- Release Date: Halloween 2012
- Author: Lisa Morton
- Publisher: Bad Moon Books
- Page Count: 72 pages
“Jack Lichtner is the genius behind Hell Manor, America’s most successful Halloween haunted house. Mazes, scare zones, live actors, special effects, crazy gore…Hell Manor’s got it all. But Jack gets in over his head when he hires Maeve, a mysterious woman with a penchant for bloody magic and murderous kin who want her back. This Halloween, Jack must use all his powers of illusion to fight off the real magic of the ancient tricksters who have invaded Hell Manor.”
The Halloween season may be over and Christmas is taking over everything…unfortunately, but that doesn’t mean we horror lovers have to stand idly by. Nope. We can put all that yuletide stuff on the back burner and keep our Halloween going by reading the latest Halloween novella by the immensely talented and equally as nice Lisa Morton.
Lisa has really come into her own as a writer and is in my opinion one of the best writers in dark fiction today. With HELL MANOR she gives us a tale where she draws upon her vast knowledge of Halloween…and what a tale it is.
If you have ever gone to a haunted house attraction on Halloween, and who hasn’t you will absolutely love this story.
It may be a short novella but Lisa manages to pack in a lot of Halloween lore, frights, gore and Halloween mayhem. The characters are very life like, the atmosphere spot on, and the best part is you can read this one sitting. In fact I read it twice on consecutive days I like it so much.
I especially liked Maeve and her “kin”, they were awesome characters. I also enjoyed the confrontation between Maeve’s kin and Jack, the battle between real magic and Jack’s illusion…very nicely done. The ending was also great, really took me by surprise and I enjoyed the hell out of it.
So, if you are like me and are already sick of the commercial onslaught of the Christmas season, do yourself a favor and head on over to one of my favorite and one of the best publishers in dark fiction today Bad Moon Books and grab a copy of Lisa’s latest Halloween tale. And who knows Halloween better than Lisa, no one that I can think of.
HELL MANOR is everything a great Halloween tale should be and I give it my highest recommendation.
