Reviews-Unholy
Cross Genre—Mystery/Horror
While there are no true
demons or monsters in Unholy
Reviews—Unholy
Publisher:
ArcheBooks Publishing
ISBN:
1595070257
1 Review by Nicholas Grabowsky (www.downwarden.com)
Author Dana Reed, when submitting this book to me, insisted it was not actually a horror novel but rather led me to believe it fell more on the lines of a detective thriller or merely a work of suspense.
A warning to all: this was clearly not the case, not entirely. I mean, suspenseful? By all means. A detective thriller? Certainly, even to many degrees by definition. With the utmost respect for those elements, however, readers with an appetite for gut-wrenching, in-your-face, relentlessly psychological and shamelessly graphic horror, Reed's Unholy Alliance comes through with guns blazing and the stench of a body count rising to high heaven in the aftermath.
In the streets of New York, a detective with a rattled past finds herself joining forces with a reporter harboring even darker demons from a life under an abusive father responsible for many of those demons as well as the loss of her leg. Together, they hunt down the Necrophiliac, a killer who harvests body parts from his victims to keep the ever-accumulating number of lifeless members of his "family" he dwells with fresh and free from decomposition. At the scene of each murder, he leaves behind a single glass rose. This poses as a problem for the reporter when he leaves a rose for her as well early on, a chilling indication that she is not only next on his hit list, but as we discover later that he desires her to be his bride.
Dana Reed has been down this literary road before, a veteran of this sort of thing with eight novels of horror as well as other works under her belt, and she has seen herself as a well-received teacher of writing and journalism. Unholy Alliance, I might add, is the first in a series that promises to escalate in intensity and to further establish its unforgettable mark in genre literature. Reed's skill and craftsmanship with the written word is enough to make for a vivid and frightening read when coupled with such a compelling storyline often lacking in today's overdone and overblown world of crime/suspense dramas.
2 Imagine yourself living
alone in a rather weird apartment building with equally weird characters as
neighbors while a madman roams the city, killing people and removing parts
of their bodies. His victims seem to be selected at random and the parts he
takes seem to have no relationship with each other. August Summers joins forces
with police detective Bobby Beckett, the officer in charge of the
investigation of the strange killings, after they find they have more than one
thing in common. August might become the killer's next victim and Bobby is
working to prevent just that. More than just a mystery,
this tale carries with a mood that matches that of the original
Psycho movie, unexpected and unpleasant surprises for the characters, but just
that perfect touch of horror to keep the reader turning those pages. Set
in New York City, the story is played out mostly in the darker hours while the
city sleeps uneasily, not knowing and worrying where the killer will
strike next. This is a book you won't want to put down.
Enjoy. Anne K. Edwards Author of
Journey into Terror 3 I must confess I committed an
act of “unholy alliance,” by chewing my nails as I read Dana
Reed’s riveting thriller debut. As her psychically wounded heroines
battle a freakishly insane killer, Reed limns the homicide detective’s
world with the same savvy that earned her a cult following as a horror
writer. Sara Williams Author of The
Don Juan Con and The Serenoa Scandal 4 Dawn Gustafson--The Hardwick
Gazette - February 18, 2004
"Unholy
In this latest book, August Summers is a young writer who finds herself
the target of a serial killer in
"Unholy Alliance" is very suspenseful, and at times I couldn't
put it down, and was happy to hear that the book is the first in a series, as I
liked how the two main characters developed and related to one another. August
is somewhat naive and her past comes into play. As a child she was brutally
abused by her father and she continues to struggle with her demons from
childhood. Detective Beckett is tough and streetwise and has overcome a history
of drug abuse.
Reed says she tends to write in a frenzy, so we may not have to wait
long for the next installment. 5
"UNHOLY ALLIANCE is a deliciously
morbid thriller, filled with more twists and turns than your favorite thrill
ride, guaranteed to both enthrall and appall. Set aside a block of time to read
it; because once you start, you won't be able to stop till you get to the very
last page, breathless and amazed." 6 This is definitely one
of the best thrillers I've ever read! With chilling suspense throughout, Dana
Reed’s Unholy S.J. Reisner Author of The
Left Horse Black
Robert E. Gelinas
Author of THE MUSTARD SEED