Tortures of the Damned

by Hunter Shea

SHOCK…
First, the electricity goes—plunging the east coast in darkness after a devastating nuclear attack. Millions panic. Millions die. They are the lucky ones.
 
AFTER SHOCK…
Next, the chemical weapons take effect—killing or contaminating everything alive. Except a handful of survivors in a bomb shelter. They are the damned.
 
 HELL IS FOR HUMANS
Then, the real nightmare begins. Hordes of rats force two terrified families out of their shelter—and into the savage streets of an apocalytic wasteland. They are not alone. Vicious, chemical-crazed animals hunt in packs. Dogs tear flesh, cats draw blood, horses crush bone. Roaming gangs of the sick and dying are barely recognizable as human. These are the times that try men’s souls. These are the tortures that tear families apart. This is hell on earth. The rules are Kill or die.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Dystopia, Apocalyptic

439 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 15, 2015

About the author

Hunter Shea is the author of over 25 books, with a specialization in cryptozoological horror that includes The Jersey Devil, The Dover Demon, Loch Ness Revenge and many others. As part of the new horror line at Flame Tree Press, his novel Creature has gained critical acclaim. His novel, The Montauk Monster, was named one of the best reads of the summer by Publishers Weekly. A trip to the International Cryptozoology Museum will find several of his cryptid books among the fascinating displays. Living in a true haunted house inspired his Jessica Backman: Death in the Afterlife series (Forest of Shadows, Sinister Entity and Island of the Forbidden). In 2011, he was selected to be a part of the launch of Samhain Publishing’s new horror line alongside legendary author Ramsey Campbell. When he’s not writing thrillers and horror, he also spins tall tales for middle grade readers on Amazon’s highly regarded Rapids reading app.
An avid podcaster, he can be seen and heard on Monster Men, one of the longest running video horror podcasts in the world, and Final Guys, focusing on weekly movie and book reviews. His nostalgic column about the magic of 80s horror, Video Visions, is featured monthly at Cemetery Dance Online. You can find his short stories in a number of anthologies, including Chopping Block Party, The Body Horror Book and Fearful Fathoms II.

A lifetime New Yorker, Hunter is supported by his loving wife and two beautiful daughters. When he’s not studying up on cryptozoology, he’s an avid explorer of the unknown, having spent a night alone on the Queen Mary, searching for the Warren’s famous White Lady of the Union Cemetery and other mysterious places.
You can follow his travails at www.huntershea.com.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After New York falls victim to a trio of attacks, the Padilla family and their neighbors band together for survival but how can they survive against disease, fried electronics, and animals gone bloodthirsty?

After taking on the Dover Demon, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Jersey Devil, Hunter Shea takes on the apocalypse. When an EMP fries everything electronic, an unknown disease runs rampant, and something turns animals against humans, the Padilla family of Yonkers, New York, and their neighbors, Buck and Alexiana band together to survive and find out what happened. Things do not go well.

The post-apocalyptic genre is a little played out these days but Hunter Shea makes it fresh by leaving out zombies and focusing on the trials and tribulations of the Padilla family. Life without electricity is hard, even without rats, bats, horses, cats, dogs, and birds all gunning for them. Not to mention disease, gang members, and the threat of starvation. The apocalypse won't be fun, kids!

Daniel and Elizabeth struggle to keep their family together when obstacle after obstacle fall into their paths. Nothing is easy and no one is safe. Casualties are numerous and the body count is high. No one is unscathed for long and some of them have the shit "scathed" out of them.

I've mentioned it before but Hunter Shea is the master of introducing characters, making you care about them, and then having them die horribly. Tortures of the Damned is no exception. It's hardship after hardship, right until the heartbreaking ending. I knew it would end badly but couldn't set the book aside for long. Like a trainwreck, I just had to see it.

While it wasn't the usual subject matter for Hunter Shea, Tortures of the Damned was one gripping read. Four out of five stars.

[Zoeytron · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are one who has been apt to rely on the kindness of strangers, put that thought right out of your mind. It is not going to happen in post-apocalyptic Yonkers, New York. Poisonous clouds of chemicals have been unleashed upon those who managed to survive the initial nuclear hit. To add insult to injury, there is something wrong with the animals. Rats, cats, bats, and every other furry and feathered creature have gone mad, crazed, running in packs in full attack mode.

