A Game of Thrones, the first volume of George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire is a big favourite read worldwide, a best-seller in numerous countries, and Time magazine has selected the author one of the 2011 Time 100 (the 100 most influential persons of the world according to the magazine).

A Clash of Kings is the second book of the series, a worthy sequel of A Game of Thrones. The intriguing, detailed medieval world that George R. R. Martin has created is under fire.


A civil war plagues the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros: three of the rulers are already in fight, and soon Balon Greyjoy and Stannis Baratheon also joins the war. In the meanwhile, clashes break out in the North and in the East. Daenerys Targaryen attacks east with some of her followers and three newborn dragons. Jon Snow, Eddard Stark’s son born out of wedlock, is a guard on The Wall. He and another warrior Qhorin Halfhand are sent to investigate the north – and find out that Mance Rayder has already united wildlings and has been striking on the Wall…
Queen Cersei’s brother Tyrion Lannister, whilst playing a faithful advisor of his nephew, the ruling king, Joffrey, secretly tries to undermine his (and Cersei’s) reign. Theon Greyjoy, Balon’s son, attacks Winterfell, the two young Stark heirs are said to be badly tortured and slain. The oldest princess Stark is held captive at King’s Landing, whilst her youngest sister Arya managed to escape, she has been missing since then and believed to be dead. Stannis Baratheon assaults King’s Landing, thus Robb Stark has his chance to lead more attacks against the Westerlands. Tyrion cunningly helps Joffrey at King’s Landing, however, Cersei is still suspicious…
Will at least some of the Stark heirs survive?

The fourth instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings, is full of twists and actions. The descriptions that we loved in the first book so much remained elaborative and realistic. Characters are finely drawn – however, I must tell you I wanted to hear more about Cersei who is my personal favourite, and I did miss her lover Jaime. However, the book is still amazing. A Clash of Kings is highly recommended to all readers who love Tolkien-like classic fantasy, the realistic manners of New York Times bestselling author Martin – and the previous novel, Game of Thrones.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first suspense novel written by Stieg Larsson, probably the most popular and most praised instalment of the Millennium series. In 2008 Stieg Larsson was the second best-selling author of the world, his books has been international best-sellers ever since.



The character of Lisbeth Salander alone is worth reading Millennium series. And there are a lot more that make it worth reading. Several, several twists, a brilliant plotting, tension, fine characterisation, detailed graphic violence (also on a female’s part, which is unusual in thriller genre) – one can find all in the page-turner The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist and publisher of a political magazine Millennium in Stockholm, lost a libel case against a Swedish tycoon Hans-Erik Wennerström. He is sentenced to pay a fine and spend three months in jail. He also resigns from his position. On the other hand, he gets an unusual offer from another businessman, Henrik Vanger – who secretly hired a maverick private investigator, Lisbeth Salander, to find out more about Blomkvist’s past, concerning both his private life and his career. Salander is a fragile and aloof twenty-four years old girl, exceedingly intelligent and an expert in hacking and investigating, a lonely fighter who likes to play according to her own rules. She presumably has Asperger syndrome. When she gets a new legal guardian, a lawyer, Nils Bjurman, the man rapes her. After the second sexual attack, Salander fights back, assaults Bjurman and blackmails him by releasing a video about him raping her if he refuses giving her full control to her own bank accounts.
Vanger offers Blomkvist a considerable sum of money and evidence against Wennerström. In return, he asks him to write the history of the Vangers – however, actually he wants to know what happened to his niece Harriet who vanished thirty-six years ago. He suspects that one of the family members murdered her.
Blomkvist moves to the small island of Hedeby where the Vangers live, and gets to know the members of the extended family. Blomkvist finds out that someone hacks his computer and personal data. He considers Salander talented, thus the two work together, and they become friends with benefits. They find Harriet’s diary and a list of vanished women – and they learn something terrible about the Vangers…

The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo was adapted into a movie in 2009, Salander was played by Noomi Rapace. A Hollywood adaptation is in progress. Brad Pitt was asked to play Blomkvist, fortunately Daniel Craig was chosen in the end (which is lucky for the viewers: it would have been hard to let such a plot go down the wrong way, but Brad Pitt as Mikael Blomkvist could have done the trick).

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

Still Missing, a harrowing abduction and rape story, was one of the most popular crime/suspense novels of 2010 and it has been a New York Times best-seller ever since. It is the first book written by Chevy Stevens – and it is surprisingly good for a debut novel.


Annie O’Sullivan, a thirty-two years old real estate agent, once an independent and brave young woman, changes tragically after being abducted by a supposed client, a sadistic psychopath. The Freak, as Annie calls him, takes her to a remote mountain cabin where drawers are padlocked and doors are made of stainless steel. To escape him seeems impossible. The Freak wants Annie to be „a good wife” and controls every moment of her life. She is allowed to go to the bathroom in a scheduled time. He shaves her legs and watches her whilst she has a bath. He beats her, rapes her every day and, worst of all, impregnates her – naturally she feels repulsed by the baby which soon ends up dead.
After a year of suffering, Annie, troubled and mentally scarred, flees. She returns home to her drinking and selfish mother, her all-too-nice boyfriend, and best friend… but she only feels safe when her beloved dog is around. She cannot bear people touch her, and her career as a realtor is over. However, it seems that The Freak had someone who actually wanted him to abduct Annie. She has a terrible suspicion… I warn the future readers that Still Missing has a disturbing and unexpected twist at the ending.
The story is written in a first person narrative, as an angry, bitter, and insecure Annie shares her graphic tale with her psychologist.
The characters of Still Missing are brilliantly drawn, and the plot is full of twists and tension. Violence is not overtly graphic and gory but realistic and credible (sadly enough, we could see these things happen in real life, just think about the case of Natascha Kampusch). Chevy Stevens was criticised for using crude language. However, the nature of the book makes it not only understandable but also necessary. There are things in human mind that can be expressed only by the crudest words. Besides, colourful language was also used by the best of authors, from horror master Stephen King to Nobel Prize winning, bold, honest Elfriede Jelinek.

