn on the television and learn that this strange rain is happening pretty much all over the world. There are many floods. A strange typhoon has appeared in the ocean. In some places, it is snowing, and children are playing in the odd glowing snow. No one knows what is causing it. One of the live newscasts ends with a camera man dropping the camera, and half of the reporters severed head landing on the ground. Whatever is going on, it’s not good.

Conveniently, both Molly and Neil not only have a gun, a rifle, and plenty of ammo for each, but are both skilled with using these weapons. They take these with them when they decide to drive to the center of town, believing that gathering with other people will be safer then staying by themselves.

A radio broadcast plays audio from the Space Station, which seems to currently staffed by half the countries in the UN, based on the quick glimpse we get. Molly and Neil listen as unexplained alien invaders phase through the doors of the station, and slaughter the astronauts.

Who are these alien invaders, and what do they want? This is unexplained for most of the book, which adds to the tension in the story. I give Koontz credit for creating an extremely creepy setting. It seems that these aliens have come to Earth to take it, in every sense of the word. The description of the alien looking landscape, and the creatures that come out of it, is vivid enough to make my skin crawl.

Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with this book. So many things are just too convenient. Molly and Neil just happen to have guns and ammo lying around the house, and both are trained to use them. Molly has a nearly photographic memory for phrases and words, and this ability makes her able to instantly recognize when other characters start quoting poetry. She even knows what poet wrote it, and what poem the quote is from. Despite the horrible things happening around her, she manages to memorize a phrase that appears to be gibberish that was said by the alien that invaded the space station….. and decode it later on!

Molly’s past includes a traumatic event that happened when she was a child, which (not to give too much away), involved her protecting some other children that her father was trying to kill. Later, she and Neil become protectors of stray children.

Neil just so happens to have once been a priest, in a book filled with biblical references, few of which come from him. If you are not a person who is familiar with the Old Testament part of the bible, or someone who doesn’t happen to belong to a faith that believes in it, much of this book is going to have little meaning for you. I was not impressed by this. I like my horror stories to be scary, creepy, and even a bit disgusting at times. I don’t want to get to the end of the book only to learn that the events that happened were because the God of the Old Testament wanted them to happen. Such a disappointment! Why did all this destruction and horrible things happen? Why did so many people die? Because it was God’s plan. This is not an ending, it is a cop out.

The invading aliens are vicious and violent. To me, the inclusion of aliens in this book appeared to be specifically so the author could create new and incredibly disturbing ways to torture people. Now, I understand that there are a lot of people who enjoy books and/or movies that involve graphic scenes of torture. I am not among them. To me, this was overkill, and largely unnecessary. It especially bothers me that tons of people got tortured in this story not because of a war, or because of insanity, or even because someone was possessed by a demon or other evil force. It was because God said so. Oh really? So, for no reason then. Great.

This was not my favorite Koontz book, by far.

Robert B. Parker, who died in January of this year, had two successful series of books. He wrote the Spencer For Hire series and the Jessie Stone series of books which have had several CBS TV movies made based on the character. Tom Selleck plays Jessie Stone in the TV movies and does quite a good job. My wife and I have seen all of the TV movies either on Netflix or when they aired on TV. So it was a natural for us to want to listen to one of the books in the series on our most recent vacation.

Jessie Stone is a former LA cop who loses his job due to excess drinking, gets divorced, and moves to Paradise, Massachusetts. He becomes the police chief in Paradise. At the beginning of this story a teenage girl is found dead in a local lake from a gunshot wound to her head. Jessie and the other two major characters in the police force of maybe 5 try to solve the murder.

Jessie is still friends with his ex-wife and either talks to her or sees her regularly. She talks him into seeing a psychologist about his drinking and Stone and the shrink start talking about the marriage and whatever other struggles Jessie may be having to lead him to drink. This is probably 20% of the book.

Discovering the murderer isn’t the only case in the book as there is a domestic violence dispute and other smaller crimes. The murder investigation is the crux of the story, though, and it is surprising to learn what Jessie uncovers the more he looks into the case. The people he talks to in the course of the investigation are interesting as well such as the gay mobster Gino Fish.