It doesn't take long for the difference between right and wrong to get fuzzy around the edges. The ones who have survived thus far are desperate and panicky, many of them acting like animals themselves. A fresh take on this genre, and it was terrific.

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that is nice to read now and then. It's over the top action from the beginning to the end with some gore in it. I find it kind of relaxing to read like this. Which actually feels a bit weird, but it's the same with action movies. Sometimes you just want a lot of action and a story that moves forward fast. And, you got it in this book.

The problem I had while reading this one was that I felt quite detached from the story and the characters. I just didn't care that much when they started to die because I had never really gotten to like them that much, not that I disliked them, they were just characters in a book and they died. That's it. I just couldn't connect with them or the story.

And, usually I have a problem with animals getting hurt, but there was so many of them, horses, dogs, cats hawks, etc. all the time attacking the humans. They have gone completely batshit crazy and when a horse first kicks a man and then rips off his face, well it's hard to really feel sorry for the horses. And, getting mauled to death by a pack of dogs is probably not that nice. But the crazy animals are one thing, they have an excuse for acting this way, something had been done to them to act this way. But some humans, let's say that survival of the fittest isn't always the one that you hope would survive. And, the group of poor survivors trying to get to safety not only have to look out for animals but also for gangbangers.

Then we have the ending, let's just say that it's a very open ending, if it was a series would I say that it was a great cliffhanger, but I'm not sure if this is a series or not. And, if it not, well then the ending sucks a bit!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

One day the world is rocked. By a bomb? Who knows. Power and communications are downs. The electronic they we enjoys so much are useless. Cars are now monuments of days just passed. The security of your home, no longer a place of comfort, just temporary safety.

The Padilla and their neighbors, who camped out in an underground bunker while the world and its inhabitants went through a transformation, were saved from certain death.

After days of being cooped up together, the group decides to venture out into unknown territory where humans are the lowest beings on the totem pole and animals, of all kinds, are thirsty for their blood.

