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Primarily known for his deft touch in combining horror and comedy, Dweller is Jeff Strand's second 'serious' novel following the Bram Stoker Award nominated Pressure, and with his newest offering Strand may well see another Stoker nomination headed his way.
Dweller introduces us to Toby, an 8 year old with an active imagination and difficulty making friends. Though he's been told by his parents not to, Toby enjoys playing in the woods that border the backyard of his house. Lost in fantasy while playing one summer day, Toby comes to find himself deep in the woods... much deeper, in fact, than he's ever been. Scared of the trouble he'll be in when he gets home late, Toby tries to find his way out of the woods on his own, but what he finds instead will change his life forever.
Toby, you see, finds a monster. An honest-to-goodness, hairy, yellow-eyed, razor-clawed, fanged beast. Of course Toby does what any 8 year old would do under the circumstances... runs away! Once safely back at home he's chastised by his parents for his misadventure, and as the summer passes Toby convinces himself he didn't really see a monster in the woods. He couldn't have, right? Monsters don't exist.
Flash forward seven years to a Toby who has made the woods his place of refuge from the bullies at school and tedious evenings with his family. While exploring one day after school Toby discovers a cave, which he proceeds to investigate with the notion that it may be his ticket to getting some friends, maybe even a girlfriend, if he has a cool cave fort he can bring them to. Instead, Toby comes face to face with the same monster that he had convinced himself years ago didn't exist. The now older, (slightly) bolder Toby doesn't run away this time, but instead offers the monster food, tries to communicate with it and, ultimately, comes to name it Owen. What unfolds from there over the course of the story is a wonderful exploration of the strange, but genuine friendship that develops between Toby and Owen, one that lasts for over fifty years.
Strand does a magnificent job using brief 'glimpses' chapters to jump the story ahead over blocks of time, stopping for a more in-depth look at various milestone moments along the way in Toby's life - college, first job, marriage, children, divorce, addiction, retirement - and how each affects his friendship with Owen. On the surface just a 'monster story', Dweller also operates on a much deeper level. Strand has, in deceptively simple fashion, written a beautiful story which explores the complicated nature of relationships, loyalties, and how one decides who the most important person in their life is. The implications of the final, heart-breaking scene of Dweller will stay with you long after you've finished.
Jeff Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including The Sinister Mr. Corpse, Benjamin’s Parasite, The Severed Nose, and the Andrew Mayhem series. If you've not previously read anything by Strand you're excused for being late to the party, but it's time for you to come in and get acquainted. What Strand has accomplished with Dweller is nothing short of amazing, and you owe it to yourself to experience it.
It takes serious balls to begin a book with your protagonist deliberately putting a bullet into his own head, but that's exactly how Vincent Zandri kicks off his high-octane new thriller Moonlight Falls. Richard "Dick" Moonlight, you see, is not your typical protagonist. In fact, he's seriously screwed up. As one character tells him, "You fell off the tree of fucked-up-weird and slammed every branch on the way down." Fucked-up-weird notwithstanding, it's the fragment of .22 bullet left in his brain following his book opening suicide attempt that forces Moonlight's retirement from the Albany police department.
Unable to commit to a new job because the placement of the bullet fragment leaves him prone to untimely blackouts and seizures, not to mention serious lapses in judgment, Moonlight finds himself being called upon by his former partner to serve as an outside investigator on cases that need a discrete, but 'official', rubber stamping in order to close them... for a fee, of course.
This arrangement becomes a problem when he's called to the scene of the apparent suicide of Scarlet Montana, wife of his ex-boss Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. Unlike previous callouts, Moonlight can't bring himself to rubber stamp suicide as the cause of death, collect his under the table fee and be done with it. The sticking point? Not only was Moonlight having an affair with her, but he had been with her only hours before her death. What's more, given his spotty memory - not to mention the bloody, scratched up hands he doesn't remember acquiring - he honestly doesn't know if he could have killed her. But he's determined to find out what really happened to Scarlet, no matter what the consequences to himself may be.
What unfolds over the course of his investigation provides a non-stop, tension filled ride for the reader; one that includes a mysterious albino, Fugitive-esque pursuit by authorities, grave robbing, a police conspiracy, and a black market organ harvesting ring. There is so much going on that even the most accomplished reader of mysteries and thrillers will be hard pressed to figure out in advance what really happened, as Moonlight Falls delivers twists and swerves right up until the final chapter, even after having seemingly revealed the answer to the mystery.
Exit Strategy is easily one of the most engaging, intelligent thrillers I've read in quite some time. The book gets off to a roaring start with a brash daylight assault on an internet company called Blindside that leaves eight people dead and the office destroyed. The killers, dressed as postal workers, unfortunately make the mistake of leaving two witnesses: Molly Gannon, a real postal worker (and former Military Police officer) who was in the building on her delivery route, and Blindside employee Jeb Picot, who was in the building, but out of the office, at the time of the assault.
Given that the killers were dressed as postal workers the police suspect Molly of having been in on the attack, and Jeb's convenient absence from the office at the crucial moment raises the authorities' suspicions about his possible involvement as well. Their suspicions are fueled by misinformation and half-truths strategically leaked to them by Dunshire Capitol, a front company for the National Security Agency.
Blindside, it turns out, specialized in cryptography and had made a monumental breakthrough in technology, which Dunshire desperately wants, that is able to crack supposedly uncrackable codes. Further complicating the mix is that Blindside was funded by an organization with ties to a Chinese triad, and now they and Dunshire both want to get their hands on Molly and Jeb, whom they believe have a laptop which contains crucial information.
So many players and competing interests in one storyline could be unwieldy in the hands of some authors, but Wiecek does a masterful job weaving everyone into the flow of the story without slowing things down when switching perspectives or making caricatures out of any faction. All the characters, good guys and bad guys alike, are intelligent and driven by clear, logical motivations. Wiecek also deftly intersperses plenty of cool tech speak throughout the story; if you know computers and coding you'll love it, and if you don't you'll love learning about it. Just don't start unless you have time to finish, because you won't be able to put it down.
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There may well have never been a bigger understatement in the history of official book summaries than the one which accompanies Benjamin’s Parasite by Jeff Strand:
“At any given moment, the human body contains millions of parasites. This is the story of just one. A really, really nasty one.”
Combining horror and comedy in such a way that neither overpowers the other is a delicate operation, but it’s something Strand has demonstrated time and again he is a master of doing with surgical precision. And you gotta know when a book starts with a meat clever rampage that things can only go in one direction intensity wise, and Strand doesn’t disappoint.
After attending the funeral of one of his students, the perpetrator of the meat cleaver rampage in fact, high school teacher Benjamin Wilson begins to feel, well... odd. At first the changes affecting Benjamin are merely an inconvenience; namely, the inability to control his cravings for sex and candy. But hey, how can more sex and candy really be a bad thing, right? But there are also stomach pains, which Benjamin initially writes off as the result of the massive candy consumption.
Except that the pains don’t go away when he goes cold turkey on the candy, they actually get worse. Considerably worse. So much so that, after collapsing at work with incapacitating pain, Benjamin ends up in the hospital where he receives the news he has an intestinal parasite... one that x-rays reveal looks like “a squid monster” much to Benjamin’s horror. Surgical removal being the only option, Benjamin is prepped for surgery and whisked to the OR. And this, folks, is where business picks up and things go seriously awry.
Kidnapped from the OR at gunpoint by a female bounty hunter named Julie who’s been hired to bring him back to the secret lab that created the parasite, Benjamin quickly finds himself in a downwardly spiraling succession of events. After a high speed car chase Benjamin is kidnapped from his kidnapper by a pair of hitmen brothers whose extreme incompetence would be funny if they weren’t also bent on extreme violence. Reacquired by Julie, Benjamin endures a disturbingly Deliverance-esque side trip, an increasingly aggressive parasite that Benjamin comes to believe is actually communicating with him, an airplane/skydiving sequence worthy of James Bond, and a mutant, rampaging Franken-cow (yes, you read that correctly) as the story rockets along to its diabolically demented conclusion.
Jeff Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including the Bram Stoker nominated Pressure, The Sinister Mr. Corpse, and the outstanding Andrew Mayhem series, and Strand has delivered yet another masterpiece in Benjamin’s Parasite.
If you've not previously read anything by Jeff Strand there couldn't possibly be a better place for you to start than with his new release, Pressure. Though Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including the outstanding Andrew Mayhem series, with the publication of Pressure Strand has taken his already incredible talent to another level entirely.
What would you do if your best friend turned out to be a sociopathic killer? One who was obsessed with you and everything about your life? That's the situation Alex faces when his friend Darren becomes increasingly manipulative and violent over the course of their relationship. Starting when they meet at boarding school, Pressure follows the twisted relationship between Alex and Darren as it builds from kids being cruel, to young men pushing boundaries, to adults who end up in the fight of their lives, figuratively and literally, against each other.
Pressure is very aptly titled because the pressure in this book builds relentlessly... almost to the point of uncomfortableness at times it is so skillfully written. Strand pushes Alex to the brink over and over, seeing just how much he and the reader can take, before finally pushing him over the edge for a climactic showdown that will leave you both stunned and impressed at its unflinching, uncompromising resolution.
Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.
