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dantastic's review
3.0
Detectives Shirdon and Martinez are two cops in the Pacific Northwest that catch some bizarre cases in this Netgalley find.
Case 1: The Eye That Blinds A man's life falls apart as he devotes every waking moment to The Eye, a reality show in which he will be the star once it goes live. Meanwhile, his best friend is putting the moves on his ex-girlfriend.
Yeah, this story was pretty chilling, if only because it was so realistic. Tyler was an epic douche and while Ross's delusion was sad, I was pretty satisfied when Tyler got what was coming to him. Detectives Shirdon and Martinez were only on the periphery, though the glimpses into their lives was interesting.
Case 2: Each Castle Its King After an incident, Cal and Rachel leave Los Angeles behind and buy a fixer-upper in Oregon. Tensions run high when Cal stops looking for another job but that's nothing compared to the house next door and its occupant.
This was a genuinely creepy story about obsession and fear of change. It was also about an evil neighbor and the added strain he put on a young couple's marriage. Once again, Shirdon and Martinez were on the outside looking in, although they are a fairly interesting framing device for the stories.
Case 3: Nostri Two teens with a fascination with the philosopher Seneca start stirring up shit to make politicians practice what they preach. When things escalate too far, Shirdon and Martinez catch the case.
In a way, this story reminded me of fight club, with it's philosophy of revolution and other aspects. Shirdon and Martinez actually did a bit of detective work in this one but were still mostly a framing device.
Case 4: Devils in Dark Houses In the midst of a bizarre child molestation case, a homeless man surfaces with a strange connection to Martinez' former partner.
Shirdon and Martinez had a more active role in this case. Scully did a great job with The Hound and his delusions.
My final analysis: While this book wasn't what I expected, I wound up liking it just the same. Using the cops as the framing device to link these four novellas together worked very well and made Devils in Dark Houses rise above my expectations, telling a much wider variety of tales than the horror cop stories I was envisioning. 3.5 out of 5 stars. I'll have to check out what else B.E. Scully has done.
Case 1: The Eye That Blinds A man's life falls apart as he devotes every waking moment to The Eye, a reality show in which he will be the star once it goes live. Meanwhile, his best friend is putting the moves on his ex-girlfriend.
Yeah, this story was pretty chilling, if only because it was so realistic. Tyler was an epic douche and while Ross's delusion was sad, I was pretty satisfied when Tyler got what was coming to him. Detectives Shirdon and Martinez were only on the periphery, though the glimpses into their lives was interesting.
Case 2: Each Castle Its King After an incident, Cal and Rachel leave Los Angeles behind and buy a fixer-upper in Oregon. Tensions run high when Cal stops looking for another job but that's nothing compared to the house next door and its occupant.
This was a genuinely creepy story about obsession and fear of change. It was also about an evil neighbor and the added strain he put on a young couple's marriage. Once again, Shirdon and Martinez were on the outside looking in, although they are a fairly interesting framing device for the stories.
Case 3: Nostri Two teens with a fascination with the philosopher Seneca start stirring up shit to make politicians practice what they preach. When things escalate too far, Shirdon and Martinez catch the case.
In a way, this story reminded me of fight club, with it's philosophy of revolution and other aspects. Shirdon and Martinez actually did a bit of detective work in this one but were still mostly a framing device.
Case 4: Devils in Dark Houses In the midst of a bizarre child molestation case, a homeless man surfaces with a strange connection to Martinez' former partner.
Shirdon and Martinez had a more active role in this case. Scully did a great job with The Hound and his delusions.
My final analysis: While this book wasn't what I expected, I wound up liking it just the same. Using the cops as the framing device to link these four novellas together worked very well and made Devils in Dark Houses rise above my expectations, telling a much wider variety of tales than the horror cop stories I was envisioning. 3.5 out of 5 stars. I'll have to check out what else B.E. Scully has done.
lauriereadslohf's review
3.0
This review and the rest of the crap I write can be seen @ my blog Bark's Book Nonsense . Stop by and say hey.
Devils In Dark Houses is a book of short stories that are tied together because they feature the same two investigators on these mysterious cases of murder and general weirdness.
The Eye That Blinds tells the tale of three college friends who are completely messing up their lives. They once had bright futures but now they’ve immersed themselves so deeply in the unreality that invades our current lives; the internet, reality tv, spyware run amok, that they’ve lost touch with the outside world and quite possibly reality. An ugly love triangle brings out the worst in all of them.
