The Nightmare Room by Chris Sorensen
My Rating:
4 out of 5 stars
Book Details
Publisher: Harmful Monkey Press
263 pages
Publish Date: January 25 2018
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Thriller
Blurb from Back of Book
New York audiobook
narrator Peter Larson and his wife Hannah head to his hometown of Maple
City to help Peter's ailing father and to put a recent tragedy behind
them. Though the small, Midwestern town seems the idyllic place to start
afresh, Peter and Hannah will soon learn that evil currents flow
beneath its surface.
They move into an old farmhouse on the
outskirts of town—a house purchased by Peter's father at auction and
kept secret until now—and start to settle into their new life.
But as Peter sets up his recording studio in a small basement room,
disturbing things begin to occur—mysterious voices haunt audio tracks,
malevolent shadows creep about the house. And when an insidious presence
emerges from the woodwork, Peter must face old demons in order to save
his family and himself.
My Review
The Nightmare Room is such a great haunting tale. I have been mostly reading crime fiction lately and this paranormal horror novel was a fresh change of genres for me. I am a lover of great cover art and this one was really creepy and fit the story perfectly.
The author's writing style hooked me right from the beginning and kept me interested throughout. The dialog was realistic between characters. The story progressed smoothly and I thought I had figured out the ending but I was surprised (and wrong). The Nightmare Room is definitely a spooky read and I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Thanks to the author for sending me an autographed copy of this awesome book. I can't wait to see what is to come in this series. Highly recommend!
About the Author
CHRIS SORENSEN spends many days and nights locked away inside his own nightmare room. He is the narrator of over 200 audiobooks (including The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix) and the recipient of three AudioFile Earphone Awards. Over the past fifteen years, the Butte Theater and Thin Air Theatre Company in Cripple Creek, Colorado have produced dozens of his plays including Dr. Jekyll’s Medicine Show, Werewolves of Poverty Gulch and The Vampire of Cripple Creek. He is the author of the middle grade book The Mad Scientists of New Jersey and has written numerous screenplays including Suckerville, Bee Tornado and The Roswell Project. Chris is an Active Member of the Horror Writers Association.
Website
Twitter: @casorensen
Coming Soon... The Hungry Ones (The Messy Man Series Book 2)
Thank you Stephen Puleston and Jill Burkinshaw at Books n All Book Promotions for a copy of this book and the opportunity to participate in the Somebody Told Me Blog Tour.
About the Book
A gangland murder...
When DI John Marco discovers the body of Felix Bevard he knows instantly the killing was a professional hit. But the criminal underworld don't share secrets easily and with no apparent motive, Marco is forced to delve into Bevard's murky past to try to find the murderer...
An impossible killer...
As Marco examines Bevard's past crimes, one name keeps cropping up - notorious gangster Jimmy Walsh. A brutal murderer, Walsh has a motive for killing Bevard and the power to do it, but there's just one problem - Walsh is already behind bars.
A race against time.
Corruption at the heart of the system seems the only answer. How else could Walsh kill with impunity? But as Marco's investigation develops, new leads spring from cases once thought closed, and the net closes ever tighter on Walsh. Until Marco's own family begins to face threats to their life that could jeopardise the whole case.
Now Marco must prove Walsh's guilt or catch the real killer still be at large, before Marco becomes a victim himself...
My Review
I love reading police procedurals and Stephen Puleston is a master at writing them. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Inspector Marco series with it's believable and gritty characters. This was a quick read for me with many twists and turns. I highly recommend this series!!
About the Author
I write crime fiction based in Wales and about Wales. The rural landscape of north Wales provides the backdrop to the Inspector Drake novels. And Cardiff the capital of Wales provides the setting for the Inspector Marco novels set in a modern urban environment.
I love the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid – the list could go on! And I enjoy watching detective series on the television the recent Hinterland series based near Aberystwyth in Wales was great. One of my favourites is the French series Spiral but The Bridge and Broadchurch and the Rebus series with Ken Stott and Kenneth Branagh in Wallander are great too.
I have been on writing courses at the Welsh Writers Centre in Llanystymdwy, North Wales tutored by Matt Whyman and Marcus Sedgwick as well as crime writing courses with Peter Robinson and Andrew Taylor at the Scottish Writers centre.
I was born in Anglesey an island off the north Wales coast and after leaving school in Holyhead I went to University in London before training as a solicitor/lawyer. I practised in a small family business doing criminal work in the magistrates and crown courts, divorce and family work.
I still live on Anglesey, North Wales near the beach and the mountains of Snowdonia
Author's Links
Website
Twitter: @inspector_marco
Thank
you Stephen Puleston and Jill Burkinshaw at Books n All Book Promotions
for a copy of this book and the opportunity to participate in the Another Good Killing Blog Tour.
About the Book
Does any man deserve to die?