Maybe death would have been an easier fate.

~~~~~~

With a title like that, you know going in that the story is not going to be easy. The characters are most likely going to have to deal with some crazy situations, and indeed they did.

A good story for horror and Apocalyptic readers alike. Tortures of the Damned definitely had a mainstream feel to it. It appealed to my love of darker fiction involving blood and guts. There were a few progression issues where I felt paragraphs and/or whole conversations could have been deleted completely. TotD shined in the second half by upping the consequences.

Hunter Shea did a fairly good job overall and his use of short chapters really helped keep a sense of urgency going right until the end of the book. I do wish he would have stopped a few pages early to make a more definitive ending.

This was my first Hunter Shea read and I'll be sure to check out his future works.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasteland Woes!

Small backstory:

Terror hits the East coast when everything comes to a stop with communications as signs of life seems to cease when a terror attack seems to have occurred. Buck and his girlfriend, Alexiana help their neighbors, the Padilla family into his bomb shelter when the attacks happen as no one is sure what is going on.

When time goes by and they venture out into the world things are changed. All kinds of animals and pests have seemed to turn rabid and they are wandering the streets looking for fresh meat. No one is safe in this new world and Buck along with his neighbors will need to fight tooth and nail if they want to survive!

That is about all I can hand out on a small backstory without giving away spoilers so if you want to know more then go read this book!

Thoughts:

This book went in a different direction then what I am used to with reading a book by author, Hunter Shea, but the madness and twisted backdrop of the story with animals going wild threw me right into the mix of things! I would still say this is a horror story even though it is tightly woven into a science fiction apocalyptic world.

The story has tons of tension laced throughout and kept me reading long into a few nights as so much was happening that it was hard to put down. It really should have been a five star read but something happens later in the book that made me drop it down one star. I cannot tell you what it is because it would be a spoiler but the story is still filled with twisted terror and the descriptions of what takes place kept me edgy.

I can imagine this story being close to our reality if anything like this ever happened in real life. It really shows how much we all depend on communications and being connected to the outside world. Author Hunter Shea brings everything into clarity with this story showing the kindness of neighbors and the angry world right outside the door. Another great book by this author! Giving this book four "Fallout Fears" stars!

[Kenneth McKinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The horror/sci-fi genre has experienced a huge boom in post-apocalyptic stories in the last decade. Many are thanks to Brian Keene and The Walking Dead making zombies the popular choice these days and it shows. The market is over saturated with zombie books - some good, but most are meh...seen it, done it, read it before - and it makes me shy away from the post-apocalyptic genre, and that's really too bad. One of my favorite books of all time, Robert McCammon's Swan Song, resides smack in the middle of this genre. Even so, I normally wouldn't have picked up Hunter Shea's Tortures of the Damned, due to the aforementioned reasons, if it weren't for it being a NetGalley choice. Lucky for me, it was.

This is my first read of Shea's and it's a damn shame that I haven't jumped onto his stuff before this. T.O.D. starts off with an unexplained phenomenon happening in Yonkers, NY. Explosions are heard in the distance and all electronic devices stop working including vehicles and communication devices. As the people begin to panic, a cloud of strange smoke begins to drift into the area. The Padilla family scramble to gather their children and discover that their neighbor has an underground fallout shelter under his home. As they hide out there, the unknown is happening above ground causing a sense of dread to percolate and mix with the cabin fever that is already settling in. On top of that, two of the children in the shelter are experiencing flu-like symptoms from breathing in the strange smoke before they reached safety. With the anxiety ratcheting up and unable to establish any communication with the outside world, they decide to send the men out in search of medical help for the kids. What they find, once they leave the shelter, is that the world looks the same, except the people are gone from the neighborhood. What they also discover, while a sudden thunderstorm erupts while they are out, is that the rats in the sewers are bonkers. They flood out, attack them, and infiltrate their shelter while the men we're trying to get back in. This causes the families to vacate the shelter and take their chances topside as a group. What they find is that while most of the humans have been killed off, the animal world has become bloodthirsty and organized and danger is around every corner.

Shea takes a tired subject and gives it a great voice. You instantly become one of the Padillas as they journey into their neighborhood gone to hell. I know that the open ending of the book has left some dissatisfied. I find it very appropriate. A world that has been turned upside down, like this, wouldn't have a tidy ending. It would keep on going and what we've witnessed in Tortures of the Damned is a a moment of time in this world. We don't know what all happened before OR after and I like what he's done with it. If you enjoy Post-Apocolyptic stories, I imagine you will too.

4 crazed alley cats out of 5



You can also follow my reviews at the following links:

https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/A2J1...

