FINAL CUT.....A SLASHER CRASHES A SLASHER MOVIE....KNIFE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT....(*****)

 Final Cut by Olivia Worley (2025) 

 

     Just in time for spooky season (and for slasher movie buffs, perfect for anytime at all) comes this clever variation on what's become a regular genre all to itself, in both books and films........the 'Death and horror during the making of a horror movie' trope.

     Author Olivia Worley's affection for the genre shines through on every page and if films like the 'Scream' series are your particular cup of blood, you won't want to miss all the horrific fun as as a rising number of characters meet their gory fates.

     Everything's in place that you'd come to expect in stories about slashers and behind-the-scenes of low budget filmmaking. Aspiring young actress Hazel LeJeune has won the role of the 'Final Girl' or as we've all come to know and love, the last girl standing in a slasher movie. But not just any random slice-'em-up. . This one's a fictionalized account of a real life small town schoolteacher who slaughtered a bunch of his students...... and whose daughter, 3 years old at the time, was none other than Hazel.

     And now, 15 years later she's right back in the swampy backwoods town of Pine Springs, Louisiana, shooting what's more or less a re-enactment of her father's ghastly crimes on the actual locations. While her dad's still imprisoned, it's starting to look like someone else has decided to rack up an all new body count, using the cast and crew of Hazel's film as fresh victims. Talk about life imitating art.......Hazel realizes she'll need to make her role as Final Girl as convincing in real life as she's trying to achieve in front of a camera.

     As a lifelong horror fan, I had the best time with this book. Hazel's motley crew of castmates, suspects and victims are well drawn and the book delves into Hazel's own inner conflicts and fears.....as in: how much of her father's murderous impulses did she inherit? There's even a touch of meet-cute/opposites attract romance between her and her leading guy.

     What I also liked - the startling unique spin that author Worley put on the traditional climactic showdown, as well as the extra twists that start popping up in the final pages. And slasher connoisseurs won't be disappointed with the impressively high quantity of poor souls who......well, let's just say you won't see them in any sequels.

     For everyone,(like this reviewer) who can't get enough of this stuff......good times to be had with this one.  5 stars (*****)

THE WIDOW.....A LOW RENT LEGAL EAGLE LANDS A MURDER TRIAL....HIS OWN....(***)

 The Widow by John Grisham (2025)

     Once again John Grisham proves that nobody knows lawyers, the legal system and the ins and outs of lawyering like he does. And he also knows how to take readers into the deepest weeds of jurisprudence and still somehow hold their attention without leaving them cross-eyed with confusion.

     But in "The Widow" the author's first attempt at a conventional whodunit, I myself would have preferred a little less time plodding through those weeds. The book maintains a measured pace throughout and that's even after the halfway point, when Grisham plunges his lead character into the most serious trouble a lawyer can fall into - a first degree murder charge for killing his client. At that point, I struggled to resist skimming through the pages and pages of unnecessary information to pick up the pace the book should've maintained al along.

     Small town Virginia lawyer Simon Latch isn't much of protagonist to root for, but I suppose it's a tribute to Grisham's storytelling skill that he throws enough woes in Simon's path that you end up in his corner anyway. Simon is barely eking out a living by writing wills and his soured marriage has flatlined. But into his office and life walks lonely 80-ish widow Eleanor Barnett who wants a new will to supersede the one written for her by unscrupulous lawyer Willy Thackerman. And Simon, with his dwindling bank account and massive gambling debts. can scarcely believe his luck......the widow's late unlamented husband left her a stock portfolio worth millions.

     Simon's eyes light up with greed, as he sees himself, swimming in cash as the eventual executor of Eleanor's estate, especially since she's bitterly estranged from her creepy, potentially violent stepsons. But is the widow's backstory about her vast hidden fortune for real or just a symptom of dementia? Just when Simon thinks he's verified the cash is in fact the genuine article, things go seriously south for him......a murder indictment with potentially the rest of his life spent in prison.

     And even with a top notch criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor's case built on flimsy circumstantial evidence, Simon faces a jury and a public fed up and disgusted with lawyers in general. So he'd better find the actual killer in a hurry before the cell doors clang shut on him permanently.

     All the byzantine legal eagle maneuvering, Grisham's forte, is fascinating up to a point until you realize it's slowing down the pace of the story, sometimes to a crawl. And to be blunt, the eventual whodunit reveal doesn't make for much of a stunner either. That didn't bother me all that much though, since Grisham' s great talent comes from his characters working their way out of the messes they've landed in, rather than any "Aha!" surprises.