When a well-connected and wealthy banker is found dead in his luxury car in the middle of Cardiff, the motive for the crime seems clear. The killer even left a note telling the world the man deserved to die, simply for his greed.
But despite the obvious clues, seasoned detective, John Marco has his doubts that this was just a disgruntled employee. The killing was too clean, the crime scene too perfect. Marco also has a gut feeling that the family of the victim are hiding something...
And when another business executive is murdered, Marco's fears come true - there is now a serial killer to catch. An online video points to a violent anarchist group, determined to make the bankers pay for their perceived sins. But Marco doubts a ragtag bunch of anarchists would be granted breathing space in the world of the sophisticated uber rich.
As the case progresses and Marco starts piecing together the clues, things take a dramatic twist when a member of Marco's team is kidnapped. Now the killer has made things personal and Marco faces a race against time to bring the murder to justice - before it's too late...
My Review
This is my third book by Stephen Puleston and I am totally loving the Inspector Marco series. I like him more and more as a character with each book. The author sure knows how to write a good police procedural...this is another great example. The plot had lots of twists and turns and I couldn't put it down. The author kept me guessing until the end. Highly recommend this series!!
About the Author
I write crime fiction based in Wales and about Wales. The rural landscape of north Wales provides the backdrop to the Inspector Drake novels. And Cardiff the capital of Wales provides the setting for the Inspector Marco novels set in a modern urban environment.
I love the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid – the list could go on! And I enjoy watching detective series on the television the recent Hinterland series based near Aberystwyth in Wales was great. One of my favourites is the French series Spiral but The Bridge and Broadchurch and the Rebus series with Ken Stott and Kenneth Branagh in Wallander are great too.
I have been on writing courses at the Welsh Writers Centre in Llanystymdwy, North Wales tutored by Matt Whyman and Marcus Sedgwick as well as crime writing courses with Peter Robinson and Andrew Taylor at the Scottish Writers centre.
I was born in Anglesey an island off the north Wales coast and after leaving school in Holyhead I went to University in London before training as a solicitor/lawyer. I practised in a small family business doing criminal work in the magistrates and crown courts, divorce and family work.
I still live on Anglesey, North Wales near the beach and the mountains of Snowdonia
THE UNDERGROUND RIVER BY MARTHA CONWAY
Publication Date: June 20, 2017
Touchstone
Hardcover, eBook, AudioBook
Genre: Historical Fiction
The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Set aboard a nineteenth century riverboat theater, this is the moving, page-turning story of a charmingly frank and naive seamstress who is blackmailed into saving runaways on the Underground Railroad, jeopardizing her freedom, her livelihood, and a new love.
It’s 1838, and May Bedloe works as a seamstress for her cousin, the famous actress Comfort Vertue—until their steamboat sinks on the Ohio River. Though they both survive, both must find new employment. Comfort is hired to give lectures by noted abolitionist, Flora Howard, and May finds work on a small flatboat, Hugo and Helena’s Floating Theatre, as it cruises the border between the northern states and the southern slave-holding states.
May becomes indispensable to Hugo and his troupe, and all goes well until she sees her cousin again. Comfort and Mrs. Howard are also traveling down the Ohio River, speaking out against slavery at the many riverside towns. May owes Mrs. Howard a debt she cannot repay, and Mrs. Howard uses the opportunity to enlist May in her network of shadowy characters who ferry babies given up by their slave mothers across the river to freedom. Lying has never come easy to May, but now she is compelled to break the law, deceive all her new-found friends, and deflect the rising suspicions of Dr. Early who captures runaways and sells them back to their southern masters.
As May’s secrets become more tangled and harder to keep, the Floating Theatre readies for its biggest performance yet. May’s predicament could mean doom for all her friends on board, including her beloved Hugo, unless she can figure out a way to trap those who know her best.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | INDIEBOUND | BOOKS-A-MILLION | POWELL’S
My Review
This is my first read by author Martha Conway but I'm planning to go back and read her other books. Her first novel, 12 Bliss Street was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The setting for this novel is twenty years before the Civil War on the Ohio River which was the natural division between the free states in the North and the slave holding states of the South.
My favorite character was May Bedloe. The novel was told in her point of view. I loved her bluntness and quirkiness. The story line flows smoothly. The author is a great storyteller. The author used some realistic historical events like the sinking of the steamboat Moselle. When I read historical fiction I love looking up things online to learn more about the subject. So glad I took part in this blog tour. I live close to the Ohio River making it all the more interesting.
