I like these no-brainer mystery/horror (very light on the horror) books by Ann Charles.  After reading the first two Dune books this was a welcomed vacation from books that require extra brain powerlifting.  I think this is the best in the Deadwood Mysteries series that I have read to date.

This is another Violet Parker book, full-time real estate salesperson and part-time Scharfrichter, or executioner of the dead.  I don't really think on a literary sense that it is a 4 star but this series pretty good.  It sort of goes against my judgment but I really liked the book. It's fairly predictable with the romance and spookiness but Ann Charles does come up with some good twists that make this book enjoyable.

I think Ill binge read what I have in this series.  I have too many aches and pains to read anything serious right now.

A Wild Fright in Deadwood by Ann Charles
Book 7 in the Deadwood Mysteries Series

A Wild Fright in Deadwood by Ann Charles

 I gasped in surprise, fumbling with my phone before dropping it. The flashlight went out, leaving me in a darkness lit only by the faint glow of the first floor button.

Shit. I held my right hand over my pounding heart as my eyes tried to adjust to the dark. Had I really heard my name, or was my mind playing tricks on me?

Something bit into my forearm.

I screeched and whirled around, searching the shadow-filled corners as I clutched my arm. What in the hell was that?

The corners were too shadow-filled for me to see, so I moved closer to the dim light from the lobby button. Where was my phone? I tried to scan the floor for it, but it was too dark to see anything below my knees.

The elevator slowed to a stop. A rush of relief filled my legs, making them wobbly and weak. A ding sounded outside the doors. I backed up against them, keeping my eyes on the shadow-thick corners, wishing the damned doors would hurry up and open.

The lights overhead flickered on, the sudden brightness making me recoil.

Then I saw my phone. It rested on the handrail that lined the opposite wall. Next to it, with its legs splayed over the rail, was the half-burned clown doll I’d seen earlier in the video playback.

 

It took a second for me to remember to breathe.

Why weren’t the doors opening?

I had a feeling it had something to do with that clown and the little girl who’d been holding it earlier.

Stepping forward, I reached as far toward my phone as I could without one foot leaving the doors. My hand trembled as it neared the phone. My gaze moved to that damned clown in case it decided to come to life and go all Chucky the killer doll on me. As soon as I grasped my phone, a cackle of clown laughter filled the elevator. I cried out and plastered myself back against the doors, which were now opening, thank God.

“Wilda,” I said over the cackling while backing out of the elevator, “leave Cornelius alone.”

The cackling stopped as suddenly as it had started.

As the elevator doors started to close, the light flickered out again. From out of the darkness I heard two words spoken in a high, scratchy voice: Kill her

I love reading the Deadwood Mysteries series by Ann Charles.  They are light, funny, easy to read with a little paranormal element and romance in the book.  I like these books because I don't have to concentrate ob the written word like I had to to in the two Dune books I just read.  The above quote is about as scary as it gets so I don't really look at this as a horror type book.  This is the 7th book in the series of 10 so far and 3 novellas. 

Just downloaded High Stakes Trial - Mindy Klasky  .  I enjoyed the first two -- admittedly on the humorous chick lit side despite paranormal elements.

Hadn't realized a third was in the works.

I listened to the unabridged audiobook. I have to thank my library and Overdrive for saving me some cash, especially since too many of the stories here were a little meh for my liking.

This anthology features stories about the fear of flying and the terrible things the imagination and reality can cook up to speed up your demise. If you’re afraid of flying, this book isn’t going to help you out with that. There are coffins in the back and monsters on the wing!

I’m not going to go into the details of every story because I will lose the will to live and if you want to read this there is no point in me ruining it for you. I didn’t take notes because sometimes you just want to listen to a book without turning it into a homework assignment. Sorry. Sometimes you get a real review from me, other times you get this. There’s a decent mix here of old decrepit stories and newer ones. Many of them I had read already read so, yeah, glad I didn’t spend money on this. All of the writers are males because women aren’t afraid of flying, I guess. We are built of sterner stuff, lol. Anyhow, the results are mixed. 

Stephen King writes a kick butt introduction, as always and his story here is one of the better ones. I only wish it had been a wee bit longer because I’m greedy. Still, that man knows how to write a short story. Now on to (some of) the others. CARGO starts things off and it is a good creeping dread tale but was so based in reality that it was more sad than scary for me, especially having just seen the Jonestown documentary. Then there’s NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET. You know that story made famous by Captain Kirk and that creepy-ass Twilight Zone episode? Yep, this is the source material and, because I was a creepy kid, I watched it a million times growing up so I knew how it all went down. One of the stories here had tentacles but don’t ask me which one because my brain is full. The tentacles were a nice little bonus in an otherwise bland story. Joe Hill’s contribution was a frightening read because, well, it could happen! It could happen any damned, cursed moment. You’ll know what I mean when you read it and especially if you live in the USA. There’s a tale about a dude who finds a time travelling ring and can’t keep his murderous hands to himself. He totally gets what is coming to him and what’s coming to him isn’t pleasant! I think I enjoyed DIABLITOS the most. It’s a sinister little tale about a guy who steals something from the wrong lady. The ending completely caught me off guard and created an image in my head that still lingers. Loved it. I also thought AIR RAID was fantastic and nailed the whole Twilight Zone vibe. MURDER IN THE AIR was a decent little murder mystery but not at all a horror story.

