Jeff Menapace

This omnibus was a fast paced psycho twist for me as I had not read this author before, so I when I started to read the story, it just grabbed me right away!

A little backstory for you readers.

Bad Games:

The Lambert family (Patrick (father), Amy (mother), Caleb (young son), and Carrie (young daughter) set out to their favorite vacation spot which is Crescent Lake. When they stop for gas they do not realize that they are being watched and when a strange man comes up to Patrick starting a conversation, Patrick thinks it is strange, but he doesn't really pay much attention, and converses back with the stranger. But when the stranger pays for his gas is when a niggling feeling plays around in the back of his mind. Later on when the family makes another stop - they have another strange encounter with a different stranger as this one trades a lollipop for Carrie's doll.

The Lambert family are befuddled by these two strange events, but things are far from over as when they arrive at Crescent Lake is when everything goes to hell in a handbasket as both "strangers" make their presence known in more ways than one and as the Lambert family tries to enjoy their peaceful vacation it becomes all to clear that they are in a vacation from hell.

These two strangers are wanting to play "games" with the family and the kind of games they are wanting to play are not the good kind as in fact the games turn into terror for the family as they try to go up against the strangers. The strangers end up being more than just unknowns as they are really brothers.

This book took off like lightning as by the time I read the first chapter I had to keep going so I read another chapter which after a couple of hours I had read about six chapters and it was early hours of the morning. The author just has a way of pulling you into the storyline and with each thing happening with the brothers I could feel the trepidation and worry that the characters were enduring.

Vengeance:

The second book picks up with an interesting twist as the "brothers" from book one have a family member that arrives in book two and now the Lambert family have to endure another type of onslaught with this new person that makes an appearance.

When things start to go awry for the Lambert family again they end up reaching out to their friend Domino Taylor as they could use any help they can get when dealing with a family of psychos.

Book 2 moved along at a good fast pace and kept the tension high with everything that played out within the story.

Hellbent:

The third book is set about a year later and the Lambert family along with Domino are still trying to get over their dealings with the psycho family. But things become more twisted for Domino as now he has to deal with something from his past and with any good game it is not over till it is over.

This book moved quick in the beginning of the story and up to about the middle, but then somewhere in between the story started dragging for me as I just read it to get through it as I wanted to see what happened.

There are two more books in the series, but I do not know if I will pursue them right now. All three books were good and for all three books I am giving a rating of four stars for the omnibus.… (meer)

This book took me on a haunting ride into horror!

A small backstory:

Ryan Herb is a new teacher at Pinewood Elementary and it seems there are quite a few new teachers that are starting the same year as him. When he has an encounter with a woman that gets upset at him for being a teacher at the school he is perplexed as he is not sure why she singled him out, but he soon finds out that not all is what it seems at the school as the school has a bad history.

When Ryan starts having bad dreams about the school and starts having sleep walking episodes is when worry starts to set in as Ryan sees things in his dreams that he has no understanding of what they are about or why it is happening to him. What ends up sending him over the edge is when he drives himself to the school in the "sleep-state" and he encounters something within the school building that will make him seek out answers from fellow teachers for the horrors he has to endure from his dreams.

Why is Ryan having bad dreams? What are the dreams trying to tell him? What horrors await him within the school? Why is the school haunted? No spoilers here as you will need to read the book!

Thoughts:

The fast pace of the book just kept me entrenched within the story along with the haunting mystery of what was happening with the character Ryan and the more I became involved reading the book the more I wanted to see what would happen next. I literally read this book within 24 hours as I just could not put it down!

Flipping kindle pages became a fun exercise as I went careening through the book! I have read this author before, so I knew I was in for a treat when I picked up this book to read. Giving this one five "Haunting Horror" stars!

For more thoughts on this review, please see my blog:
https://booknookretreat.blogspot.com/2021/04/dark-halls-by-jeff-menapace.html… (meer)