Thursday, March 14, 2013

Naima Haviland reviews Where the Dead Fear to Tread

Naima Haviland author of Blood Room reviews Where the Dead Fear to Tread.




              "I not only enjoyed Where the Dead Fear to Tread by M.R. Gott; I admired it. While the novel is squarely on the violent end of the horror genre spectrum, it blends elements of noir and action film genres into it. Also, Gott created unique and original versions of traditional horror monsters so the villains have motives and powers you won't expect. He added to that the very real human monsters we see all too often in the news. Then he invented new monsters out of his own sick mind (his dreams must be incredible). And he wrote the grossest way to die I've read in a long time, if ever.

Plot: William Chandler is a vigilante rescuing kidnapped children and killing the sex slavers who traffic in them. Kate Broadband is a cop who's working the same beat and is chaffing at the restrictions of going by the book. Each is seeking the same missing little girl. A mysterious woman promises to reveal where the girl is being kept –but first William must rescue a kidnapped boy held in a clinic that is a front for sex traffickers. That might be just another day's killing spree for William, except the clinic's interior is a supernatural realm. 

Where the Dead Fear to Tread is graphically violent in descriptions of fights between adults (scenes with children are only descriptive enough for you to know what happened). But as the plot progresses we learn of William's earlier times and the emotional loss that drove him off the rails. The novel surprised me with this insight; it gave depth to the action. My stake in the plot twists and turns intensified.

If you like the stories of horror writer Lee Thompson, you'll like M.R. Gott. Both write of anti-heroes with nothing left to lose who prowl surreal and hellish landscapes on single-minded vendettas. 

Where the Dead Fear to Tread is a high-octane thriller that packs a wicked punch and a killer bite (and a surprisingly soft heart)."



Naima Haviland likes dead people. Fictional dead people, that is, and the twisted people who make them dead (or undead). She is the author of Bloodroom and Night at the Demontorium, a vampire novel and dark fantasy anthology for Kindle. She takes as inspiration the Southeast United States, including her home in the Florida Panhandle, an ocean paradise with a not-too-distant past full of eccentrics, explorers, pirates, ghosts, and UFOs.


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