Second Chance by Chet Williamson

Second Chance by Chet Williamson is one of the best horror novels I have ever come across. Chet Williamson is a contemporary genre fiction writer. I have fallen for his Clash By Night, part of The Crow series. Williamson has written scary books like Ash Wednesday and Reign that were hits with readers in the eighties. He has won an International Horror Guild Award. He was shortlisted for World Fantasy Award. His best books are disturbing. Williamson has a touch with the supernatural, and he plays with the dark corners of human mind. Fury. Madness. Obsession. Depravity. He does not shy away from harrowing turns.  His novels have a bittersweet, warm, intimate atmosphere, with a sense of loss, tension, and fear. The Crow - Clash by Night and Second Chance by Chet Williamson are just as sophisticated, elegant, and frightening as the best works of Robert Louis Stevenson or H. G. Wells.

Second Chance by Chet Williamson. It is one of the best horror novels of the American author.

Second Chance by Chet Williamson is like a recall of an ancient Greek myth: what if a man could bring back his lover from the dead like Orpheus brought back Eurydice from the Underworld? It is an apocalyptic tale.

Second Chance starts out nice, like a walk along memory lane. Woody Robinson is a rock star in his forties. His first love, Tracy, died in an accident when they were in their sophomore year at college. Twenty years later, Woody enjoys his successful career. Audiences go wild and hot about his songs. However, deep down, Woody is troubled. Something is missing. His melodies are catchy as ever, his voice is still there, but he feels weary and old. He arranges a meeting with his college friends. They throw a party that recalls their days back in 1969. Music of the late sixties. Crazy attires. The same friends, the same old room. They are back to the golden days. Literally. The small bunch of friends can tell that something strange is going on. They realize that they, by chance, have gone back in time. They are twenty again. They meet three friends who have died many years ago. Tracy, Woody's love, is one of them. They cannot leave the old apartment, the outside world seems empty, dark, and dangerous. Within a couple of hours, they return to the present by chance. They are in their mid-forties again, but they find themselves in an alternative reality where their late friends are alive and well, they have lived and prospered throughout all those years.
Woody could not be happier. In this changed reality, he is married to his first love, Tracy. They have teenage kids. Woody has an even more successful career than he had as a single man. He is at the top of the world. However, something is wrong. Woody discovers that history has slightly changed since their return. Someone has appeared in the world who has not been there before, an eco-terrorist, nicknamed Pan. Pan has assassinated politicians and economic leaders for scathing the environment with their failed policies. Woody suspects that Pan is one of their friends who have returned from the dead. Pan gets out of hand, his actions are savage. It seems he wants to wipe off the whole humankind that keeps on damaging rivers, forests, and animals.
Second Chance by Chet Williamson is a thought-provoking read. It deals with issues that still exist. Humans still destroy the planet and its living beings, it has not changed much since the 1980s. The story is honest, real, pessimistic, and it sounds strangely true. Some scary books deal with things that could happen anytime. These plots are worst case scenarios that could happen to the world one day.
Second Chance is even better than Stephen King's Dead Zone. The protagonist of Dead Zone is a young man with psychic abilities. He tries to murder an evil politician who could be a threat for the entire world. Now, we know Stephen King. We know what he can do with readers' nerves and deepest fears. Dead Zone is a rare exception, it reminds me of thrillers rather than King's trademark scary books. Second Chance by Chet Williamson, on the other hand, is tragic, and the reader roots for the villain. Like the best horror novels, Second Chance is not just a blood-bath. It plays with tension, and it is meaningful. If you enjoyed Stephen King's The Stand and other apocalyptic scary books, then you will love Second Chance.

Jennifer Hillier - Creep, An Awesome Psychological Thriller Novel

Jennifer Hillier has written an amazing debut novel, Creep, with an exciting plot, and believable, flesh-and-blood characters.



Dr. Sheila Tao is a professor of psychology, she is in her mid-thirties and loves sex. When one of her students approaches her, she cannot resist him. Ethan Wolfe is attractive, talented, and good between the sheets. However, Sheila is already engaged to a fair (for me, boring) gentleman, and she does not want to risk her career, thus she turns Ethan down. He does not take it well: He threatens and blackmails her with a sex tape that could indeed ruin her career. And the worst is yet to come: Someone murders young girls in the area, and Sheila has a terrible suspicion...

