Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Skulls & Bones by Armand Rosamilia




This is a collection of short stories from Armand Rosamilia, he of the Dying Days and (my fav) Miami Spy Games books.

 A brilliant introduction into how this author writes, he has great character development and manages to lead you in and then freak you out during only a few lines of story.


Memorial Site: a tale of loss and how a child, adult and society cope. It’s all very sad but also exceptionally creepy. The ending whilst predictable, there really was only one way to end this, still made me shudder.
               
Vacation’s End: John and Rebecca appear to be on the road trip from Hell. Until Goblin in all his naughty glory turns up. He has murderous intent and is chock full of ideas on how to do it!  Clever writing from AR as I did not see the ending coming.

Stairs to the Ocean: Ray has become obsessed with building his staircase to the ocean much to the horror of his wife Bethany. What and why soon becomes evident during the next thunder storm. A spooky tale with a terrifying ending, very cliff edge! (yes, my attempt at a pun!)

1920 Gallery Card #4:  A twisted tale of revenge and a haunted baseball card. Very believable characters that you can’t help by feel for not matter their part in the story, all appear to be victims. Again AR is a master at character development.

Beastie:  A short, sharp tale of animal revenge. Amusing in its telling AR does well with only a few lines to capture what has been going on to warrant the ending!

Crow Mill Bridge: Another short one but that does not stop the spooky chill, lovely description of a not so lovely monster.

Rainforest of Bones: Deep in the Brazilian jungle a madman is building an army, but from what or who! The equally bonkers reporter is captured and forced to tell the world of his plan, he clearly does a poor job but I was intrigued by his background which is not so humbly told! Fascinating and left on another cliff edge. (I did need climbing rope at the end of this book!)

Latin American Death Cap: The intrepid, globetrotting reporter again, who is becoming more endearing. Mushrooms OMG just mushrooms!! This left me wide eyed… congrats on that one Mr AR.

The Devil and the Cenote: The finale and the reporter with no name makes another brilliant appearance. A sacrifice must be made. I so want more of this story – begging for this to be expanded!

Loved the little exposure bits at the end but always feel these should be at the  start or end of each chapter to lead you in or finish you off!

Amazing chunk of bonus content at the end, in case you are unsure of just how much you are going to love this author.





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