[Frank Errington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review copy

Hunter Shea lives in New York with his family and one vindictive cat. Aside from writing horror he's been involved in real life exploration of the paranormal, he interviews exorcists, and has been involved in other things that would keep normal people up at night.

Tortures of the Damned manages to avoid many of the cliches found in the typical apocalyptic horror novel and the result is a terrifying read that left me wanting more.

The story starts with numerous explosions, the lose of electricity, meaning no TV and no radio. Despite that, Daniel Padilla does his best to keep his family calm...

"'There's nothing to be afraid of . In fact, why don't you, Miguel, and Max go in the kitchen and make us all ice cream sundaes?'

Gabby's eyes lit up. 'Really?'

Elizabeth gave him a warning look, 'Dan, it's late.'

He kissed her cheek 'They don't have school tomorrow. I think ice cream is exactly what we all need.'"

The idyllic family, instantly likable, caught in a nightmarish new world. Their neighbors, Buck Clarke and his girlfriend Alexiana offer to have the family join them in his bomb shelter until things blow over.

What follows is an intense horror story filled with graphic images, like that of a man having his face ripped off by a horse. That's right, I said a horse. Horses are grossly underused in horror fiction. And let's not forget the rats. I hate rats.

"This was no fantasy, this was a horror movie, one of those flicks from the seventies where there was no happy ending."

I absolutely devoured this book. I allowed myself four days for this read and finished it in two. There is excellent use of lose in Tortures of the Damned, as well as some crass sexual situations, but I found them certainly appropriate for the story given the circumstances. Anything less would have taken away from the realism.

Although the book was not promoted as the first of a series, there had better be a sequel especially with the heluva cliff-hanger that comes at the end.

From Pinnacle Books, an imprint of the Kensington Publishing Company, Tortures of the Damned is available now in both paperback and e-book formats.

Highly recommended.

[Michael Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

[This review is based on an advanced copy received from the publisher via NetGalley.]

Hunter Shea’s latest finds the Padilla family, and their neighboring couple, Buck and Alexiana, toughing out life in a post-apocalyptic Yonkers where, seemingly, everyone and everything wants them dead, right down to the skunks and racoons.

After a series of attacks on the US mainland force the Padilla’s into Buck’s bomb shelter, they emerge to find a radically changed world. A chemical assault has killed off most of the human population, and animals all across the spectrum – from racehorses to domesticated dogs and cats – have gone berserk. Venturing out into this brave new world for the first time, Buck and Daniel, the Padilla patriarch, are attacked by a tidal wave of rats, forcing everyone out of the bomb shelter and into this stark, new reality.

Shea is a proficient horror author and he drums up a few scenes here that are gut-twisting, including an early introduction into the horses gone wild and, later, a scene where Daniel and his wife, Elizabeth, are forced to confront a naked, knife-wielding lunatic with truly depraved intentions. The action is pretty frenetic and makes for a quick and propulsive read, with all kinds of different scenarios and variations on man vs. animal and man vs. man themes.

My only complaint is that, for me, the characters felt somewhat flat. We learn enough about them to feel comfortable as they’re set off on their less-than merry way, and Elizabeth, a nurse, is called into action more than a few times, but we never really get to know their histories or the depths of their souls. The Padilla family is pretty large, which leads to most coming off as a bit one-note. Max is the angry teen, Gabby the scared the kid, Elizabeth the worried mother, etc.

Where I cannot fault Shea is in giving each character a great moment to shine. Their father, Daniel, gets a nice scene where he performs a necessary evil that would have been impossible for him to carry out in a more civilized world, and when a certain tragedy befalls Alexiana, her reaction and fears are suitably realistic. The ordeals endured by the Padilla’s generate a solid dose of emotion and a few uncomfortable squirms that helps the material live up to the promise set forth in the title.

All in all, Tortures of the Damned is an entertaining read, with plenty of great action scenes, but not one in which I felt terribly invested in character-wise. Still, the climax is resoundingly exciting, punchy, and more than a little brutal. I definitely recommend that fans of post-apocalypse survival fiction give it a shot, particularly if you’re looking for some zombie-free fare but one with a nice little spin on the typical tropes.

[Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a problem. I have a lot of books, more books than I can read. And I keep buying more. Tortures of the Damned is a prime example of this problem. Last year while on vacation, my wife and I hit up every book store that we could find (yeah, we do that). We’ll even pull off the interstate if we spot a Barnes & Noble or BAM. On one of these “pit stops”, I saw Hunter Shea’s new release of Tortures of the Damned; I had to pick it up! Now it is one year later on summer vacation, and I’ve made a commitment to myself…I’m reading some hardcovers and paperbacks – putting my Kindle on the back shelf. So here I am, reviewing a book that’s been out for a year that I had during its release week.

Sometimes I think the only way to survive any type of apocalypse is through some dumb luck and by not making stupid decisions. Hunter Shea has taken this concept with the Padilla family and run with it. He has taken me on a rock ‘em sock ‘em tour of Yonkers, filled with animal attacks and people who behave worse than animals.