Chevy Stevens worked as a real estate agent. The idea of Still Missing is based on one of her worst fears that could concern a female realtor.

Buried Prey by John Sandford

John Sandford’s writing manners and dark, realistic, graphic atmosphere reminds me of Chet Williamson and Mo Hayder – which is a big, big praise. Sandford (his real name is John Roswell Camp) is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and a nr. 1 New York Times best-selling author, and for a good reason. He is mostly known from his Prey series, whose protagonist is Lucas Davenport. Buried Prey is the twenty-first instalment of the Prey novels.

On the bundaries of Minneapolis, whilst demolishing old buildings, workers find the dried-up corpses of two young girls buried in the earth under the concrete floor. The bodies were hidden there several years ago. Policemen suspect at once who the girls are: two sisters who went missing in 1985, it was an infamous case. Detective Lucas Davenport in particular remembers all too well the girls’ disappearance from the early days of his career. Back then, he was a young and reckless cop, a ladies’ man and a local hockey player, an undercover man in his first case as a detective. Despite of great efforts made by policemen, they never found the actual perpetrator and never knew what happened to the vanished girls, thus the case was closed. Davenport is afraid that the murderer, still at large, has committed several heinous crimes since then, and this time he has his chance to find the real killer…
Lucas Davenport is definitely my favourite cop character in any kind of thriller/crime/dark fiction series. He is confident, charismatic, unorthodox, lives his life in the fast lane, and has countless romances. However, Davenport should have never ended up married. It makes the character a bit less credible. A tough man is not one who will baby-sit a bunch of children or nurture a wifey. Hopefully John Sandford will have the common sense to get him divorced in the future.

Stephen King’s latest published work is Full Dark, No Stars, an anthology of novellas.

The first novella, 1922, is a highly enjoyable, chilling story of a murder. Wilfred James, a farmer from H Home, finds out that his bickering, bitter wife Arlette wishes to sell their farm and live in a nearby town. James, being obsessed with his land, decides to kill her, and persuases his fourteen years old son Henry to help him. A drunken Arlette slips crude remarks about Henry’s girlfriend, a young country girl – thus the angered Henry helps his father to murder his mother. James brutally slashes his unconscious wife’s throat and the two dumps the corpse in the well behind the barn. Later, when James and Henry decide to bury the well, they notice that rats are swarming on Arlette’s body. One rat escapes, but Henry kills it, fearing that Arlette will haunt them.
However, more and more rats turn up in the barn and in the house. Henry gets his girlfriend pregnant who is sent to a home for young unmarried Catholic girls. Henry helps her flee and the two of them run away, committing several violent crimes. James believes to see rats everywhere, and he is scared of them. He is sure that Arlette sends the rats against him, and they will devour him alive…


The second novella, Big Driver, is about a young crime author Tess who attends a meeting in a library. A nice old librarian warns her not to go near a certain road, instead she offers a shortcut. However, Tess gets flat tires on the supposedly safe and secluded route as her car rolls on pieces of wood with nails. She meets a hulky man who offers help, but soon she discovers in horror that he placed the nailed woods into her way. He ends up violently beating and raping her, then strangles her unconscious. Tess pretends to be dead to escape. When the big man throws her out and leaves, she finds herself in an abandoned place, with several female corpses around. Fearing (righteously) the scandal and the harrowing trial of a rape, she decides not to report the case. Instead, using her theoretic experience as a suspense writer, she hunts down the rapist and the ones who helped him…


Fair Extension’s protagonist is Dave Streeter who finds out he has lung cancer. He meets an odd stranger who claims he has been living throughout centuries, and offers Streeter an arrangement: Streeter may live fifteen more years if he gives a certain per cent of his salary to him, and if he is willing to give his bad luck to another person. Streeter accepts the offer, and chooses his best friend Tom whom he secretly hates: Tom is successful and confident, he even seduced Sam’s girl in high school. Tom gets painful diseases and all of his promising, intelligent children’s lives go down the wrong way, they either die at a young age or end up being mentally challenged, whilst Streeter’s family prospers…

A Good Marriage is about Darcy who accidentally discovers a sadomasochistic porn magazine amongst her husband’s belongings. She feels unnerved, and searches for other odd signs. She realises that her husband keeps strange things in a box: small objects that once belonged to females who were murdered by a serial killer nicknamed „Beadie”. Whilst her husband is away on a business trip, she finds several hits about Beadie’s heinous crimes and she realises that in the time of the murders, her husband was always dangerously close to the scenes. However, she falls asleep, and when she wakes up, she finds Bob there: he returned home earlier and noticed that she found the box and the Internet hits about Beadie…

The Waiting Room by F. G. Cottam

The once rock star, Martin Stride lives in a nice estate with his wife and children in a tranquil country town. Near his home there is an old Edwardian railway station, a secluded place that has been abandoned for several years. The members of the family can hear steam trains roar and men sing a the First World War song. Then a strange figure appears near the waiting room…



Stride asks a known psychic investigator Julian Creed to help them. However, Creed’s psychic skills are fake, whilst the things in the waiting rooms are not. After a night in the waiting room, a shattered Creed asks his ex-girlfriend Elena to help him. Researching the past of the waiting room, Elena and Creed find horrible events from the time of WW1 which concerns their present days.

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

In a small Swedish town a family (a mother, a father, and their daughter) was murdered in a particularly sadistic way. There is one survivor: the son and brother of the slain persons. He was also terribly injured, he was cut several times with a knife. Joona Linna, a Detective Inspector, insists a dubious alternative: she talks Dr. Erik Maria Bark into hypnotise the boy to make him regain his memories about the murderer. However, as he does so indeed, something unthinkable occurs…

Hit List by Laurell K. Hamilton

Hit list is Laurell K. Hamilton’s best horror/suspense fiction (and the best instalment of New York Times bestseller list nr. 1 Anita Blake series) since a long time.


Characterisation is fine and the plot is delightfully gory and grim. Hamilton’s much praised and much criticised eroticism hardly appears in this book, actually Anita scarcely has sex (well, a little bit she does). We only see that she is – fortunately – still the free-minded and tough woman who is not afraid of using her sexuality and is not afraid of prejudiced (male) cops. Hit List was published on 7th June, 2011, and it has already made its way to the top of New York Times bestseller list. It is decidedly a must read for any Anita Blake fan – or any fan of dark fiction.

A serial killer slays Were Tigers across the country. Both Anita Blake and Edward suspect that the Harlequin make the killings, for the request of the Queen of Darkness. However, not even Harlequin know one another’s faces, as they wear their masks when they meet. Edward believes that in fact the Queen of Darkness uses the Were Tigers’ murderers as baits to take Anita herself – either to takeover her body or to kill her. He has his own trick in store for them… By the end of the book we can see a long awaited and dramatic fight between the Queen of Darkness and Anita.
The first Anita Blake novel of 2011 was also a great success and an awesome read.

Beneath is a finely written, atmospheric science fiction thriller by Jeremy Robinson.

A scientist discovers a strange thing in the Arctic. Soon he starts hearing non-existent voices, then he dies. Scientific investigation occurs, and it turns out that the thing he found was an asteroid came from Europa, the sixth moon of Jupiter, and it carried microbial life. Global Exploratory Corporation sends a biologist, Kathy Connelly, alongside with her crew, to find out more. They melt their way through a many miles thick layer of ice that covers Europa, and submerge into the ocean beneath. They find life there: red, plant-like organisms there. However, the organisms are hostile and they did not want the crew to leave Europa alive…
The concept reminds me of Jeff Carlson’s novella The Frozen Sky, a dark fiction about
Alexis Vonderach, a smart and reckless young scientist who finds a strange amphibiant species in Europa’s dark, chilling cold caverns.

In 1906, digging the Panama Canal, workers unearth something strange and out of place.

In 2009 a linguist, Andrew Dennison, is suddenly visited by the agents of the Secret Service. They take him to an underground government installation in New Mexico where he needs to experiment a weird exhumed thing that was, again, awaken. Several other scientists are working on the case: an attractive but aloof vet Sun Jones, a molecular biologist Dr. Frank Belgium, and many more. They are examining the thing that is locked in a glass cage: Bub, a supposed embodiment of Satan. The demon is formidably intelligent and tries to break free…


J. A. Konrath is an American horror/suspense fiction author, mostly known for his Jack Daniels books, written about Lt. Jacqueline Daniels of Chicago Police Department. After being let down by several publishing houses, Konrath believes that authors need to promote and merchandise their own books instead of struggling with publishers. I personally could not agree more.

Great Horror Crime Suspense Fiction 2011 - The Guardians by Andrew Pyper

The Guardians is a brilliant, atmospheric dark fiction about male friendship, darkest corners of the mind, and a haunted house. Several people will compare The Guardians to It by Stephen King, however, It is a masterpiece of horror, whilst The Guardian is a fine psychological horror/suspense novel in its own way. (Even if King is still the one and only King, impossible to outshine).

The Guardians by Andrew Pyper

In The Guardians, past and present intermingle. Four friends, Trevor, Ben, Randy, and Carl grew up in a small, dull Ontario town named Grimshaw. They are normal, happy adolescents, members of the local hockey team Grimshaw Guardians. One day they entered the abandoned Thurman house – from the inside, its angles and spaces seemed oddly distorted (one more time, a Stephen King recall: the setting of The Dark House, written by King and Peter Straub, was rather similar). In the cellar something unthinkable occurred – there was something in the house, and the adolescents also unleashed their own darkest sides… They knew what happened to their music teacher, yet they never told a word to anyone. When they grow up, Ben remains in the town, his windows are opposite the Thurman house. He keeps vigil: until he is alert, the thing that haunts the house cannot escape from there. However, twenty-four years after the case in the cellar Ben commits suicide. The remaining three men (they are in their early forties, Trevor, an once night club owner who suffers from Parkinson disease, Randy, an actor who never made it, and Carl, a drug abuser) returns to Grimshaw, and face their frightful memories. After Ben’s funeral, a young woman disappears, and the three friends return to the Thurman house…

The Canadian author Andrew Pyper’s first suspense/dark fantasy novel, Lost Girls, became a bestseller in Canada in 1999 and made its way up to the Notable Book selection of The New York Times Book Review in 2000. It also won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. The Guardians is Andrew Pyper’s fifth novel.

Lee Child became a New York Times bestselling author with his brilliant Jack Reacher series, action/suspense novels full of tension. Stephen King called Reacher „the coolest continuing series character now on offer”, and a praise by horror master Stephen King means great characters, a dark atmosphere, a gripping and enjoyable plot, and lots of gory, graphic violence. Worth Dying For is Lee Child’s latest Reacher novel, the fifteenth instalment of the series.