Linwood Barclay - Lone Wolf, A Zack Walker Crime Thriller Novel

Linwood Barclay, former journalist and present best-seller author, is mostly known for his Zack Walker novels. is the third book of the Zack Walker series.



Journalist Zack Walker learns that a mutilated corpse was found at his father's lakeside camp. The police believes that a bear attacked the victim, but Zack suspects that a political extremist hate group is a more likely alternative. It seems that he is right: another dead body turns up, and things quickly turn worse...

Justin Evans - The White Devil, A Novel: A Scary Gothic Story

Justin Evans is a best-selling American thriller author who lives in New York City - and for a year he was a student of Harrow School, which is the setting of his novel, The White Devil.



Andrew, the protagoist of The White Devil, is a disturbed seventeen years old boy; his father sends him to Harrow School, a prestigious boarding school in Great Britain. Soon one of his friends die from a severe illness - and others believe that he has to do something with it. Worst of all, a pale boy appears in his dormitory room: an unearthly visitor.
One of Andrew's schoolmates, Piers, writes a play about Byron who was also a student of Harrow. Andrew himself is to play Byron, and he notices that there are several similarities between the two of them. The mysteries of Byron's life seem to affect his present time...
This is, like the school's name suggest, a harrowing story, atmospheric and eerie, with an insight of the lives of élite school students. Highly recommended to fans of supernatural thrillers and Gothic literature.

Stephen Leather - The Basement, An Awesome Serial Killer Mystery Novel

Stephen Leather's plotting of his mystery thriller novel, The Basement, is familiar from several stories: A serial killer is on the loose, he abducts, torments, and murders young girls. However, this subject is an evergreen for mystery/dark fiction fans.



Stephen Leather does have a distinctive way to tell his story: He creates a gloomy atmosphere and palpable tension that would make J. A. Konrath jealous.
The setting of The Basement is New York City; Detectives Turner and Marcinko are about to find the sadistic murderer before he kills a kidnapped young woman whom he tortures in a basement. The story is told from the perspectives of the detectives' main suspect (an unsuccessful, distressed screenwriter) and the murderer. Perhaps the two of them are the very same person, but, as the story progresses, the detectives have their doubts about it...

P. D. James - Death Comes to Pemberley, An Awesome Sequel of Pride and Prejudice

P. D. James, an awesome contemporary crime author, has written a riveting sequel of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was a brilliant idea: Death Comes to Pemberley turned out fine.



Elizabeth and Darcy could not be any happier: they are still fond of one another, they live in their cosy home, Pemberley (Pemberley rhymes with Manderley...), in the circle of loving friends and family members. However, one day a not so welcomed relative appears: Lydia, Elizabeth's younger sister. She stumbles out of her carriage, screaming that someone has just shot her husband, Wickham (an ill-famed gentleman) somewhere in Pemberley's forests...

The atmosphere of Death Comes to Pemberley is great - both the warm and friendly start, and the air of mystery somewhat later. The familiar characters are also fine. My favourite one is, of course, Lydia, with all the real, believable, likable human frailties of her egocentric persona.

John Harwood - The Ghost Writer, A Supernatural Thriller Novel

John Harwood, an Australian poet, made an impression with his first novel, The Ghost Writer.



Gerald Freeman, a little boy from Australia, finds a secret diary hidden in his mother's drawer; the diary belonged to an early ancestor of his, a lady named Viola Hatherley who lived in the 1890's and wrote Gothic stories. Gerald's mother happens to notice him as he lays his hands on the book, and beats him up as she never did before - she goes frantic with fear and worry. Gerald's mother, Phyllis, who has grown up in England, looks haggard and thin anyway, as if she was always afraid of something or someone.
Gerald finds a penfriend in England, Alice Jessel, a girl at his age. They write letters to one another throughout the years.
Years later the grown-up Gerald goes to England and meets Alice. He finds that Viola's peculiar stories has to do something with his present life...

The idea itself is not a very unique one - a secret diary of a long deceased person and a ghost story which concerns present -, but The Ghost Writer is a special book: Great characters, fine composition, and an ending that shocks the reader always do the trick. Highly recommended for psychological thriller fans who enjoy a well-wriiten, interesting read.