One thing that really caught me off guard with Tortures of the Damned was the chapter lengths. For a book of 439 pages it has 152 chapters. Using my impeccable mathematic skills, that’s about 3 pages per chapter. At first I was thinking, at least if I have to put the book down I’m probably going to be at the end of a chapter. But as I read along, the brilliance of these short chapters really came into play. With the shifting points of view, these short chapters rocketed the action forward. Once the action kicked into high gear, I was propelled forward at blinding speed.

I found that the characters took a bit of a back seat to the action. It's not that they were poorly done or poorly developed, it’s just that there was so much going on that it was hard to get to know them.

Tortures of the Damned is a fast paced, fun read. It presents an apocalypse that is possible and terrifying.

[Kaisersoze · Rating 3 out of 5]

The name Hunter Shea has long been one haunting my TBR pile, but until this read, had remained an author who never quite hit the top of that pile. This is despite his name seeming to feature prominently on a good many people's list of horror authors to watch.

So with the release of Tortures of the Damned tomorrow, and with Netgalley having it up for review, the I figured it was time to give the man a shot.

And, well, the results were mixed.

Telling the story of a group of people struggling to survive when some kind of attack strikes Yonkers, New York, Tortures of the Damned sets itself apart from most apocalyptic fiction of this type by having the protagonists all know one another, since they are comprised of two neighbouring families.

Surviving the initial attack thanks to the foresight of one of the characters who built a fallout shelter below his house following the events of 9/11, the families are forced to move on by the worsening illness of two of their number. Having been completely isolated in the bunker, the families emerge to a nasty new world where animals attack any human they see and the vast majority of the population have already succumbed to some form of strange illness. How they try to survive forms the bulk of the story as the characters attempt to determine what to do and where to go ...

Look, as far as apocalyptic novels go, this one is fairly standard. Other than the fact that almost all of the characters are related to or very close to one another, there's little of significant difference here to note. Shea rapidly switches between the POVs of every character in the group (including the young children), so the reader gets to better understand them all as they strike out for survival. So while the characterisation is well-handled, the threats they face are exactly what you would expect. The only surprise for me was how non-paranormal the threats were - which, given the title of the novel, I thought were a sure thing.

So, yes, the group come across the "bad" people who are thriving in this type of environment, and its these people who again end up being a bigger threat than the animal attacks which periodically occur. As far as plot devices go, I'm starting to find this one a little tiresome, but perhaps that's just me.

The novel is also quite long, and at times I found my interest flagging. The ending however is in keeping with the tone of the novel, and I'm pleased to acknowledge Shea does not shy away from doing what he had clearly set up to do...

One major gripe is the eARC I received from Netgalley was formatted extremely poorly. So much so that most of the chapter numbers were missing, which meant POV switches would happen and I'd be a paragraph and half on to the next character before even realising it wasn't the one I was reading about before. At other times, paragraphs stopped mid-sentence and began indented the next line down, making it difficult at times to follow

All in all, this was a decent, if uninspiring apocalyptic novel, that did enough for me to continue reading the other Shea titles I have on my Kindle... Eventually.

3 Suicidal Charging Horses for Tortures of the Damned.

The preceding was based on an eARC received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Icy-Cobwebs-Crossing-SpaceTime · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: TORTURES OF THE DAMNED by Hunter Shea

This is one SCARY story! I don't know if the generation deadened by tv and film violence and violent, Armageddon-apocalyptic video games will similarly react. For a child of the early Cold War like myself, living during the Korean Conflict, the McCarthy Era. John Birch Society, the Cuban Missile Crisis, reading TORTURES OF THE DAMNED is familiar territory: nuclear holocaust and the aftermath, fallout shelters, widespread pandemonium and societal collapse. All that is terror enough; but I don't remember any of my cherished books of the 1950's and 1960's relating animal species becoming beyond feral, ravening mobs, targeting humans. Thank you, Hunter Shea, for inspiring this new nightmare. [SMILE]

Seriously, everybody ought to read TORTURES OF THE DAMNED. It's all too realistic, and far too plausible.


Release July 28, 2015

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

A SHITTY ENDING THAT RUINS THE WHOLE STORY.
AVOID THIS BOOK.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im all for sunshine and rainbows and puppy dog tails, but every once in a awhile I want a book that isn’t full of happy things. Instead, sometimes, I want a book that’s gritty and dirty and just has an aura of depressing malaise about it. And man oh man did Tortures of the Damned deliver.

Quite simply, this one was bleak.

The book doesn’t really do anything new or original in way of the cliched post apocalyptic genre, but what it makes in that department, it makes up for in action, insanely fast pacing, and an absolutely depressing story. This thing was relentlessly dark and brutal, lacking anything even remotely cheery.