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Dweller by Jeff Strand
All Purpose Monkey, March 23, 2010
Primarily known for his deft touch in combining horror and comedy, Dweller is Jeff Strand's second 'serious' novel following the Bram Stoker Award nominated Pressure, and with his newest offering Strand may well see another Stoker nomination headed his way.Dweller introduces us to Toby, an 8 year old with an active imagination and difficulty making friends. Though he's been told by his parents not to, Toby enjoys playing in the woods that border the backyard of his house. Lost in fantasy while playing one summer day, Toby comes to find himself deep in the woods... much deeper, in fact, than he's ever been. Scared of the trouble he'll be in when he gets home late, Toby tries to find his way out of the woods on his own, but what he finds instead will change his life forever.
Toby, you see, finds a monster. An honest-to-goodness, hairy, yellow-eyed, razor-clawed, fanged beast. Of course Toby does what any 8 year old would do under the circumstances... runs away! Once safely back at home he's chastised by his parents for his misadventure, and as the summer passes Toby convinces himself he didn't really see a monster in the woods. He couldn't have, right? Monsters don't exist.
Flash forward seven years to a Toby who has made the woods his place of refuge from the bullies at school and tedious evenings with his family. While exploring one day after school Toby discovers a cave, which he proceeds to investigate with the notion that it may be his ticket to getting some friends, maybe even a girlfriend, if he has a cool cave fort he can bring them to. Instead, Toby comes face to face with the same monster that he had convinced himself years ago didn't exist. The now older, (slightly) bolder Toby doesn't run away this time, but instead offers the monster food, tries to communicate with it and, ultimately, comes to name it Owen. What unfolds from there over the course of the story is a wonderful exploration of the strange, but genuine friendship that develops between Toby and Owen, one that lasts for over fifty years.
Strand does a magnificent job using brief 'glimpses' chapters to jump the story ahead over blocks of time, stopping for a more in-depth look at various milestone moments along the way in Toby's life - college, first job, marriage, children, divorce, addiction, retirement - and how each affects his friendship with Owen. On the surface just a 'monster story', Dweller also operates on a much deeper level. Strand has, in deceptively simple fashion, written a beautiful story which explores the complicated nature of relationships, loyalties, and how one decides who the most important person in their life is. The implications of the final, heart-breaking scene of Dweller will stay with you long after you've finished.
Jeff Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including The Sinister Mr. Corpse, Benjamin’s Parasite, The Severed Nose, and the Andrew Mayhem series. If you've not previously read anything by Strand you're excused for being late to the party, but it's time for you to come in and get acquainted. What Strand has accomplished with Dweller is nothing short of amazing, and you owe it to yourself to experience it.
Moonlight Falls by Vincent Zandri
All Purpose Monkey, March 13, 2010
It takes serious balls to begin a book with your protagonist deliberately putting a bullet into his own head, but that's exactly how Vincent Zandri kicks off his high-octane new thriller Moonlight Falls. Richard "Dick" Moonlight, you see, is not your typical protagonist. In fact, he's seriously screwed up. As one character tells him, "You fell off the tree of fucked-up-weird and slammed every branch on the way down." Fucked-up-weird notwithstanding, it's the fragment of .22 bullet left in his brain following his book opening suicide attempt that forces Moonlight's retirement from the Albany police department.Unable to commit to a new job because the placement of the bullet fragment leaves him prone to untimely blackouts and seizures, not to mention serious lapses in judgment, Moonlight finds himself being called upon by his former partner to serve as an outside investigator on cases that need a discrete, but 'official', rubber stamping in order to close them... for a fee, of course.
This arrangement becomes a problem when he's called to the scene of the apparent suicide of Scarlet Montana, wife of his ex-boss Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. Unlike previous callouts, Moonlight can't bring himself to rubber stamp suicide as the cause of death, collect his under the table fee and be done with it. The sticking point? Not only was Moonlight having an affair with her, but he had been with her only hours before her death. What's more, given his spotty memory - not to mention the bloody, scratched up hands he doesn't remember acquiring - he honestly doesn't know if he could have killed her. But he's determined to find out what really happened to Scarlet, no matter what the consequences to himself may be.
What unfolds over the course of his investigation provides a non-stop, tension filled ride for the reader; one that includes a mysterious albino, Fugitive-esque pursuit by authorities, grave robbing, a police conspiracy, and a black market organ harvesting ring. There is so much going on that even the most accomplished reader of mysteries and thrillers will be hard pressed to figure out in advance what really happened, as Moonlight Falls delivers twists and swerves right up until the final chapter, even after having seemingly revealed the answer to the mystery.
Exit Strategy by Michael Wiecek
All Purpose Monkey, February 27, 2010
Exit Strategy is easily one of the most engaging, intelligent thrillers I've read in quite some time. The book gets off to a roaring start with a brash daylight assault on an internet company called Blindside that leaves eight people dead and the office destroyed. The killers, dressed as postal workers, unfortunately make the mistake of leaving two witnesses: Molly Gannon, a real postal worker (and former Military Police officer) who was in the building on her delivery route, and Blindside employee Jeb Picot, who was in the building, but out of the office, at the time of the assault.Given that the killers were dressed as postal workers the police suspect Molly of having been in on the attack, and Jeb's convenient absence from the office at the crucial moment raises the authorities' suspicions about his possible involvement as well. Their suspicions are fueled by misinformation and half-truths strategically leaked to them by Dunshire Capitol, a front company for the National Security Agency.
Blindside, it turns out, specialized in cryptography and had made a monumental breakthrough in technology, which Dunshire desperately wants, that is able to crack supposedly uncrackable codes. Further complicating the mix is that Blindside was funded by an organization with ties to a Chinese triad, and now they and Dunshire both want to get their hands on Molly and Jeb, whom they believe have a laptop which contains crucial information.
So many players and competing interests in one storyline could be unwieldy in the hands of some authors, but Wiecek does a masterful job weaving everyone into the flow of the story without slowing things down when switching perspectives or making caricatures out of any faction. All the characters, good guys and bad guys alike, are intelligent and driven by clear, logical motivations. Wiecek also deftly intersperses plenty of cool tech speak throughout the story; if you know computers and coding you'll love it, and if you don't you'll love learning about it. Just don't start unless you have time to finish, because you won't be able to put it down.
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Benjamin's Parasite by Jeff Strand
All Purpose Monkey, July 6, 2009
There may well have never been a bigger understatement in the history of official book summaries than the one which accompanies Benjamin’s Parasite by Jeff Strand:“At any given moment, the human body contains millions of parasites. This is the story of just one. A really, really nasty one.”
Combining horror and comedy in such a way that neither overpowers the other is a delicate operation, but it’s something Strand has demonstrated time and again he is a master of doing with surgical precision. And you gotta know when a book starts with a meat clever rampage that things can only go in one direction intensity wise, and Strand doesn’t disappoint.
After attending the funeral of one of his students, the perpetrator of the meat cleaver rampage in fact, high school teacher Benjamin Wilson begins to feel, well... odd. At first the changes affecting Benjamin are merely an inconvenience; namely, the inability to control his cravings for sex and candy. But hey, how can more sex and candy really be a bad thing, right? But there are also stomach pains, which Benjamin initially writes off as the result of the massive candy consumption.
Except that the pains don’t go away when he goes cold turkey on the candy, they actually get worse. Considerably worse. So much so that, after collapsing at work with incapacitating pain, Benjamin ends up in the hospital where he receives the news he has an intestinal parasite... one that x-rays reveal looks like “a squid monster” much to Benjamin’s horror. Surgical removal being the only option, Benjamin is prepped for surgery and whisked to the OR. And this, folks, is where business picks up and things go seriously awry.
Kidnapped from the OR at gunpoint by a female bounty hunter named Julie who’s been hired to bring him back to the secret lab that created the parasite, Benjamin quickly finds himself in a downwardly spiraling succession of events. After a high speed car chase Benjamin is kidnapped from his kidnapper by a pair of hitmen brothers whose extreme incompetence would be funny if they weren’t also bent on extreme violence. Reacquired by Julie, Benjamin endures a disturbingly Deliverance-esque side trip, an increasingly aggressive parasite that Benjamin comes to believe is actually communicating with him, an airplane/skydiving sequence worthy of James Bond, and a mutant, rampaging Franken-cow (yes, you read that correctly) as the story rockets along to its diabolically demented conclusion.
Jeff Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including the Bram Stoker nominated Pressure, The Sinister Mr. Corpse, and the outstanding Andrew Mayhem series, and Strand has delivered yet another masterpiece in Benjamin’s Parasite.
Pressure
All Purpose Monkey, May 15, 2009
If you've not previously read anything by Jeff Strand there couldn't possibly be a better place for you to start than with his new release, Pressure. Though Strand is the author of over a dozen books, including the outstanding Andrew Mayhem series, with the publication of Pressure Strand has taken his already incredible talent to another level entirely.What would you do if your best friend turned out to be a sociopathic killer? One who was obsessed with you and everything about your life? That's the situation Alex faces when his friend Darren becomes increasingly manipulative and violent over the course of their relationship. Starting when they meet at boarding school, Pressure follows the twisted relationship between Alex and Darren as it builds from kids being cruel, to young men pushing boundaries, to adults who end up in the fight of their lives, figuratively and literally, against each other.
Pressure is very aptly titled because the pressure in this book builds relentlessly... almost to the point of uncomfortableness at times it is so skillfully written. Strand pushes Alex to the brink over and over, seeing just how much he and the reader can take, before finally pushing him over the edge for a climactic showdown that will leave you both stunned and impressed at its unflinching, uncompromising resolution.
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