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text 2016-09-06 15:56
New Release! Bad Apples 3: Seven Slices of Halloween Horror

This should be good for at least a few squares on your Halloween Bingo cards.

  

Available now in Kindle and paperback editions.

 

I've got a story in this called "The Uncle Taffy's Girl." I hope you like it.

 

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon AU



Paperback Editions also available at: Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million

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review 2016-08-25 16:52
Prince of Nightmares - John McNee

A creepy hotel in remote Scotland, with even creepier guests - don't check in, you will not like it! Gruesome, original and evil with plenty of shocking descriptions - a fantastic book which horrifies, scares and shocks the reader in equal measure. Read it at night when it is just beginning to get dark for an even scarier experience. Definitely an author to look out for.

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review 2016-05-17 11:38
Good Story and Characters
Prince of Nightmares - John McNee

Victor’s wife Josie had committed suicide in the bathroom of their home Victor had been on a business call when he first heard the gunshot but didn’t do anything about it as he was engrossed in his phone call. Josie had reserved the Library Suite at the Ballador House Hotel. Harry had come with Victor even though Victor had said he would be found but Harry ignored him and came anyway. But the suite he was suppose to be in was given to another guest so Victor was put in the Honeymoon Suite. The hotel  has been known to be haunted . for some reason Josie wanted Victor to be here for four days and he was determined to do just that hoping to understand why Josie killed herself. When Victor looked in the mirror in bedroom he saw a frail old man. Victor went down to the lobby and talked to the manager and while talking victor said it couldn’t be that bad in the hotel and she told him she had slept at the hotel one night ten years ago and it would be another 100 years before she did it again.  The hotel had a had a restaurant but also a bar that was open twenty four hours a day. The manager felt it was worth it so guests could sit in the bar and tell their stories to each other. As the hotel was guaranteed to give you even signed a waiver of not holding the hotel responsible for any psychological or physical problems that may occur while there. The history of the hotel is one of blood and misery. The residents feed on pain and suffering. Victor must navigate through ghosts and demons to decide which are reality and which are just dreams. Victor got to where he was by stepping on anyone or anything that got in his way . he really doesn’t have any redeeming qualities and he only cares for himself.

I myself was reminded of Clive Barker’s work. Some of this was a little too gross for me. But all and all was a good horror story. I wish there had been more history of the Ballard House before it was a hotel.  I got a little annoyed when at times it was hard to tell between nightmare and reality. But I got through it. As I said good but gross in spots . But well worth the four star rating I gave. I recommend.

I received an ARC of this story for an honest review.

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review 2016-03-19 21:31
Gruesome horror of the finest order!
Prince of Nightmares - John McNee

Having read so much mediocre horror fiction recently it has been a pleasure to read something with real originality and style and outstanding evil that resides at the Ballador House Hotel.

 

An eclectic mix of characters are in resident at the Ballador Hotel all hoping to encounter and meet paranormal apparitions as night approaches. One particular resident Victor Teversham is praying that the hotel will supply an answer as to why his wife Josephine booked a getaway break here before committing suicide.

 

We meet the mysterious and beautiful Gia, the night manager Mrs Dempsey and the loud and boisterous Heinrich Stritzel. The author accomplishes, what many writers fail to do, he makes all the players that we encounter very believable. At times I felt this was almost a modern horror remaking of Casablanca where all meet and encounter horror at a central point with no means of escape. What was extraordinary in the story telling , not only for the main antagonists but also for the reader, was the inability to distinguish between what was real and what was fiction....what was a dream and what was reality. This confusion added greatly to the constant feeling of dread and fear that permeated the unravelling of the mysterious ghostly events taking place.

 

There is a clever connection between Victor and his wife and a woman from the past known as Evelyn Burgess, and when the true intentions of the ghostly "residents" becomes apparent it is too late to stop the ensuing bloodbath..." The Residents are the parts of ourselves we wanted to keep hidden. The parts we didn't like. The parts we suppressed. Invasive thoughts, base urges, and hateful impulses."

 

So a highly original story with a gruesome and bloody conclusion, a most enjoyable treat for lovers of good horror. I received an advance copy of Prince of Nightmares for an honest review and that is what I have written.

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review 2016-02-22 16:24
Prince of Nightmares - John McNee
Prince of Nightmares - John McNee

The Ballador House is set in the remote reaches of Scotland and it has some very unique characteristics. Anyone that stays there is guaranteed to have nightmares. This guarantee has transformed the Ballador House into a must-stay destination for some very unusual clientele that happen to be into that kind of thing. Not the kind of people that the elderly multi-millionaire, Victor Taversham, would be seen associating with. But that all changed after his wife, Josephine, booked a stay there right before she went into the bathroom and blew her brains out. A distraught Victor is desperately seeking for answers on why his wife decided to take her life and why would the last thing that she was to ever do be reserving a room at this bazaar inn if she didn't plan on ever going? So Victor decides to keep the reservation to see if he can discover any clues to his wife's mysterious suicide. As promised, the Ballador House delivers the nightmares and they pack a punch. Can Victor sort out what is real and what is dream so that he can find out what the connection the house has with Josephine? Or does the house have plans for Victor?

 

Prince of Nightmares is a wonderful, surreal marriage of Clive Barker's Hellraiser, The Shining, and Thirteen Ghosts. While it shares shades of color from these three tales, it ends up standing on its own two feet and delivers on its own merit. Many times you'll wonder if what you're reading is a dream or is it real. McNee makes you pay attention similar to the way Barker's stories do and, like Barker, brings out the red stuff in the final act. A description of a mutilation that includes the breaking of bones to twist a body into a pretzel will linger in your subconscious long after you finish the story. I enjoyed the slow burn while trying to discover what was really going on. McNee has a good writing style that flows well. The characters, while colorful, did have a tendency to not be fully fleshed out and I would've liked to have learned more of the backstory. That's the only thing that made me give it a 4 1/2 instead of a 5. Still a very worthwhile tale that is worth the price of admission.

 

4 1/2 surreal nightmares out of 5


This ARC was supplied by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

 


You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

 

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

http://intothemacabre.booklikes.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5919799-ken-mckinley

http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1JOKW56F2YT

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