The book was enjoyable to listen to and it came to me while listening to the story that several aspects were familiar and I had watched the TV movie based on this book. The one thing that kind of bothered me in the narration was how many “saids” there were as in Jessie said blah blah blah. I kind of prefer, especially in audio books, that the dialogue just flows between characters. That is a minor squabble with the book and on the whole I really enjoyed it.

There is a certain kind of reality that you can only experience while you are still a child. Days are longer. Summer vacations last for years. A single afternoon can last forever. The world holds magic, and secrets, and imagination is a powerful and potent force. Adults grow up to forget about this parallel universe. They don’t remember being afraid of the dark, or the reasons why they felt so frightened in the first place. Children know exactly why.

The story takes place from the viewpoint of Beau, who is ten years old. He is at that in between age where he’s starting to become aware that he is “too old” for certain things, but still has some interest in them. For example, he feels too old for the nickname his father gave him, “Snug”, but still likes it when his father calls him that. His sisters, Nonie and Missy are twins, but not very much alike in personality. Missy has a tendency to act much younger than her age, while Nonie is beginning to become interested in boys. Clegg drops the reader directly into Beau’s head, and in doing so reminds us of the way the world felt when we were children. This enhances the extreme creepiness in this story.

Beau, his sisters, his baby brother, and his parents are driving to Gull Island, in South Carolina. Every summer the family stays at the large and decaying home of Rowena Wandigaux Lee, the children’s grandmother. The children think of her as “Grammy Weenie”, or some derivation of this secret nickname. Their cousin, Sumter, and his parents will also be there. Beau’s mother and Sumter’s mother are sisters.

“No child alive has a choice as to where he or she will go in the summer”, Clegg writes. Gull Island is an extremely dreary place to be. It’s humid. There are countless mosquitos and other bugs that bite. There isn’t much to do except hang around on the rocky beach, or visit the mostly run down amusement park. Grammy Weenie can be mean spirited, and frightening at times. She tells spooky stories about her deceased daughter, and about scary things that she believes happened on Gull Island. Not one person in either of these two families wants to spend their summers on Gull Island, and yet, they drive there every summer anyway. The parents spend a great deal of time drinking, and getting into arguments.

The trip out to Gull Island reminds me of every summer vacation I’ve ever been on that involved driving somewhere far with my family. The baby gets fussy. The other kids get bored, and start annoying each other before falling asleep. Somebody accidently leaves something important behind at the gas station. The parents are stressed out, too warm, and take their irritation out by snapping at the cranky children. We’ve all been through this sort of thing. One of the children smuggles something she shouldn’t have along on the trip, and the result is an unsettling preview of things to come.

Sumter isn’t quite right. His cousins know it, but can’t exactly explain what is wrong with him. Perhaps he’s actually insane. The adults, of course, are either unaware of Sumter’s differences, or are choosing to ignore it. This summer, Sumter discovers something new to entertain himself with.

There is a shack on the property which was once used for storage that he was told to “never, never, never” go inside of. He names this place “Neverland”, and forbids the other kids from going inside, making it that much more attractive. Sumter has started to worship “Lucy”, who he believes is a God that he found in the shed. Beau doesn’t quite believe this when Sumter tells him, even when some truly bizarre and terrifying things start happening inside that shed. “Lucy”, like many Gods, requires sacrifices.

Eventually, Sumter and Beau are joined by Nonie and Missy. What began as something like a game, doing what “Lucy” wanted them to do, quickly spins out of control. The darkness that has been unleashed cannot be stopped. Or, can it? By the time the adults are aware that things have gone horribly wrong, it’s nearly too late. It’s up to Beau to make things right again, if he is able.

Few books have given me the creeps as much as this book has. The suspense had me turning pages as fast as I could read, so I could find out what happened next. Clegg has created an exquisite mix of truth and mythology, of secrets and lies, of darkness and the supernatural. For a little taste of what I mean, watch the book trailer:

You may want to sleep with the lights on tonight. If you find that you can’t sleep at all, here is something to pass the time until the morning sun shines through your window again. Oddly enough, there is a game created about this book. The idea is simple. Look at two versions of the artwork from Neverland, and click on whatever you can find that is not the same in both pictures. The music and imagery are as chilling and spooky as the book itself.

The full title of this book is “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls”. It is, of course, the prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which was written by Seth Grahame-Smith. This is an original story, using some of Jane Austen’s characters from “Pride and Prejudice”. The Bennet sisters have not yet begun their training as warriors, and the reader gets to watch them transition from somewhat silly girls to extremely serious and deadly warrior women. Well, except for Lydia and Kitty, who manage to become adept warriors while still remaining quite silly and giggly.