Things start out fascinating but I never become completely involved in the outcome because every character in this story was pretty dastardly and far too self-involved. I suppose that was the point though. 3 Stars
Each Castle Its King After an event happens, a couple decides to relocate to the boonies to get a fresh start. They buy an old fixer upper they call “Blood House” because, well, why wouldn’t you? Their neighbor, Old Man Crampus, advises them never, EVER to walk behind his house. All of the neighbors know better but these two are rebels and do it anyway.
This is another that started off awesomely but ultimately left me feeling vaguely disappointed. Pages go by but not a lot happens and I felt it was too long and meandering. The atmosphere is creepy done right, though. 3 Stars
Nostri A bored teen decides to spend her summer dumpster diving for discarded treasure. Why not? I spent most of my summers in a cemetery. Kids are weird (or was it just me?). Anyway, I am not one to judge. One day she meets a fellow dumpster aficionado and they become bff’s. When they find a baby in a dumpster, they decide to test a social justice talking head to see if she’ll actually stand by her commentary and DO something. This sparks a fire in them that leads them to performing increasingly dangerous and potentially murderous “tests” on public figures in the name of “Nostri” based on some old philosopher’s ideals.
The bones of this story are good and quite horrible in the best of ways but there is so much useless stuff jammed in here that I kept losing interest. The little side-stories didn’t add to the plot, they only sucked all of the tension from the story for me. 2 ½ Stars
Devils In Dark Houses I had to DNF this story. It has the same issues that kept me from enjoying Nostri. Side stories and flashbacks kept creeping in and boring me. I finally quit and called it a day. My tbr pile is too big for this.
I can’t deny this collection held promise but I truly struggled with it. I’m thinking this one comes down to a matter of taste and I have been told mine is atrocious. Many of my friends enjoyed it for its complexity and many layered points of views/side stories but nope, it didn’t work for me.
Devils In Dark Houses is a book of short stories that are tied together because they feature the same two investigators on these mysterious cases of murder and general weirdness.
The Eye That Blinds tells the tale of three college friends who are completely messing up their lives. They once had bright futures but now they’ve immersed themselves so deeply in the unreality that invades our current lives; the internet, reality tv, spyware run amok, that they’ve lost touch with the outside world and quite possibly reality. An ugly love triangle brings out the worst in all of them.
Things start out fascinating but I never become completely involved in the outcome because every character in this story was pretty dastardly and far too self-involved. I suppose that was the point though. 3 Stars
Each Castle Its King After an event happens, a couple decides to relocate to the boonies to get a fresh start. They buy an old fixer upper they call “Blood House” because, well, why wouldn’t you? Their neighbor, Old Man Crampus, advises them never, EVER to walk behind his house. All of the neighbors know better but these two are rebels and do it anyway.
This is another that started off awesomely but ultimately left me feeling vaguely disappointed. Pages go by but not a lot happens and I felt it was too long and meandering. The atmosphere is creepy done right, though. 3 Stars
Nostri A bored teen decides to spend her summer dumpster diving for discarded treasure. Why not? I spent most of my summers in a cemetery. Kids are weird (or was it just me?). Anyway, I am not one to judge. One day she meets a fellow dumpster aficionado and they become bff’s. When they find a baby in a dumpster, they decide to test a social justice talking head to see if she’ll actually stand by her commentary and DO something. This sparks a fire in them that leads them to performing increasingly dangerous and potentially murderous “tests” on public figures in the name of “Nostri” based on some old philosopher’s ideals.
The bones of this story are good and quite horrible in the best of ways but there is so much useless stuff jammed in here that I kept losing interest. The little side-stories didn’t add to the plot, they only sucked all of the tension from the story for me. 2 ½ Stars
Devils In Dark Houses I had to DNF this story. It has the same issues that kept me from enjoying Nostri. Side stories and flashbacks kept creeping in and boring me. I finally quit and called it a day. My tbr pile is too big for this.
I can’t deny this collection held promise but I truly struggled with it. I’m thinking this one comes down to a matter of taste and I have been told mine is atrocious. Many of my friends enjoyed it for its complexity and many layered points of views/side stories but nope, it didn’t work for me.
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