Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

EPISODE THIRTEEN Now Available for Pre-Order!

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I’m excited to announce today that EPISODE THIRTEEN, my ghost novel coming out from Hachette’s Redhook imprint on January 24, 2023, is now available for pre-order at Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore, and online retailers like Amazon.com.

Fade to Black: Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it’s the new hit ghost-hunting reality TV show.

Episode 13 will take their investigative team to the former site of the Paranormal Research Foundation in Virginia. In this brooding, derelict mansion, they hope to use their scientific methods and high-tech gear to crack an infamous haunting while uncovering clues about the bizarre experiments that went on there in the 1970s.

But as Foundation House begins to unravel its mysteries, Matt and Claire discover it wants something in return…

Revealed in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode 13—and how an entertaining show about hunting ghosts became a documentary of obsession, madness, and human terror.

I hope you’ll check this one out! It was serious dark fun to write and, I think, it will be a blast for you to experience.

“A beautiful Russian doll of a story… EPISODE THIRTEEN hooks you, creeps you out, and then it overwhelms you. It’s HOUSE OF LEAVES meets HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, in all the best possible ways.” – Peter Clines, NYT Bestselling Author of THE BROKEN ROOM

X (2022)

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Ti West’s latest horror flick, X, explores the juxtaposition of sex and death. It’s fun, competent, and has a great aesthetic. While the last act didn’t quite pay off for me, I liked this one.

In this film, it’s 1979, and a strip club manager, trio of would-be porn stars, and a two-person film crew decided to travel out to rural Texas in search of the perfect location for their porn movie. For the actors, they have stars in their eyes, thinking the film will make their names. For the manager and director, they see dollar signs, hoping to cash in on the developing home video market. All of them are young, hungry, and want it all.

Unfortunately, the old couple they’re renting a boarding house from is very odd and facing the end of their lives. And boy, do they resent the young for having it all.

West earned a reputation for producing solid workhorse horror films known for their consistency of quality and competence. In this film, he delivers while flirting with the juxtaposition of sex and death and horror’s kissing cousin: humor. The characters are more or less developed, the actors do a good job, there’s an original take on the villain and its agency that comes as a twist, and the overall aesthetic is 70s grind house. When the violence happens, it has a FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH vibe to it.

My only downer is the same as with other Ti West films, which is while they’re solid and competent, they tend to roll out as a fairly even road from beginning to end, with barely a suggestion of a roller coaster, and as a result, when they end, they just sort of end rather than come in for a big finish, at least for me.

Overall, I liked it and would recommend it for horror buffs looking for a hearty square meal.

THE RETREAT #6: FORLORN HOPE Available!

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Written by my writing partner Stephen Knight, THE RETREAT: FORLORN HOPE, the last episode of our brutal “zombie” series, is at long last available for Kindle at Amazon. I’ve received a lot of letters asking when it would be coming out–thank you for your patience! The book is out, it ends the series with a hell of a bang, and you’re going to love it.

Based on the classic Greek story THE ANABASIS, THE RETREAT is about a battalion of light infantry that evacuates Boston during a horrific pandemic that compels its victims to seek out inflicting or receiving pain, which delivers excruciating pleasure–and makes them laugh and laugh. As America collapses around them, the lost battalion travels south toward Florida, where the last bastion of the government is holding out. If you read them in order, they were #1 (I wrote), #2 (Stephen Knight), #3 (Joe McKinney), #4 (me), and #5 and #6 (Stephen Knight). In this last episode, we find out if they make it, and what it means for humanity.

Stephen is an ace at the military procedural, and the result in an episode packed with non-stop gritty, violent, authentic action that is not for the squeamish. Here’s the Amazon description:

The road has been punishing.

Traveling from Boston to ill-fated Fort Drum, then on to Philadelphia, and again to Mount Weather and Fort Stewart, the First Battalion, 55th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division (Light) is run out, blown out, and virtually waiting for death’s embrace. Now at the border of Georgia and Florida, the battalion receives new orders:

Encamp at Moody Air Force Base…

…and call in the Klowns.

Lieutenant Colonel Harry Lee knows this will spell the end of the battalion. But executing the mission could mean the the difference between life and death…not for the 1/55th, but for what remains of the United States of America.

Lee took an oath when he enlisted with the US Army. But he hadn’t thought it was a suicide contract…

Check it out here.

ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME (2021)

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ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME (2021) takes a fundamental human trait–feeling rejected by a social group, resulting in paranoia these people actually despise you–and ramps it up into a black comedy. Overall, I liked it, and I was surprised at how much they wrung out of the premise to sustain it.

Eight years after graduating from university, Pete is back in England after working as an aid worker at a refugee camp. He receives an invitation to come hang out with some old friends to celebrate his birthday. Excited about reliving the fun of university life and reconnecting after so long, he drives to the large mansion owned by the father of one of his old friends. What follows is a weekend from hell as misunderstandings and bad vibes pile up to make Pete wonder if these people actually hate his guts.

The result is what I guess I’d call a social horror film, one of those comedies that produces almost zero actual laughs but a lot of uncomfortable chuckling. Pete can’t find his groove, has grown apart from these people, and their humor and inside jokes and horrible gags in the end leave him reeling to the point of the weekend reaching a surreal climax. By the end, you can see how Pete let paranoia get the better of him, but man, his friends are seriously jerks who never seemed to outgrow the rough horseplay of college.

In the end, I didn’t love ALL MY FRIENDS HATE ME as it was all a bit one note, but I admired how it sustained and pulled off its clever premise, one I think almost everybody can relate to. It set a simple goal and effectively achieved it. Recommended for those looking for an odd bit of British psychological horror.

ENEMY (2014)

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In Denis Villeneuve’s ENEMY (2014), a mild-mannered, socially awkward college professor discovers he has a doppelganger, which leads to the two men meeting with dangerous consequences. Though lacking in answers, Villeneuve’s brilliant direction produces a story that is tense, moody, and haunting.

In the opening scene, we see a woman about to crush a live tarantula at an erotic show at an underground club. A man (Jake Gyllenhaal) watches.

Cut to Adam Bell (Gyllenhaal), a history professor who lives a monotonous life on spin cycle in a spare, shabby apartment, and whose only meaningful relationships are with his judgmental mother (Isabella Rossellini) and girlfriend (Mélanie Laurent), who drops in now and then for a tryst. After renting a movie, he discovers a bit actor in it, Anthony Claire (Gyllenhaal), and is immediately struck by something strange. They look exactly the same.

This leads to Bell reaching out to Claire, who decides how best to take advantage of the situation, unaware Bell might just do the same.

While all this is happening, we see some, uh, tarantulas.

This is clearly an art film. The slow burn, ever-present sepia tones, odd spider motif, the question of whether they’re doppelgangers or somehow the same person, the jarring ending–all of it is oddly affecting yet in the end is completely open to interpretation. I came up with one, and it fits, though for me it’s one of those cases where the mystery is sweeter than its solution.

Overall, ENEMY is a strange visual experience, unlike most films I’ve seen. I liked it a lot. I’m still not sure if I loved it, but it’s certainly affecting, it’s definitely distinctive, and I’d say it’s worth a watch if you’re in the mood for a strange and haunting slow burn.

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING

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Originally airing on Sky in 2015 and now available for streaming, THE ENFIELD HAUNTING is a three-part miniseries describing a notorious haunting that allegedly took place at a council home in the Enfield district of London in the years 1977-1979. (The case is also featured in THE CONJURING 2.) The series offers solid acting and an engaging story until, well, it kinda goes off the rails.

It’s 1977, and single mom Peggy Hodgson is raising four children in her council home. When her daughters Janet (11) and Margaret (14) discovered odd noises in their room, Peggy investigates only to see furniture move on its own. The DAILY MIRROR runs a story, which draws the attention of the Society of Psychical Research, which in turn sends novice paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse to either prove or debunk. Grosse has his own interest in the afterlife, as he and his wife lost their daughter the year before. When Grosse becomes convinced the haunting was genuine, the Society sends Guy Playfair, another investigator, to the house. The series, in fact, is based on his book, THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED.

I loved the Seventies setting and quick pacing, with the spirit steadily revealing itself and inviting more attention from the press, Society, and authorities. The actors are great–notably David Matthew Macfadyen and Timothy Spall of Harry Potter fame, with their dynamic driving the story for me. The third episode, however, jumps the shark as things get even worse and then wrap up tidily in an emotional if incredulous finish.

The real-life haunting the series is based on has been judged a hoax by experts, while to this day Janet Hodgson maintains it was all true, making it a matter of individual belief. Regardless of where you stand, THE ENFIELD HAUNTING is surprisingly fun, at least until the “real life” events start to imitate a sappy movie. Check it out for a neat little ghost story.