It begins with a funeral, where the guest of honor becomes a lot more lively than expected. Mr. Bennet, recognizes immediately that the curse of the Dreadfuls has returned. (The word “zombie” is considered to be impolite, so, most of the characters refer to the decaying, roaming undead as “dreadfuls”.) This realization causes him to turn Mrs. Bennet’s greenhouse into the dojo it was supposed to be, so he can begin training his daughters in the ways of the warrior. Needless to say, the Bennet sisters are surprised by this unexpected course of events.

This story has all the wit of a Jane Austen novel, and all the horror and gore of a good zombie movie. Mrs. Bennet is mortified that her daughters are becoming warriors. She is certain that they will never find husbands now, and that the family will be “ruined”. Mr. Bennet is at his sarcastic best, and he doesn’t hold much back. Jane is sweet and sensitive, and has a habit of looking down and blushing whenever she feels like too much attention is being paid to her. Lizzy is brilliant and truly has the heart of a warrior. Mary is stoic, and Kitty and Lydia are just as frivolous as you would expect them to be. Hockensmith mixes in some original characters that are quirky and fascinating, each in their own way. It’s a very nice mix, indeed.

Even the zombies are interesting! They aren’t slow moving, and have quite the capacity for problem solving. One, towards the end, even manages to speak a word. You can likely guess what that word is! The descriptions of the fights between the heros and the zombies are action packed, and disgusting, and wonderful.

Of course, any book even loosely based on a work by Austin must contain some “love interests”. The sisters gain a teacher, called “The Master”, who takes over their training, and lives in the greenhouse, um, dojo.

Master Hawksworth is dark, handsome, and athletic enough to make Jane blush and Lydia and Kitty smirk and giggle to each other in secret. Lizzy notices herself thinking about him often, and is uncomfortable about her feelings for him. Her sisters joke that he is smitten with Lizzy, but she simply can’t see it. Regardless, the two of them smolder when they are around each other.

Later, Lizzy meets the somewhat mad Dr. Keckilpenny, who is studying the dreadfuls, hoping to find a way to communicate with them. He’s bright, and amusing, and his hair is always disheveled in very becoming manner. Lizzy enjoys talking with him, and preventing his death by the very dreadfuls that he seeks out. Almost too late, she realizes that he thinks of her as more than a friend.

Which of these two eligible single men will Lizzy end up with? You will have to read the book to see. Jane isn’t without suitors either. Lord Lumpley, a large and lecherous man, has become smitten with Jane. This delights Mrs. Bennet, who cannot wait to see Jane married off to someone so well to do. Jane blushes when she is around him, and refuses to believe the stories about things Lord Lumpley has done, and who he has done it with. There is also a young officer, Lt. Tindall, who cannot keep his eyes off Jane.

Mrs. Bennet meets up with a long lost love, who now, due to some recent changes, travels with his own small entourage. I’ll leave you to read about exactly why that is. Most of what happens between Mrs. Bennet and Captain Cannon is implied, but it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.

Check out this awesome book trailer for “Dawn of the Dreadfuls”:

Want more? Here is a little taste:

Chapter 1
by Steve Hockensmith,
Author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls

Walking out in the middle of a funeral would be, of course, bad form. So attempting to walk out on one’s own was beyond the pale.

When the service began, Mr. Ford was as well behaved as any corpse could be expected to be. In fact, he lay stretched out on the bier looking almost as stiff and expressionless in death as he had in life, and Oscar Bennet, gazing upon his not-so-dearly departed neighbor, could but think to himself, You lucky sod.

It was Mr. Bennet who longed to escape the church then, and the black oblivion of death seemed infinitely preferable to the torments he was suffering. At the pulpit, the Reverend Mr. Cummings was reading (and reading and reading and reading) from the Book of Common Prayer with all the verve and passion of a man mumbling in his sleep, while the pews were filled with statues — the good people of Meryton, Hertfordshire, competing to see who could remain motionless the longest while wearing the most somber look of solemnity.