On his way to a meeting with Susan (known from the previous book 61 Hours), Jack Reacher, injured and exhausted, stops at Apollo Inn, a rundown motel in a remote Nebraskan town. He accidentally learns that a doctor denies to treat a woman whose nose does not stop bleeding. He thinks the lady is a victim of family abuse, and he talks the doctor into helping her. Reacher breaks the nose of the aggressive husband, thus he find himself in the middle of a gang war: the abused lady turns out to be Eleanor Duncan, the wife of Seth Duncan, a local gangster, a head of a group that coaxes young Asian girls into sex industry of Las Vegas. Actually there are several gangs of culprits involved, each of them having their own wars against their rivals… Reacher also finds an old, unsolved case: an eight years old girl, Margaret Coe, vanished without a trace twenty-five years ago. In the end, Mrs. Coe, Margaret’s mother tries to avenge her daughter – and Jack Reacher helps her in that.

A best friend of mine suggested me to read Dan Abnett's fantasy novels, and I am glad that he did. Abnett, a British fantasy novelist and comic book author has already worked on the most popular comics like Doctor Who, ThunderCats, Knights of Pendragon, Scarlet Witch, Iron Man, and Star Trek by Marvel Comics. We also know him from his fantasy books like Warhammer. His latest novel, Prospero Burns, is an instalment of his best-selling Horus Heresy series.



In this volume Dan Abnett created a world that is unique and brilliantly detailed. Characters (already known from Thousand Sons) are credible and real. The story, which we see from the point of view of a third party, Kasper Hawser, an archaeologist, starts with depicting life on planet Fenris after Hawser’s crash. Primarch Magnus the Red of the Thousand Sons Legion made a mistake, thus Terra is in danger. The desperate Emperor, seeing no other choice, sends a furious and vindictive Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves, to Prospero… In this book we get a new notion about the supposed savages, the Space Wolves. They, whilst being animalistic, turn out being intelligent and loyal, having their own history and culture. I warn future readers that there is a big and unexpected surprise in the end. Prospero Burns is a great read for anyone who likes Dan Abnett, the Space Wolves, and novels written in fantasy/action genres.

Jeff Carlson, an American science fiction and thriller author presently works with David Brin, a New York Times bestseller writer, on a new novel Colony High. His horror/science fiction story The Frozen Sky was first published in 2007, it won the international Writers of the Future contest. Carlson science fiction – suspense trilogy The Plague Year was a big success worldwide. He was shortlisted prestigious awards such as Philip K. Dick Award for the novels.



Plague Zone is the third instalment of the trilogy.
A nanotech plague wiped off human race from the Earth; only a small number of people survived. One of the survivors (Cam Navarro’s wife, to be exact) is infected with a new kind of plague: an airborne brain illness that turns people into zombies. A nanotech scientist, Ruth Goldman tries to find a cure…
The characters, most of them known from the previous books, are shrewdly pictured, the story itself has a dark atmosphere, it is fast-paced, full of action and adventure, just like all of Jeff Carlson’s novels. Plague Zone is a brilliant ending for the series, a gripping read for anyone who enjoys dark science fiction, action, and thriller genres, for anyone who likes apocalypse themed novels like Stephen King’s The Stand. Besides, I especially like Carlson to give a main role to females in his action sci-fi thrillers...

Gripping Science Fiction Thriller Novel Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Daniel H. Wilson is known as a television host and a robotic engineer – and as an awesome science fiction author. His latest work Robopocalypse was published in 7th June, 2011, and Stephen King praised it as „a terrific page-turning fun”. A film adaptation, directed by Steven Spielberg, is already in progress, the movie version of Robopocalypse will be released in 2013.




Robots are planned to make humans’ lives easier. However, in Daniel Wilson’s book something goes awry with them. A scientist, Wasserman, creates an artificial intelligence Archos which turns out badly: to save its life on Earth, it wants to wipe off humankind. An alarmed Wasserman tries to extirpate it – but he makes a mistake, and Archos flees from his secret Alaskan laboratory. It reprograms electrical devices, each and every one of them. A domestic robot murders an unsuspecting cook in a restaurant. A pacification machine slays several humans. Even toys turn into something sinister. At last Archos let its machine army loose against humankind, and a handful of desperate humans, named the Brightboy Squad, stand up against them: amongst others, journalist Cormac Wallace, Lurker, a hacker, and Takeo Nomura who is in love in a love doll robot. Soon they find Archos’s secret place and a final battle begins…

Wilson’s science fiction/thriller novel is already celebrated as a masterpiece like Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park or Andromeda Strain. Robopocalypse will have its place amongst the greatest action/horror/thriller stories like Stephen King’s Trucks or Glad To Be Here by Arthur Herzog.

Disturbing Suspense Horror Crime Fiction Novel The Treatment By Mo Hayder

The Treatment is a grim, harrowing crime/horror fiction novel. Its British author, Mo Hayder, was a best-selling novelist in several countries of the world when her first book, The Birdman, was published first. In her second novel, The Treatment (which was a Sunday Times bestseller), she goes on with the previous book’s story, and we see the same characters again.



In an unusually hot day of the London summer, a strange and disturbing crime occurs. A family is held captive and brutally tormented for two endless days, and their little son is gone – only to be found dead two days later, due to dehydration, tied up in a nearby park. Policeman Jack Caffery and his boss, Dannielle, a brilliantly pictured lesbian (short chopped hair, men’s shirts and heavy boots, and an amazing sense of humour – a diesel dyke, as she refers to herself) find several suspects, amongst others, the child’s own father, and oddly nick-named men, and a young, seriously ill woman, Tracy: the latters are the members of a paedophile ring. An old case also comes to light – police archives hold a blurred photograph of a bleeding, screaming man and his tormented son, perhaps a fake picture, perhaps not, however, the circumstances of the two crimes are oddly similar. Caffery has his disquieting private affairs: he still suffers from the loss of his brother who disappeared as a child – a Polish paedophile, Ivan Penderecki killed him, but proof never was found against him. Now Penderecki lives near Caffery’s home, and the two of them spy on one another, Caffery with hatred, Penderecki with malice. One of the suspects, Tracy, says she knows something about the Polish and a young victim of his, exactly at the lost brother’s age… Caffery ’s relationship with his lover, a rape victim and survivor from Hayder’s previous suspense novel The Birdman, is rather strained. London’s artistic élite hails and celebrates the beautiful and free-minded Rebecca’s statues and workpieces, most of them are about sexual violence, pain, and humiliation. Rebecca visits their vernissages and parties and drinks more and more, thus Caffery turns more and more aggressive with her. Their bickering leads to violence – and let me tell you, from this time on I hate Caffery from the core of my being, for the way he treated the already abused woman. In the meanwhile, a strange figure haunts the surroundings of the first murder. He is lurking near a family who are about to leave for a longer holiday…

The author of The Treatment, Mo Hayder, a fragile blonde, has the most adventurous life herself. Running away from her highly professional and educated parents at the age of fifteen, she does know a lot about living dangerously. She also moved to Japan and worked as a hostess there, she witnessed that a beloved female friend was raped and badly hurt. She later studied – on her own – how to write screenplays, and found a publisher for her first book. She often writes about graphic violence against women, she says the suppressed rage against females in men always take her by surprise and makes her uneasy.

She has written eight books about the cases of Jack Caffery and the other, already known figures of The Birdman and The Treatment. Perhaps sooner or later Caffery will find a painful and horrendous death. I personally cannot wait to see that. He lost all his respect from me in The Treatment – which was the most disturbing and unnerving book I have ever read. Growing up with Stephen King’s works from my early childhood, it is saying something.

Scary Horror Short Stories Collection - Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman’s amazing weird fantasy-horror anthology Smoke and Mirrors consists of several short stories and a couple of poems.



One of my favourite short dark fictions is Babycakes, written for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’s request, a touching and shocking story about a sad world without animals, about cruelty against defenseless animals. Another favourite horror story of mine, Snow, Glass, Apples, is a new version of an old and well-known tale, with scary hints about a malevolent and evil creature who was supposed to be the nice protagonist. One of the short fictions, The Wedding Present, is a story of a happy marriage and a ghostly wedding gift that shows the couple a nightmarish future in an alternative world… Another writing, Changes, is the story of a doctor who found a cure of cancer, however, it changes the patients’ genders, and soon some people use it for pleasure and fun… A short fiction, titled The Daughter of Owls, is written in sophisticated (yet never stilted) classic English of John Aubrey. Its protagonist is a young girl who who was found near a medieval village as an infant. Nobody is willing to bring her up, as villagers consider her a changeling, but they let her stay near the village in an abandoned old building, and they bring food for her from time to time. She turns out to be a beautiful young girl, and when males in the village learn how beautiful she is, they plan something terrible against her. However, they do not know that she was indeed a changeling… Shoggoth’s Old Peculiar is about a young American tourist who visits an ancient, crumbling little town in Great Britain, and finds it and its inhabitants truly strange and sinister – this story, easy to say from the title, is a tribute to the horror master H. P. Lovecraft. Looking for the Girl is a nostalgic weird fiction, written for the Penthouse, about the days of youth that has already gone and about a beautiful and strangely scary nude model, named Charlotte, whose appearance and age never changes throughout the years.
Don’t Ask Jack is about an old and sinister toy of whom children are afraid, for it brings bad luck to them – it reminds me of Stephen King’s short story The Monkey from his anthology The Skeleton Crew.
Foreign Parts is a short story about a frustrated and squeamish young man who never seeks physical contact with females, yet somehow he got a sexually transmitted disease. It has a scary and strange explanation…
The stories have dark, often grotesque atmosphere. According to Stephen King, Neil Gaiman’s stories are treasures, and we are fortunate having them to enjoy. How right he is.

Neil Gaiman is amongst the very few dark fantasy/horror genre author who was on the top of the New York Times bestseller list. The English writer has won, amongst others, World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, Locus Award for Best Short Story, and Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature.

Bestselling Horror Thriller Novel Authors: Dean Koontz and Lost Souls, Frankenstein series

Since The Island of Doctor Moreau by Robert Louis Stevenson and the classic gothic fiction novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley we know what can happen if ambition and science go down the wrong way in an unconscientious doctor’s hands. The New York Times bestselling American author Dean Koontz shows us a different and modern approach of Shelley’s story in his gripping horror-thriller-science fiction series Frankenstein.



A certain sadistic doctor, named Victor Helios (who is actually the same person like Victor Frankenstein, and, in the series, Mary Shelley’s novel was initially based on his story), has survived throughout centuries, experimentingon himself. He still works hard to create a New Race instead of the imperfect humankind: he creates living androids who cannot disobey him, and some of them (like Randal Six, who was designed to be mentally ill, so that Helios could experiment on him). Helios’s first creature (who calls himself Deucalion, a hint of Mary Shelley’s subtitle A Modern Prometheus: in Greek mythology, Deucalion is Prometheus’s son) sides with the detectives (a humorous, nice, thus not-too-interesting couple) to stop Helios. In the third instalment they kill him indeed – however, he still has a clone with whom the survivors need to cope in the fourth part, Lost Souls. Thus at the beginning of the novel, we see a small American town that has a nameless secret. Someone stalks the streets and hunts for victims – actually he wishes to wipe off the whole human race.

About the Book:
#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz brings his fertile imagination and unparalleled storytelling abilities to one of the most timeless--and terrifying--creations in all of fiction: the legend of Frankenstein. In Lost Souls, Koontz puts a singular twist on this classic tale of ambition and science gone wrong and forges a new legend uniquely suited to our times--a story of revenge, redemption, and the razor-thin line that separates humanity from inhumanity as we consider a new invitation to apocalypse.

The work of creation has begun again. Only now things will be different. Victor Leben, once Frankenstein, has not only seen the future--he's ready to populate it. Using stem cells, "organic" silicon circuitry, and nanotechnology, he will engender a race of superhumans--the perfect melding of flesh and machine. With a powerful, enigmatic backer eager to see his dream come to fruition and a secret location where the enemies of progress can't find him, Victor is certain that this time, nothing and no one can stop him.

It is up to five people to prove him wrong. In their hands rests nothing less than the survival of humanity itself.

They are drawn together in different ways, by omens sinister and wondrous, to the same shattering conclusion: Two years after they saw him die, the man they knew as Victor Helios lives on. Detectives Carson O'Connor and Michael Maddison; Victor's engineered wife, Erika 5, and her companion Jocko; and the original Victor's first creation, the tormented Deucalion, have all arrived at a small Montana town where their old alliance will be renewed--and tested--by forces from within and without, and where the dangers they face will eclipse any they have yet encountered. Yet in the midst of their peril, love will blossom, and joy, and they will discover sources of strength and perseverance they could not have imagined.

They will need all these resources, and more. For a monumental battle is about to commence that will require all their ingenuity and courage, as it defines what we are to be . . . and if we are to be at all.

Flirt is a new awesome suspense novel by Laurell K. Hamilton, whose protagonist is, who else, Anita Blake. Dark fantasy and horror fanatics – like myself – will certainly admire that this time Anita shows her Necromancy skills. At the beginning of the book a man, named Tony Bennington, pleads to Anita to bring back his beloved wife who died just lately. Ms. Blake denies his request, knowing that zombies are vile and malevolent creatures. Somewhat later, true that for other reasons, Anita does bring back deceased persons, who actually kill and eat people (amongst others their once family members, oh yes). As for Anita herself, she changed for the better: she let her darker - and more annoying - side loose, thus she seems more real and credible. Flirt is a great dark fantasy fiction for young adults.


Synopsis: When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there is to know about loss. But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn’t the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington’s grave would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington. Not really. And not for long.
Anita has been relaxing just a bit with the men in her own life. The affectionate warmth of being with them brings out something softer in her, a sense of safety she can almost trust. They do love her; that part is forever and for sure. But flirting with feeling safe is a dangerous thing…

Bestselling American contemporary fantasy novel series: The Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire are a big success worldwide. Martin started writing the books in 1991, initially he planned a trilogy of fantasy fiction. The first instalment, The Game of Thrones won Locus Award and was nominated for World Fantasy Award and Nebula Award in the nineties. The fourth part of A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Feast for Crows, got at number one on the New York Times bestseller list. A good thing that Martin did not stick to writing a trilogy. The first part, The Game of Thrones, on the other hand, became also a New York Times bestseller in 2011, and it was the most popular book on Amazon in June, 2011.

A Song of Ice and Fire

The Game of Thrones is the first instalment of A Song of Ice and Fire series. Its genre can be defined as classic fantasy or modern fantasy, its graphic world is fresh and unique, it also seems surprisingry credible and realistic. At the same time, it has the touching and legend-like atmosphere of great fantasy stories like The Lord of the Rings, and also the grimness of dark fantasy fictions.

In Martin’s medieval world the climate is changing drastically, and up in the north eerie powers ally against the kingdom. Odd creatures, soldiers, magicians, nobles, and villains fight and plot for political power, which is always a delightful subject. Perhaps there is a bit too much of sex in the book, and too less respect for females (I would not recommend A Song of Ice and Fire for those who hate to read about rape when it is mentioned negligently). However, the characters, stubborn, arrogant, and credible, are depicted brilliantly, especially villains like the clever, incestive, infidel, and power-frenzied Queen Cersei, who is the most intriguing figure of the book, and her lover and brother, the haughty and talented warriorr, Jaime Lannister.

The fifth instalment of the series, A Dance with Dragons, will be published in July, 2011.

Best European Suspense Fiction: Stieg Larssen and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Stieg Larsson was the second best-selling author of the world in 2008. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest is the third part of his Millennium series.

 Greatest European Crime Suspense Fiction: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Violence against females is a hornet’s nest indeed, and Stieg Larsson, fortunately, does not shy away from elaborative, gory details. His suspense-crime novel, which was titled „The Air Castle That Was Blown Up” in Swedish, contains several scenes of graphic violence, just like the previous books of the Millennium series: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With the Fire.

At the beginning, Lisbeth Salander is taken to the intensive care after being shot in the head by her father and buried alive by her half-brother. She also injured her father with an axe – he ends up being hospitalised two rooms away from Lisbeth, whilst her half-brother is on the run. In the meanwhile members of the ”Section” (a part of the Sapo, Swedish Security Servise) wants to silence Lishbet and her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist. The psychiater who treated Lisbeth earlier (and who is a member of the Section himself) convinces her Prosecutor that she needs to be hospitalised again, without any trial. This is how a mental patient loses her chance to make her own decisions, as a "nice" psychiater helps her, against her will, for her own sake (?). Even if Lisbeth survives her injuries (which is doubtful), she needs to face charges of murder – and to prove that culprits of child abuse and prostitution can be found amongst influential politicians and company owners…

The Swedish crime/suspense author, at a young age, witnessed that three of his friends gang-raped a fifteen years old girl. Although he could have stopped them, he respected those friends too much to intervene on her behalf… A couple of days later he asked the girl to forgive him, which she, unsurprisingly, refused. Larsson, righteously, could never forgive himself. Besides, he wanted to be a best-selling author, and he was aware that graphic violence would sell his novels. The results are, at last, brilliantly written, disturbing, grim suspense-crime books whose protagonist is Lisbeth Salander – she was named after the real life rape victim, Lisbeth. However, Stieg Larsson died by the time the horror-suspense-crime fiction novels were published. Being a left-leaning political activist and one who openly criticised Swedish far right exremists, Larsson got several death threats, thus many people suspected that he was murdered. Actually he died from a heart attack at the age of fifty. According to Swedish law, his father and brother inherited his properties, instead of his long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson. She says she could finish Larsson’s last novel, and she has the synopses of the fifth and sixth books. However, due to the family’s resistance, these has not been finished thus far. Perhaps, hopefully, one day we may read them.

 

Brilliant British Psychological Horror - Suspense Author Adam Nevill: The Ritual

The chilling horror-suspense novel The Ritual became The Adult Book of the Month at Fantasy Book Review for a good reason. Its British author Adam Nevill (born in England and raised in New Zealand, his earlier horror genre novels are Apartment 16 and Banquet for the Damned) is one of the most brilliant contemporary European dark fiction writers.

Gory Contemporary Psychological Horror - Suspense: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

The setting of The Ritual is a great choice itself: a remote, immense Scandinavian woodland. The protagonists are four friends, once university fellow students, who have grown away from each other during the past years, and they organise a reunion trip to an Arctic forest for the sake of good old times. However, something goes wrong. With a short-cut, they get lost, and in the desolate , Lovecraftian wilderness they find an ancient dwell, with weird symbols and signs, several evidences of strange Pagan rituals that were (perhaps are) held there. Tension and unease appears in the group, and the four men clearly feel the presence of something malignant and unearthly, something that lurks behind them and watches them. However, soon more physical dangers threaten them as well…

The Ritual is decidedly a novel for horror fans, the ones who enjoy being-lost-in-the-haunted -forest dark fictions. It can be compared to disturbing masterpieces like Algernon Blackwood’s The Wendigo and The Willows (the latter was the finest supernatural tale ever written in the history of English literature, according to H. P. Lovecraft himself), Lovecraft’s own horror – dark fantasy short story, The Picture in the House, or Stephen King’psychological horror novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Like all the greatest classic masters of the genre, Adam Nevill knows well that innermost fears can be just as frightening than real events that actually happen.

New Instalment of Legendary Fantasy - Science Fiction Series Star Wars

Star Wars fandom alert: Deceived, this awesome fantasy - science fiction novel, gripping and fast-paced, is based on the classic Star Wars world of the Old Republic videogame and seemingly follows the usual SW storyline at the beginning.

Best Cultic Classics of Fantasy - Thriller and Science Fiction Series: Star Wars

However, it is an intriguing story in itself, with realistic and alive characters (both on Jedis' and Sith Lords' part, Darth Malgus in particular) and a great plot. It is a real page-turner with lots of action, it is fast and adventurous, even touching, worth tho be mentioned along with the best Star Wars novels like The Revenge of the Sith.

Best Psychological Horror - Thriller Series - Hannibal the Cannibal by Thomas Harris

The great tetralogy about Hannibal Cannibal Lecter has been a legendary, cultic masterpiece of horror/suspense fiction since the nineties, and a milestone in the history of serial killer dramas.

Classic Suspense Fiction Novel Series - Hannibal by Thomas Harris

In the horror-thriller novel titled Hannibal (the original version of the film Hannibal), seven years after finding Buffalo Bill the maniacal skinner serial killer, Clarice Sterling’s career seems to suffer an irreparable damage, as she, out of self-defense, shoots a pregnant drug dealer by accident during a raid. (Is drug dealing forgivable in case one is pregnant?) Hannibal Lecter, on the other hand, has a good life, contemplating and enjoying the world’s beauty in Italy. He even sends word to Sterling, asking her to reveal details of her personal life. FBI still hunts him, thus they find themselves in need of Sterling’s help. A Department of Justice agent, named Paul Krendler, allies with a paedophile millionaire, Mason Verger, one of Hannibal’s victims, to use Sterling as a bait in searching Hannibal. After a meeting with Hannibal, Verger was left paralysed and with his face skinned – Hannibal feed dogs with the flayed skin; thus Verger spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair, thinking about revenge. The two of them bribe an Italian policeman who soon learns where Hannibal is hiding. However, the cruelly intelligent serial killer waits for his arrival and has some ugly surprises in store for Verger who plans a horrific death for Hannibal…
In the horror/suspense/crime novel version, written by Thomas Harris in 1999, Hannibal and Clarice Sterling become romantically involved, unlike the film adaptation from 2001. I have always said that the scene when Anthony Hopkins gathers the still form of a fainted Sterling (Julianne Moore, replacing Jodie Foster in the second instalment of the Hannibal movies) from the ground, or the scene when he pins her by her hair to the refridgerator, were the most sensuous scenes I have ever seen on film.

