Tag Archives: horror

Horror/Thriller May Book Club Pick: Dead First by Johnny Compton

4 Jun

From the moment the fire poker went straight through billionaire Saxton Braith’s head (this happens almost immediately), I was hooked. Talk about an inciting incident to hook us. What’s more? He survived and literally cannot die! Hell of a case for private investigator Shyla Sinclair. Millions of dollars and personal stakes are on the table.

Book cover for Dead First by Johnny Compton. The cover has a red-orange background with large black block letters spelling out the title. In the lower half, there is a dark silhouette of an isolated house with its windows faintly lit. Johnny Compton is in bright red lettering at the bottom.

I was intrigued by how the author would weave supernatural ambiguity with nitty-gritty detective noir, and I was pleased with how these genres meshed in certain parts. Mr. Braith is, of course, a mysteriously intriguing client, and how someone could see what happened with him and still logically pursue helping him is unfathomable to me. The author needed to explore that conundrum more. Instead, he chose to justify the illogical with a long-winded backstory, as a device, in my opinion, to convince the reader that it was alright for the protagonist (and us) to just accept it.

It’s all set against a Texas backdrop, and the investigation feels grounded at first, almost by-the-book, of someone choosing to follow procedure rather than dark corners clearly being exposed to her. The deeper Shyla digs into Braith’s past, the more the case stops making any kind of rational sense, so that should have told her to stop being rational.

The dialogue and character development are what make this novel strong. Remy, Braith’s loyal retainer, as I thought of him, was my favorite character.

The horror creeps gradually from the abandoned asylum to the San Antonio hotel and from the drive through Galveston. These are the places where family secrets and deeply buried rituals expose themselves.

Shyla is easy to root for in the beginning, but that faded for me when the author overindulged in backstory to justify her clear disregard for the strange in front of her. I will say, though, I love the dynamic between her and her partner Jinh. It gave the book a nice touch of humor and warmth. Their bicker-and-banter dialogue is a natural strength of the book.

Dead First was a bit of a letdown, but still a worthy novel to sink into, especially if you enjoy Noir and are looking for a bit of an edge to the classic detective tales.  

Interested in the Horror/Thriller Book Club or our Mystery Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.

Find a copy of Dead First here in the BCCLS catalog.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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Horror/Thriller Book Club April Pick: Memorials by Richard Chizmar

14 May
Book cover of Memorials by Richard Chizmar. The background shows a dark, wooded roadside, with a narrow road curving. In the foreground is a small roadside memorial with a wooden cross, a teddy bear, flowers, and lit candles. The title “memorials” appears in lowercase across the center, and Richard Chizmar is shown all capital letters at the top.

We’ve all seen them, those crosses along the roadside, perhaps a few dead flowers around them, or the painted white bicycle, and then we think, ‘How so very tragic. Someone’s life ended right here.’ That’s the thinking that propels Billy, Melody, and Troy to hop in their van to create a documentary for their American Studies project – who builds them and what they mean. But also, what secrets linger around that tarnished ground?

April’s read for the Hoboken Public Library’s Horror/Thriller book club was a slow-burn suburban horror with childhood nostalgia and cultish dread. Chizmar follows the Stephen King style: Quiet, character-driven, and with heart at the center of the dread. Memorials (in my humble opinion) is almost 500 pages straight out of King’s playbook.

Go into Memorials expecting the pacing and inching creepiness of The Blair Witch Project.

The first stop: Billy’s hometown, and the first memorial marks the spot of his parents’ death. The project is personal. They continue through the Appalachian backwoods in search of more stories.

Things do eventually get weird. Memorials show up with a strange symbol. Eyes are cast on the three children. Mysterious figures appear in video footage. The same people are seen miles apart, etc.

But the deeper they go, the more they don’t realize the strangeness they’re entering – a hitchhiker appears and disappears, locals treat them with uneasy hostility, and their van is tampered with.  

Do the local communities (or the three young students) know the web spinning around them?

Memorials is a step down from Chizmar’s Boogeyman series, but I did like (and I kept this in the back of my mind during the read) that I felt for Troy, Billy, and Melody. At times Memorials is too slow, but if you enjoy small-town horror, a good 80’s setting, slow-burn suspense, and find yourself getting a little uncomfortable itch every time you see a roadside memorial then Memorials could be a good choice for your next read.

Interested in the Horror/Thriller Book Club? Please email reference@hobokenlibrary.org, or register for our next meeting by searching under Events on our website.

Have you read Memorials? What did you think? Comment below.

You can reserve it in the BCCLS system here.

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

Tags: ,

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