reviews

The Serial Killer Story I Couldn't Handle Author: Dr. Karl Berg My recent excursions into true crime lead me to The Dusseldorf Vampire, a book that was published in 1938 by psychiatrist Dr. Karl Berg. It covers the confessions of Peter Kürten, a particularly vicious serial killer who rampaged for multiple years across Germany. This was my first encounter with Kürten, but despite the ominous red filter used to highlight a man who looks like he stepped out of another time (which, of course, he did) and the “extremely graphic and shocking!” label proudly smacked on the front, I was sure [...]

Horror Meets Splatterpunk Meets Erotica Author: Patrick Freivald Davis MacArthur can make his violin keen so soulfully that it drowns out the wails of the damned, which is a good thing, because they are incessant. Davis didn’t always see the sinister world behind the sunshine and the rushing evening crowds. The sky wasn’t always filled with demons and putrescence;  the nauseous air of debauchery and torment didn’t always bubble under his feet like an overflowing cesspit. But, he didn’t always tamper with the occult. Until he did . . . Now as a world-famous violinist, Davis has a secret pocket-demon [...]

Magic rules… Author:  Angela Bourke For those who are reading this on a remarkably clever little handheld computer, it may seem bizarre to think that magic still plays a role in anyone’s life.  But it really wasn’t that long ago.  It was 1895, in rural Ireland, and the disappearance of a young woman was generating all sorts of theories – foremost being that the fairies had abducted her and taken her to their nearby stronghold – until her badly burned body was found in a shallow grave not far from her home.  Irish historian Angela Bourke tells of this real-life [...]