This contest had long since been forfeited by one party in particular: Mr. Bennet’s. Mrs. Bennet couldn’t resist sharing her (insufficiently) whispered appraisal of the casket’s handles and plaque. (“Brass? For shame! Why, Mrs. Morrison had gold last week, and her people don’t have two guineas to rub together.”) Lydia and Kitty, the youngest of the Bennets’ five daughters, were ever erupting into titters for reasons known only to themselves. Meanwhile, the middle daughter, fourteen-year-old Mary, insisted on loudly shushing her giggling sisters no matter how many times her reproaches were ignored, for she considered herself second only to the Reverend Mr. Cummings — and perhaps Christ Himself — as Meryton’s foremost arbiter of virtue.

At least the Bennets’ eldest, Jane, was as serene and sweet countenanced as ever, even if her dress was a trifle heavy on décolletage for a funeral. (“Display, my dear, display!” Mrs. Bennet had harped at her that morning. “Lord Lumpley might be there!”) And, of course, Mr. Bennet knew he need fear no embarrassment from Elizabeth, second to Jane in age and beauty but first in spirit and wit. He leaned forward to look down the pew at her, his favorite — and found her gaping at the front of the church, a look of horror on her face.

Mr. Bennet followed her line of sight. What he saw was a luxury, hard won and now so easily taken for granted: a man about to be buried with his head still on his shoulders.

That head, though — wasn’t there more of a loll to the left to it now? Weren’t the lips drawn more taut, and the eyelids less so? In fact, weren’t those eyes even now beginning to —

Yes. Yes, they were.

Mr. Bennet felt an icy cold inside him where there should have been fire, and his tingling fingers fumbled for the hilt of a sword that wasn’t there.

Mr. Ford sat up and opened his eyes.

The first person to leap into action was Mrs. Bennet. Unfortunately, the action she leapt to was shrieking loud enough to wake the dead (presuming any in the vicinity were still sleeping) and wrapping herself around her husband with force sufficient to snap a man with less back-bone in two.

“Get a hold of yourself, woman!” Mr. Bennet said.

She merely maintained her hold on him, though, her redoubled howls sparking Kitty and Lydia to similar hysterics.

At the front of the church, Mrs. Ford staggered to her feet and started toward the bier.

“Martin!” she cried. “Martin, my beloved, you’re alive!”

“I think not, Madam!” Mr. Bennet called out (while placing a firm hand over his wife’s mouth).”If someone would restrain the lady, please!” Most of the congregation was busy screeching or fleeing or both at once, yet a few hardy souls managed to grab Mrs. Ford before she could shower her newly returned husband with kisses.

“Thank you!” Mr. Bennet said. He spent the next moments trying to disentangle himself from his wife’s clutches. When he found he couldn’t, he simply stepped sideways into the aisle, dragging her with him.

“I will be walking that way, Mrs. Bennet.” He jerked his head at Mr. Ford, who was struggling to haul himself out of his casket. “If you choose to join me, so be it.”

Mrs. Bennet let go and, after carefully checking to make sure Jane was still behind her, swooned backward into her eldest daughter’s arms.

“Get her out of here,” Mr. Bennet told Jane. “Lydia and Kitty, as well.”

He turned his attention then to the next two girls down the pew: Elizabeth and Mary. The latter was deep in conversation with her younger sisters.

“The dreadfuls have returned!” Kitty screamed.

“Calm yourself, sister,” Mary said, her voice dead. She was either keeping a cool head or had retreated into catatonia, it was hard to tell which. “We should not be hasty in our judgments.”

“Hasty? Hasty?” Lydia pointed at the very undead Mr. Ford. “He’s sitting up in his coffin!”

Mary stared back at her blankly. “We don’t know he’s a dreadful, though.

But Elizabeth did know. Mr. Bennet could see it in her eyes — because now she was staring at him.

She didn’t grasp the whole truth of it. How could she, when he’d been forced to keep it from her for so long? Yet this much would be obvious to a clear-thinking, level-headed girl like her: The dreadfuls had returned, and there was more to be done about it than scream. More her father intended to do.

What she couldn’t have guessed — couldn’t have possibly dreamed — was that she herself would be part of the doing.

“Elizabeth,” Mr. Bennet said. “Mary. If you would come with me, please.”

And he turned away and started toward the altar. Toward the zombie.

The above is an excerpt from the book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2010 Steve Hockensmith, author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls