These are characters I would not want to meet, or even pass by on the street. Their disturbing nature oozes out of the pores and makes me sick.

Willard Russell is a soulful man. In his manic prayer state, he's convinced the Lord will save his wife, who is dying a painful, slow death from untreatable cancer. Willard forces his young son, Arvin, to pray with him for hours on his sacrificial prayer log, while killing a rash of local strays in the process.

Carl and Sandy like to take road trips. Carl likes to photograph other men with his wife. They also like to murder hitchhikers.

Roy and Theodore consider themselve preachers They travel town-to-town to escape the law and to entice young girls.

There is perversion, there is adultery, there is child abuse, there is whoring and drinking. There is poverty and uneducated people making really, really, really bad decisions.

While some of the stories were horrific,The Devil allthe Timeis so vibrant, sincere and powerful, Pollock has been compared to Flannery O'Connor and Cormac. I hope he writes more soon, very soon.

It started as a plague in China, where doctors are perplexed by mysterious ailments, and their patients' ability to reanimate after death. The complexity of world politics allow the zombie numbers to multiply at alarming rates. It doesn't help that all medicinal knowledge is rendered useless. Humankind is facing extinction. Every available military personnel, as well as civilians are pulled into the line of defense as the zombie population booms.

The psychological damage to those who witnessed these grotesque horrors is profound. The ramifications of this unique war will plague future generations indefinitely.

As I said, I am usually not a zombie person. I like realistic fiction. But I found myself jerking awake at random noises in the middle of the night, terrified of blank stares and outstretched arms.

"Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth." --General Travis D'Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.

Fun fact - Max Brooks is the son of director Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft.

I'm not sure whether to categorize Daemon as Science Fiction, Satire, Political Thriller, or Historical Fiction. Sometimes it reads as a far out Action Fantasy, and for much of the time you wonder how much of this scenario has already happened years ago, and we failed to take notice.

Phoebe "Flea" Marley has been a police diver for years. She's used to recovering gruesome cadavers from beneath the water's surface. During a recent dive, Flea discovers not one, but two human hands, but she is unable to locate the body. Forensic evidence links the hands to Ian Mallows, also known as Mossy. And it looks like the hands were removed while Mossy was still alive.

Flea begins to investigate Mossy's background, and learns that he is a troubled heroin addict, and was desperate for anything to maintain his fix.

Together with Detective Jack Caffery, Flea discovers a possible link between the severed hands, and Muti, an ancient form of African witchcraft. Their research shows that in past traditions, body parts are used for healing and to ward off evil spirits. But where is the rest of Mossy's body, and is he still alive or dead?

This case brings up repressed memories for Flea, whose own parents drowned in a horrific scuba accident.

Ritualis violent, disturbing, and a thriller sure to give your stomach plenty of knots.

To say that I had high expectations for The Prince of Mist is an understatement. After all, Shadowof the Wind had just been added to my all-time favorites earlier this year. Ruiz-Zafón's first venture into the young adult market did not disappoint.

Max Carver's family has just moved to an idyllic seaside town. The move doesn't come as too much of a surprise, since it is wartime; but not even this fact can placate Max's feelings of loss and isolation. He's leaving everything he's ever known behind, after all. And to make matters worse, the new house seems to have a personality of its own! And it's not a friendly one at that. The first sign comes from a misanthropic cat, who seems appears out of nowhere all the time. But the more ominous sign comes from the thick mist that blankets the island at the oddest times, casting a sinister feeling on everything around. On one of those occasions, as the mist is retreating, Max discovers what can only be described as a forest of statues, locatednot too far from his house. One of them in particular, the clown figure (reminiscent of Stephen King's It), seems to actually be alive. It is after this discovery that Max and his sister are thrust into a real life urban legend, involving a malevolent being that preys on the souls of the innocent.

This book is a horror fan's delight; however, I don'trecommend reading it alone.

Drood

Performed by John Lee

It begins simply, but horrifically. In 1865 Charles Dickens is returning to London with his mistress when their train derails at a bridge near Staplehurst. Theirs is the only first class carriage not plunged into the ravine and smashed to bits. While attempting to help the wounded and dying Dickens comes upon a singularly strange character named Drood; a dark, frightening man with a skull-like face, wearing a cape and speaking with lingering sibilants of the "rookeriessss" and districts of London. The graphic horror of that man and that day is impressed upon Dickens in a way he cannot escape and which he imparts to his dear friend, Wilkie Collins.

Collins and Dickens are close friends and writing collaborators of many years, creating plays together and often critiquing each other's work. But Dickens becomes obsessed by Drood and decides that Wilkie must help him find the eccentric creature, thus beginning a series of events that will lead to distrust, insanity, and drug induced murder, all centering around Drood and those he pulls in to his Undertown snare of blood, black magic, and ancient rituals. Collins' paranoid obsession quickly outstrips Dickens' and both begin to circle and tease, taunting each other with half truths and suggestions of Drood and building to unintelligible acts of violence. The darkness creeps in slowly to engulf both men, peaking with shocking acts that leave you guessing.

Simmons book is a classic gothic horror, made all the creepier and more convincing because it's based on the facts of the lives of Dickens and Collins. They truly were friends and collaborators for years, Dickens survived a terrible train crash at Staplehurst, and Collins was addicted to laudanum and opium, which led to paranoia and hallucinations. It's a tale of loving friendship twisting on itself to turn dark and deadly.

I listened to this brooding novel on CD, all 24 disks of it, and was pulled inextricably into darkest London. Actor John Lee's voice is the perfect tool for this dark tale. He has a strong mellow tone for Wilkie Collins and performs the many other characters admirably, so that each voice is distinct and recognizable. It's a satisfying listen that builds slowly and inexorably toward a finish that leaves you wanting to know more of these strong and strange characters.