     What did irk me and left me with a "What? That's it??" Where's the rest of it?!" dissatisfied expression was the book's abrupt final page....which I'm thinking will leave readers to wonder if they got a defective copy of the book that's missing a chapter. For a seasoned, veteran crowd pleasing best selling author, it struck me as a severe misstep and helped knock a star off this review's rating.

     3 stars (***).

THE MIDNIGHT KNOCK.....WAY OUT WEST....AND THEN, WAY, WAY OUT.....(***)

 The Midnight Knock by John Fram (2025)

     I'm torn in multiple directions trying to coherently assess this book. Much of it left me in jaw dropping awe of its intricate structure supernatural myth building and its dazzling high wire juggling of every genre imaginable - murder mystery, violent crime thriller, blood dripping horror and even spectacular fantasy-science fiction.

     And much of it left me exhausted, confused, bored and impatient enough to bring me to the point of giving up on it altogether. Yes, this book came as close to bail out time as I've ever been in years.

     But then came its literally transcendent grand opera finale, filled with carnage, heartbreak, love, sacrifice, a good vs. evil showdown for the ages and even celestial, metaphysical spectacle. All of a sudden that book's incredible finish kept me nailed to the pages the same way it did when it started out........ as a mere pulpy road trip for disparate desperate characters through the lonely wilds of West Texas. .

     So how do I explain a story that's both brilliant and maddening in equal measures?

     I wouldn't know where to begin, except with a bare bones description of its initial set-up. Way out in that arid, forbidding and according to local legend, cursed desert highway, come a bunch of people either on the run or on the hunt. In one way or another, they're all connected to a ruthless criminal kingpin with a long arm when it comes to vengeance and bullet-riddled payback.

     And the forbidden road they're on leads them all to a strange motel sitting in the middle of nowhere,. Nothing about this place seems right starting with the peculiar twin brother and sister who own and manage it. Overlooking the property is an equally bizarre Victorian mansion exuding an aura of overwhelming dread and a looming dark mountain that seems to change shape and size every time you gaze at it.

     It doesn't take long for the motel's new guests to figure out their explosive, murderous confrontations will become the very least of their problems.

     That's about as much as I'd ever attempt to describe before "The Midnight Knock" launches its long tortuous, twisting path through multiple realities, revelations, monstrous visions, more than a few monsters, and that stunning climactic finale designed to leave readers stunned and satisfied.

     It's one crazy goulash of a book that really tested the very limits of my patience for it. If nothing else it shows that author John Fram is a creative force to be reckoned with and as much as I grew weary of whole chunks of this book, I wouldn't dare miss whatever Mr. Fram comes up with next.

     3 stars (***).

THE GRACEVIEW PATIENT.....A HOSPITAL STAY TURNS HORRIFIC.....(SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?) (***).

The Graceview Patient by Caitlin Starling (2025) 

     When this book finally unveils the ooey-gooey body horrors that it's been hinting at all along, it's a true nightmare inducing funhouse of blood, corrupted flesh and a variety of oozing fluids dripping in all directions.

     But getting there is not the half the fun. It's kind a tedious slog, and as we suffer through the lead character's endless, agonizing hospital stay, it's a toss up as to who's enduring the most pain.....her or us.

     Afflicted with a rare autoimmune deficiency, Margaret agrees to a fully covered experimental treatment that might cure her....or maybe do something not discussed in the pamphlets. . This involves a lengthy hospital stay with beyond agonizing doses of medication that will destroy her immune system and then hopefully rebuilt it to full strength.

     Well, that's the theory, anyway......feel to break into an evil smile and cackle.

     What follows for Meg, as we knew it would, is a Kafka-esque plunge into perpetual medical torture, with the added fear that something's not quite right about this hospital......something sinister and terrible that's just out of sight but most assuredly there.....or is it?

     The book whips up a palpable, suffocating atmosphere of dread, but then lets it drag on and on and on.......it goes from scaring us silly to just wearing us out, praying for either a sedative or a gory wind-up that finally lets us see what Meg's dealing with.

     Yes, 'The Graceview Patient' does, at long last, let fly with a doozy of a finish designed to leave a reader with enough bad dreams to last till the end of next year. But the time it takes to get there feels like waiting in an emergency room with 300 patients and only one intern who just graduated medical school yesterday.......

     I'm guessing horror fans won't be able to resist checking into Graceview Hospital in the hopes that it's like the Bates Motel with I.V. drips and bedpans. In its final pages, we must say, it does not disappoint. Author Caitlin Starling delivers the shivers well enough.........if you're willing to wait for them.

       3 stars (***).

BOOM TOWN......3 WOMEN FROM A STRIP CLUB TAKE ON THEIR CREEPIEST CUSTOMER.....(***).

 Boom Town by Nic Stone (2025)

     I was fully prepared to immerse myself in this book, but felt disappointed that its structural confusions often diluted its strength to keep me glued to the pages the way it should have.