Everything you can think of in regards to the apocalypse is here, but Shea cranks it up to 11, never once letting up on the setting and story. Bad things happen to good people over and over again, and just when you think they’ve made it, something even worse comes along (like, in this case, killer horses and gang bangers and racists). Family members die despite everyone’s attempts to help them. Innocents are beaten, bloodied, and bruised. A plethora of animals go down in a hail of gunfire…yeah, like I said Tortures is a truly bleak novel.

I almost gave this a 5 star rating but for its shocking and quite abrupt ending. I don’t know if Shea ever wrote a sequel (or at least planned one), but the book literally just ends in one of the worst cliffhangers imaginable. I get what Shea was doing, and this was probably the best kind of ending a book like this needs, however the basic fade to black in the midst of yet another shocking moment felt totally jarring.

All things considered, though, this one was exactly the kind of un-feel good book i needed and that can’t be overlooked.

[Matt Manochio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter Shea’s Tortures of the Damned is at its most unsettling in the early going of this post-apocalyptic novel during its pre-apocalyptic period, when catastrophe of an unexplained (but clearly terrorist nature) befalls New York City on an ordinary day.

Explosions. Mysterious poisonous gas. Normally docile animals turned rampaging beasts.

And this is before the terrorist attack. I’m kidding. Hunter’s second venture for Pinnacle focuses on the Padilla family (mom, dad, four children of varying ages), and their next-door neighbors (Buck and Alexiana). Buck, you see, apparently is a Tea Party voter and therefore adequately prepared for the end of the world because he built a fallout shelter in his city suburb home’s basement. The Padillas (and the hot teenage girl from the eldest Padilla child’s workplace) and Buck and Alexiana hunker down and outlast the explosions and resulting poisonous gas (that fatally sickens humans and turns vicious otherwise friendly creatures [rats, cats, dogs]).

Hunter’s great at creating a sense of uneasiness that follows the initial explosions, and I attribute this to his living in and working near New York City during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Any of us living in the area vividly remembers not knowing what was happening but knowing it wasn’t an ordinary day in New York City. Some of the Padillas are already home, but others must get there. The Padillas who are home experience the terrifying “what if they’re already dead?” thoughts. Soon they’re reunited and safely entombed in a bunker. But safety, like a New York Jets’ football season, is a fleeting, dying thing. The characters are reasonably well-developed. My one gripe is I felt there were too many Padilla kids and found myself confused at times (wait, which one is this again?), but that’s a minor complaint.

Weeks later they emerge into a new, hideous New York City that is littered with dead bodies (more so than usual) being ravaged by carnivorous horses (you read that correctly) and other beasties. What follows, thank goodness, is not a zombie story, but one of doomed survival. And I say doomed because it’s post-apocalyptic. The trains no longer run. Your favorite deli is permanently closed. Keith Richards is actually dead (we don’t know this for certain in Hunter’s novel, but I’m a pessimist at heart). Our intrepid heroes wander the city, not certain where to go or what to do other than live through the night. And along the way they encounter not just animals, but a few surviving human beings, some good, some not.

What I look for in any post-apocalyptic thriller is simple: could it happen?

Hunter’s destruction and elapsed devolvement of humanity generates genuine worry in the reader because the scenario could happen, and in a sense, has. We witnessed it on television and in person on 9/11, and subsequent attacks of a smaller nature worldwide. Whether some fiendish mad scientists are concocting a gas that can drive animals berserk enough to attack humans? I wouldn’t put it past our newfound friends in Iran to work on something like that while they’re self-inspecting their own nuclear-warhead-for-peaceful-purposes program.

So, how does it end? Appropriately. And I’m not giving anything away by saying that. I found myself thinking as I neared the final pages, “How’s he gonna wrap this up?” And Hunter does in a way that’s not entirely inconceivable. I mean, after all: It’s the apocalypse.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tortures of the Damned really is the right title for this novel. Once again, Hunter Shea has created a world where things just seem to go right. Lucky for us, that's the way it should be when reading one of his novels.

The "Damned" are two next door neighbors that are very close to each other. one family, The Padillas, consisting of husband, wife and four kids of different ages ranging from single digits to their teens. The other family, The Clarkes, Buck and Alexiana.

The "Tortures" everything that is left that can hurt or kill you after a wide spread event.

When an attack of an unknown origin strikes the east coast and possible the west, all power is cut off. the next are chemicals also unknown in a gaseous form spreading about infecting both humans and animals.

When the attack starts, Buck rounds up his friends the Padillas and brings them to his cellar where over the years he has built up a substantial underground bunker comprised of many rooms and food and water to last years, as well as a recirculating air and water system. He shares this bunker with his friend and seals them up into it to wait out what ever is happening in the outside world.

Eventually after a few weeks, they are forced to leave the safety of their secure home to find out exactly what has become of civilization. The surprises are many and unexpected and the trails will push both families to their limits.