The problem with this collection is that many of the stories weren’t all that interesting to me personally. There are so very many boring war time stories and those don’t do it for me. Most are incredibly depressing or about guys agonizing about imminent death and I didn’t find them very gripping. In fact, my thoughts while listening to many of these stories wasn’t one of sympathy but more along the lines of “stop your whining and embrace your fate”. But I’m a jerk like that

Eh. Definitely not worth the $9.99 I paid for this. A new anthology edited by Stephen King though equals I have to read it though. There were some truly what the hell did I just read reactions to some of the short stories, and a few good grief this is boring. I only really enjoyed four stories out of this collection (gave them five stars), and one of them is a story I am already familiar with. I did give some four stars, but the majority are three stars and below. 

"Cargo" by E. Michael Lewis (3 stars)-An interesting take on those who had to fly back the dead from the Jonestown massacre. It just really didn't do a thing for me though. I just needed it to be scarier or something. I felt like I was missing some key points or something while reading. 

"The Horror of the Heights" by Arthur Conan Doyle (2 stars)-I had to refresh my memory on this one since I didn't even recall it until I started my review. It was just a long form narrative about someone  finding the notebook of a Mr. Joyce-Armstrong who was trying to break the height record of 30,000 feet. People who have tried to beat that record have been found dead. 

"Nightmare at 20,000 feet" by Richard Matheson (5 stars)-This is the original short story that inspired Twilight Zone the show and the movie later on. It was good to read, but honestly many of the readers will be familiar with it so it doesn't feel like new material. 

"The Flying Machine" by Ambrose Bierce (1 stars)- This story wasn't even a page. I initially thought I didn't get a full Kindle version of this book since the story just stops.

"Lucifer" by E.C. Tubb (4 stars)-This was pretty cool. I liked how a time machine (in ring form) comes out to play with an airplane. Don't want to spoil since the ending was so good. I would have loved to see this in a Twilight Zone episode. 

"The Fifth Category" by Tom Bissell (1 star)-This whole thing seems to be a story about how torture is wrong and terribly and seems to be a long winded diatribe against the previous two Administrations. I don't know, it made zero sense to decide to go to such lengths against a man who wrote memos regarding acceptable forms of torture. Especially since these people murdered someone and I don't think you can claim the moral high ground there if you are using someone's life to make some random point. I was so annoyed when I finished this story I set this anthology aside for a few hours. 

"Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds" by Dan Simmons (3 stars)-Everything looked pretty good until the ending. Once again it felt like a story which made no sense to me. Let's murder everyone on the plane to really take out these terrible human beings who you believe are the cause of others death. Why do I keep looking for logic in horror stories?

"Diablitos" by Cory Goodfellow (1 star)-Evil possessed mask plus a plane ride. I was bored. Sorry. I was hoping for something more.

"Air Raid" by John Varley (3 stars)-Interesting, I wish that there had been more detail in this one. It felt like Varley was more focused on the twisty ending than anything else. 

"You are Released" by Joe Hill (5 stars)-Look, I get that King edited this and couldn't make it the first story here, but he should have. Next to Matheson's work this is among the best in this collection. I loved it. Hill seems to be taking real life things (Trump threatening nuclear war against North Korea) and showing what could happen if the world imploded while on a plane. I felt like this was a nice little send up to The Langoliers too.

"Warbirds" by David J. Schow (2 stars)-Way too technical for me and just boring honestly.

"The Flying Machine" by Ray Bradbury (1 star)-....no. That's all I got at this point. I also at this point started sneak reading another book. 

"Zombies on a Plane" by Bev Vincent (4 stars)-It was an interesting idea and I loved the callback to the Snakes on a Plane movie. It just needed a bit more oomph for me. I loved the idea of a zombie virus taking everyone as soon as you die, so you don't need to be bit to change. I think The Walking Dead has that same premise too right? Or it did. I don't know, I stopped watching that show this year because I got sick of it. 

"They Shall Not Grow Old' By Richard Dahl (3 stars)-This story actually felt a little long and I lost interest in it half way through.

"Murder in the Air" by Peter Tremayne (5 stars)-A locked room murder mystery on a plane. Heck King even points out it's a double locked room murder mystery if you count the plane as being locked too. I loved it. That is all.  

"The Turbulence Expert" by Stephen King (5 stars)- I liked the why behind this story. It also echoes some Richard Bachman in my eyes too. 

"Falling" by James Dickey (1 stars)-It's a very long poem. My eyes glazed over two pages in unfortunately.