Secret societies, serial killers, malevolent criminals, and other evils stalk these pages.
Review:
“Leave the others out of your plight. They’ve earned their place and are here to watch. If you disobey, they will draw close around you, like a noose around your neck, until you’re dancing in the flames.”
Death and darkness. Sacrifice and purgatory. Humanity served up as monsters. Punishments doled out against the sinners that cross the lines of the despicable. The thirst of the games played amongst those who must be the winner.
"Through sickness and health, for better or worse, and sometimes not even at death shall we part."
Where dreams become reality. The places where one must prove that they are worthy. Blood paints the walls of happy homes. Immortality, bad trips, and murders abound in visceral, blood-soaked fright.
Death has been visited upon mired souls.
It takes talent to be able to write a short story and wrap it up in just a few pages. To make it make sense and give it an ending that stays true to the story. I always enjoy CD's short stories. The stories here are more focused on the horrors of humans, the monsters they could become, abhorrent acts occur that are brutal, and that is what adds the fright factor.
Calvin Demmer is the author of The Sea Was a Fair Master and Dark Celebrations. When not writing, he is intrigued by that which goes bump in the night and the sciences of our universe.
Haunted by the tragic loss of her mother, fearless occultist Anna Jacobs now carries on their ghost-hunting legacy alone. When a cryptic message from beyond the grave leads her to an abandoned village wrapped in silence and shadows, she crosses paths with a tormented family living in hiding. But they have dark secrets of their own. Anna's arrival awakens something ancient, something that should have stayed hidden, and she soon becomes entangled in a mystery much older and more sinister than any she has encountered before.
Beneath the eerie calm, the desolate village guards an unholy relic: the Black Testament, a grimoire gifted by the Devil himself to one of history's most infamous witches. The infernal book has claimed many lives through the centuries, weaving a legacy of death and destruction — but it may also be Anna’s only hope of saving her mother’s soul from damnation.
Prepare to be spellbound and return to a world of fierce women, dark magic, and terrifying evil in this newest chapter in the bone-chilling Book of Shadows series!
Review:
“In the dark, the shadows crawl. The night’s embrace consumes us all. The weeping trees, they call my name, and in my dreams, I play his game…” “Voices call from below; ancient power, the seeds I sow. The moon weeps blood, the stars turn black; the Devil’s hand guides my track…”
In a long-forgotten village, where there is an enshrouding darkness, where shadows linger, there is an ancient evil waiting for its release from the deepest depths beyond the veil of life.
A family living in seclusion to protect their lives from persecution.
A ghost hunter who is called from beyond the veil must travel to the abandoned village because there is something there that she needs to uncover. Something with a power so dark and evil and unholy it has claimed the lives of the innocent through centuries of time.
The Black Testament: a grimoire, gifted by the devil himself to an infamous witch.
As all their lives entwine, they must battle the evil that surrounds them. It whispers malicious intentions to follow the darkness that lies deep within, causing them to do unthinkable harm against each other, weakening the bonds that have served as their protection.
The atmospheric writing pulls us into a dark and foreboding tangled web of secrets and lies. The secluded home of the family lying at the precipice of a dark haunting forest filled with deathly whispers is claustrophobic, bleak, and gravely disturbing. The characters are intricately woven into insidious despair as they fight for survival. It's a layered tale of mystery and buried motives.
I enjoyed this so immensely, it was exciting, captivating, and the dreadfulness seeps into the bones. I am completely intrigued to read the other books in this series as I know there is so much more to learn and be enchanted by within the Book of Shadows.
Excellent, compelling, and a definite top 10 contender in my reading journey!
Michael Penning is a bestselling author and award-winning screenwriter of horror and dark fiction. He has been obsessed with all things dark and spooky since before he could finish his own sack of trick-or-treat candy. When he's not coming up with creative ways to scare the hell out of people, he enjoys travelling, photography, and brewing beer. He lives in Montreal with his wife and daughter.