Awesome Suspense Fantasy Series - Part 13 The Towers of Midnight

Towers of Midnight is a part (the thirteenth one, to be precise) of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Times series. Sanderson also did good to this dark fantasy/suspense writing. It is a bit different from the previous instalments, lighter and more cheerful, this time we get less of horror, madness, and filth – which I, being a big fan of horror/dark fiction genres, never welcome.

Brilliant Dark Fantasy Suspense Fiction Instalment - The Towers of Midnight

Many of the characters has changed, and they turned more mature – thus less amusing for me. However, the novel itself is still great, fast and exciting. Ladies’ characters are brilliantly haughty – how I love that! At last we find out an old, gnawing mystery of the murder of Asmodean. The book has a greatest cliffhanger ending.

The Shining, Great Horror Fiction Novel By Stephen King

The Shining is a grim and scary masterpiece of psychological horror authored by the best contemporary writer of fantasy - horror fiction and suspense genres, Stephen King. The protagonists are Danny Torrance, a five-year-old boy who has extraordinary telepathic abilities, and his father Jack, a former teacher who struggles with alcohol problems. Since Jack lost his job because of his outbursts of rage (mostly caused by drinking), he applies for a job of a caretaker in a remote hotel Overlook, in Colorado. As they arrive, Jack learns the previous caretaker murdered his wife and two little daughters.

Great Horror Fiction Master Stephen King - The Shining

Danny meets an old African-American cook, Dick, who recognises the boy’s skills, as he has some telepathic abilities himself. He secretly warns Danny to look out and do not visit some places of the hotel, especially a certain room, the playground, and the seedy attic, and he offers his help if Danny needs it. Soon the last members of the staff leave, and the family stay alone. Danny and his mother Wendy are worried to see the warning signs – Jack acts as though he started drinking again. Jack finds old documents about the Overlook’s history in the basement, and he finds out that several sinister incidents and deaths occurred in the hotel during the past decades. The whole place seems evil, however, he is strangely attracted to the hotel, and refuses to leave. At last the snow falls and separates them from the outside world. Jack ruins their last connection, a radio, and throws away some parts of the snowmobile. The three of them witnesses peculiar things and phenomena in certain places of the hotel, and Jack becomes more and more aggressive. Wendy is afraid of him.




The psychological horror film adaptation based on the novel was directed by Stanley Kubrick, Jack Torrance’s character was played by Jack Nicholson. Martin Scorscese called it one of the best horror films ever made. However, the original story, Stephen King’s novel is better and more enjoyable than the film adaptation.

Scariest Horror Fiction - Dark Fantasy: The Crow - Clash by Night, written by Chet Williamson

Chet Williamson (known from Ash Wednesday, The Crow – City of Angels, and Hell, a Cyberpunk Thriller) is decidedly one of the most brilliant, gifted contemporary dark fantasy – horror fiction – suspense author. He (like Stephen King himself) has a rare, formidable ability to frighten readers with his gloomy, grim fictions, and move them at the same time. Clash by Night, an awesome part of The Crow series, is perhaps his best horror/dark fantasy novel, which is saying something.




 Chet Williamson - The Crow: Clash By Night, a great horror - dark fantasy fiction

The protagonist is a young lady in her early thirties, Amy Carlisle, happily married and having a job that she loves: she works as a child care center teacher. Having any children of her own, she cares about the children in the center with deep affection. When a certain Democrat senator plans to visit Amy’s workplace, a right-wing extremist militia places a bomb in the center. Amy dies, alongside with another teacher and all the infants and toddlers who were present.
Six months later, at Halloween night, a lonely policeman, David Levinson is patrolling on the streets of the town, and gets a call that a naked woman is wandering on the ruiny plot where once the child care center has been. Levinson finds a disturbed and seemingly unharmed Amy Carlisle on the scene, staring at a crow that perches on a pole near her. David (who feels strangely attracted to Amy) takes her home and tells her a dark legend about the Crow and his Uncle Abraham who returned from the dead to kill everyone who murdered him and his family.
Soon an elusive enemy gets the members and supporters of the secret militia, one by one. They die painfully and violently at an empty building, a gun show, and a white supremacy meeting. Witnesses talk about a slim, dark clad young woman, an angry lady who seems unnaturally strong and invulnerable, her apparently fatal wounds heal in a few seconds.
In the end Amy enters the secret compound of the militia…
Chet Williamson won an International Horror Guild Award and was shortlisted for the Edgar Award of Mystery Writers of America and twice for the World Fantasy Award.
The film titled The Crow, based upon the comic book of the same name, by James O’Barr, became infamous when its star, Brandon Lee, was accidentally shot during making the film.

About the Book
Vengeance strikes from beyond the grave to halt a deadly, vicious terrorist organization in this original novel based on The Crow, the wildly popular subject of feature films, an upcoming TV series, comic books, and merchandise.
When a Dedicated Teacher Discovers an Explosive device planted in her day-care center by a crazed militia group, she is just in time to rush everyone to safety ... almost everyone, that is. But in the realm of The Crow. death can be refused by the virtuous if their lives are taken too soon by violence. Now a dark shadow of the young woman that once was -- reanimated through the arcane powers of vengeance -- descends onto secret terrorist nests and clandestine meeting places, delivering her own violent message of fear and retribution to those who would mercilessly slaughter the innocent.
Testament to dark fantasy's explosive popularity, the vengeful character of The Crow consistently remains one of the most revered and influential figures in the genre.

The cult classic comic book creation of writer/artist James O'Barr, The Crow has limitless appeal across various media formats, including two successful films (with a third on the way), an upcoming television series, new comic book stories, and such merchandise as T-shirts and posters. In this third original novel, The Crow continues to excite and mystify its legions of fans with its tortured, cyclical tale of untimely demise and dark, brutal justice.