     For a twisty thriller, it does masterfully present a fascinating group of three female characters as well as an equally striking setting for them. The issues raised are powerful and universal.......the struggles for women of color to attain empowerment, independence and equality of treatment in a racially divisive society.

     Lyriq, Lucky and Charm earn their living at a thriving Atlanta night spot, Boom Town,.......a so called 'gentlemen's club' featuring an array of exotic pole dancers and private VIP rooms for patrons who can afford command performances from the girls.

     In simpler words, a classy strip joint. But among the men it attracts, there's an especially entitled and maybe deadly predator.

     As the manager-supervisor of her dancers, Lyric faces a sea of troubles.....coping with surviving breast cancer, the dropping out of sight of her former friend and lover Lucky, and the threat from her enraged boss to retrieve a vast amount of cash stolen from the club's office.....or else. On top of all that, fledgling dancer Charm has suddenly disappeared.

     In the midst of all the mystery, all three women have crossed paths with the vile, creepy Thomas McIntyre, a regular patron who particularly fixated and obsessed over Lucky and Charm. When Tom drops his mask of the affable, caring and well paying customer, it's clear he's capable of anything, including rape and just possibly murder.

     Lyriq's search for her missing dancers reveals an endless tangle of toxic relationships between the Boom Town girls, Tom and his beautiful wife LeBrettany. Twists abound and it's a question as to who among these major characters are coming out of this story alive.

     I ended up not liking this book anywhere near as much as I thought I would One major detriment - the author constantly alternating her character's names between their stage names, real names, or nicknames, depending on which chapter you're reading. And with the constant shifting of points of view, timelines and trying to remember which character is what name, , the book quickly turned into a chore to read.

     While I appreciated author NIc Stone's vivid, cut-to-the-bone prose and her remarkable cast of characters, the book's construction was so messy, it felt like the storytelling couldn't get out of its own way. But much to admire and savor for readers who can muster up the patience for it.....which is why I'll round up my 2 & 1/2 stars to a 3. (***).

THE HITCHHIKERS......A HEALING ROAD TRIP DRIVES STRAIGHT TO HELL......(****)

 The Hitchhikers by Chevy Stevens (2025)

     Leave to Chevy Stevens to keep you in a state of non-stop page turning while you race to find out what happens next and cringe in fearful anticipation for whenever it happens.

     We're back in 1976 with Tom and Alice taking their new RV on a road trip through Canada. They're hoping to heal a marriage wounded and aching from an unspeakable tragedy in their lives.. Good hearted as they are, they offer a ride to young hitchhikers Simon and Jenny, which snares them into a hellish trek filled with bloody violence and constant life threatening danger. Because Simon and Jenny are anything but harmless young lovers wandering about the countryside.......they're murderous chaos personified and Tom and Alice may not finish the vacation they hoped would bring them back together. As in.....not alive.

     As in all her previous books, author Stevens knows exactly when to turn the screws on both her characters and readers. So as this twist-filled RV holiday lurches from one terrible situation to the next, your find yourself holding your breath for a final resolution.. By that time, readers might notice they've gone way into the middle of the night to reach the finale.

     A thrill ride for sure but also one with the ability, in its final pages, to break your heart and then help mend it as well. For every thriller fan who loves a read that continuously pumps up their adrenalin.

    4 stars (****).

JOY TO THE GIRLS...... CUTE COLLEGE SWEETHEARTS CUDDLE IN A HALLMARK-Y CHRISTMAS TOWN.....(****).

 Joy to the Girls by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (2025)

     A novella-sized hot chocolate candy cane mistletoe treat for all readers who loved the two authors' queer college freshmen romcom "She Gets the Girl."

     It's been three years since the unlikely but loving duo of Alex and Molly met in college, each of finding each other as soulmates, despite all their differences and personal problems. Now seniors on their Christmas break, they've been invited to spend the week leading up to the holiday at the most Christmas-y town small town imaginable.......it's like a Hallmark Christmas movie town times infinity.

     And the fictitious (but impossible not to adore) Barnwich, Pa. becomes a perfect setting for two of the most familiar holiday romance tropes......matchmaking two shy friends who are obviously head over heels for each other and our own lead lovebirds simultaneously withholding vital life changing information from each other.

     But you needn't worry that anything will impede the non-stop holiday cheer on display as well as Alex and Molly's own ultra powerful and very sweet chemistry together. Brief but always heartfelt, "Joy to the Girls jingles all way to a snow globe conclusion. Great book to stretch out with after wrapping presents, sipping eggnog and singing all those familiar songs playing non stop on the radio.

     4 stars (****).