Praise for The Underground River
“Creating a perfectly straight seam finds echoes throughout the book in plot devices and metaphors, even in saving souls, and it may come as a surprise how lively and sustaining this lost art can be. Twain has his ‘Life on the Mississippi.’ Conway’s life on the Ohio makes you see the place, through May’s eyes, in all its muddy glory.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“The Underground River is both a dear love story and a page-turning adventure about the Underground Railroad—and an unwilling participant. An extraordinary cast of memorable characters gives this book irresistible appeal while the setting on the watery boundary between North and South places them in dangerous and morally ambiguous territory. A captivating, thoughtful, and unforgettable read.” (Kathleen Grissom, author of The Kitchen House and Glory over Everything)
“It is part of Martha Conway’s gift as a writer to weave stories from the richest and most interesting periods of American history. Set on a nineteenth century floating theatre on the Ohio River, The Underground River is a riveting and atmospheric novel about slavery, betrayal and redemption, with a memorably forthright heroine, and a plot as fast flowing and twisty as the river itself.” (Louisa Treger, author of The Lodger)
“Warning: The Underground River is a page-turner. Be prepared to stay up late reading, because once you start you won’t want to put it down. From the first page to the last, Martha Conway’s novel is riveting, immersing the reader in the adventures of an unlikely heroine who finds courage, independence and love amid the social turmoil of the Underground Railroad. Vividly drawn settings, original characters, and perilous situations make this mesmerizing book one you will remember for years to come.” (Amy Belding Brown, author of Flight of the Sparrow)
“Martha Conway’s The Underground River is simply wonderful, a novel in which the women—good and bad—matter. The tale is told by young May Bedloe, who grows up and falls in love as the modest little show-boat drifts down the river between the small towns of the slave-holding South and the free North. May is pitched into the middle of the Slave vs Free drama not through conviction–though she does indeed know what’s right–but by blackmail, until eventually she musters the courage to risk everything for another woman. I loved May, and I very much hope we have not seen the last of her.” (Beverly Swerling, author of City of Dreams)
“Well-researched and gripping to the end, The Underground River is a vivid look at a pivotal chapter in American history.” (The Mercury News)
“The Underground River evokes Twain in both story and setting. A compelling book that would no doubt please the Master of the Mississippi….A compelling story of a young woman who is trying to find her way in a world that, in a few years, will be ripped apart by war. A tale worthy of Twain.” (The Free Lance-Star)
“May herself is a marvelous creation, more than a little reminiscent of Mattie Ross in Charles Portis’ True Grit….You’ll root for her till the last page. Add a gentle love story and an especially sinister villain (who enters stage left, rather late) and The Underground River has the makings of a cult classic.” (Wilmington Star-News)
“Thanks to the success of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, the subject of the abolition movement is popular in fiction now. Conway (Thieving Forest; Sugarland) offers a novel take on the topic, and book groups will especially enjoy the distinctive setting, the rich historical details, and the thorny issues begging to be discussed.” (Library Journal)
“Readers will profit from narrator May’s attention to detail and will appreciate the richly drawn showboat and the North-South border
setting.” (Booklist)
About the Author
Martha Conway grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the sixth of seven daughters. Her first novel was nominated for an Edgar Award, and she has won several awards for her historical fiction, including an Independent Book Publishers Award and the North American Book Award for Historical Fiction. Her short fiction has been published in the Iowa Review, Massachusetts Review, Carolina Quarterly, Folio, Epoch, The Quarterly, and other journals. She has received a California Arts Council Fellowship for Creative Writing, and has reviewed books for the Iowa Review and the San Francisco Chronicle. She now lives in San Francisco, and is an instructor of creative writing for Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program and UC Berkeley Extension. She is the author of The Underground River.
For more information, please visit Martha Conway’s website. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads.
Blog Tour Schedule
Monday, June 18
Review at 100 Pages a Day
Review at Just One More Chapter
Wednesday, June 20
Excerpt at Teaser Addicts Book Blog
Thursday, June 21
Guest Post at Let Them Read Books
Friday, June 22
Feature at Donna’s Book Blog
Saturday, June 23
Interview at T’s Stuff
Tuesday, June 26
Review at Creating Herstory
Wednesday, June 27
Review at Reviewing Nerds
Saturday, June 30
Review at Clarissa Reads it All
Monday, July 2
Review at What Cathy Read Next
Wednesday, July 4
Review at Library of Clean Reads
Friday, July 6
Review at Svetlana’s Reads and Views
Saturday, July 7
Review at Lady J’s Bookish Nook
Monday, July 9
Feature at Historical Fiction with Spirit
Wednesday, July 11
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Excerpt at Jathan & Heather
Friday, July 13
Guest Post at Passages to the Past
Monday, July 16
Review at Pursuing Stacie
Tuesday, July 17
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews
Friday, July 20
Excerpt at What Is That Book About
Monday, July 23
Review at Donna McCabe
Wednesday, July 25
Review at Writing the Renaissance
Thursday, July 26
Guest Post at Writing the Renaissance
I am so excited to be sharing a book giveaway of an Advanced Reader Edition of Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage. Goes on sale July 17, 2018
Just follow me on Twitter to enter in Rafflecopter giveway below.
Check out an excerpt and links to purchase here
Book Giveway is for US Residents only and runs from July 5 through July 16. Winner will be informed by email.
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