This is a book that makes you uneasy. As easy as it is to read, its not very easy at all. Unlike his other books dealing with monsters and the supernatural, the real monsters here, really are us. Our fellow mankind. Every chapter, brings and anxiousness and an uneasiness to every page. Hunter Shea had written about something that, a number of other authors have not quite captured in the same way. to read and watch these close families try to survive hand in hand with each other, to help each other in every way they can, tugs at every fiber of your being. There is always the question "Why" and "how could this happen" thru out the book, each family wondering and hoping for a resolution or outcome.

This novel is the kind of book that you cant wait to start and then cant wait to end. Not because it poorly written, which it isn't, and not because of any other reason as well, aside of the fact that it wears on your nerves. Your mind is desperate for something good to happen. Sadly those moments are very few. But to write a book like this, you have to really think about how it will be. I was virtually exhausted when I finished it. When I was done, I thought about all the feelings I had about it and realized that Hunter Shea got exactly what he wanted out of me. He planned it so we would have these feeling. to make us tired because of the plight of these two close families.

This novel is so different from his other books. He wrote about something hopefully not in the not to distant future. But I think we all understand in our own way that its more than conceivable that it very well could happen in our life time. And that is the scariest part of all.

In a way, I'm finally glad to leave the story of these two families, part of me wanting to move on with them, to see where it is they go, But mentally I needed a break.. Once again, that was all by design. As much as I would have liked to write a comprehensive story outlive with spoilers, I really don't. And I don't like to do spoilers because each and every reader out there that has thought about whether they want to read this or not, needs to know just enough about this book to capture their interest. To make them want to know and form their own opinions about what was happening. I believe that, everyone needs to read this for themselves. to say more would be a disservice to all.

Tortures of the Damned is an incredibly tense and well thought out story about survival, friendship, family and courage. This is a Horror novel as well as a thriller. But it doesn't let you the reader, like the families and characters in this book, escape unscathed.

[Zakk Madness · Rating 5 out of 5]

*4.5/5

Hunter Shea suggested that this book be enjoyed old school, in it's physical form, small paperback versus digital reading. To bring back the vibe and the smell of the traditional reading experience. So that is what I did. I put my Kindle down and picked the physical copy up, carried it around with me everywhere. It took some wear and tear, I showed it some love. Worn corners, cracks in the spine, a smudge or two of dirt or food on the pages. And I think that was the point. A renewed connection to the art I love.

Right from the beginning this book grabbed me by the short hairs, tapping into one of my biggest deep seeded fears. That fear? Being separated from my loved ones when (and if) shit hits the fan. Not knowing where your children are, their welfare, or how you're going to find your way to them in a national crisis would probably drop a shroud of crippling fear. So suffice to say that I started this book on edge.

I was expecting a non stop orgy of animal attack mayhem, what I got was a deep character, and family, driven drama, with a fair amount of animal attack mayhem. I love connecting with characters during a read, it transcends the reading experience. And this book has plenty of fully dimensional and lovable inhabitants. It also has some nasties. And boy, are they nasty.

There are plenty of anxiety filled altercations with the enraged animal populace, with the horse attacks being the best by far (and the kitten attacks being more tense that I would have expected), the there is also the human element to contend with, other survivors. Psychopathic creeps, opportunistic gangs, paranoid mobs. Fighting for survival the only way they know how.

How wide is this epidemic? City wide, that seems certain. State wide? Country wide, world wide? Is there help out there? Who knows. Perhaps there will be a continuation in the narrative at some point down the road. Perhaps this is just the end. What we get is one family's journey through the new world. It's tense, and at times, gut wrenching. I'm not going to lie to you, I teared up a couple of times. Not over anything big, just a couple of quiet emotional moments that hit me in the feels.

Hunter Shea is a big game writer. And with me he's hit the mark every time. I have only read a handful of pieces from him but I'll definitely have to start chipping away at his back catalogue when time permits. I am in, sign me up for the fan club, send me a patch.

I'd place "Tortures of the Damned" up with (not quite level to, but in the same ballpark) McCarthy's The Road. It's dark, it's bleak, it's heartbreaking and you won't walk away with the answers you want or the sense of security you need.

*I received and read a review copy from the publisher, these are my honest feelings.

Zakk is a big dumb animal.
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[Andrea Trenary · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all Hunter Shea, how dare you.
HOW DARE YOU.



That ending.
I hate you.

The whole time I was reading it I knew it would end on some awful gut-wrenching cliff hanger, and it did.


It was a good book. I really enjoyed it, I devoured it.
But now, god knows how long I'll have to wait for the sequel.
Riddle me that Hunter Shea, riddle me that.

Bet it'll be a trilogy.

Well I'll be waiting with bated breath.



Also totally deeply concerned about possible EMP bombs now, thanks a lot book.

*Also received this via NetGalley for review.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun, fast read in the post-apocalyptic/survivalist genre. There's no horror element of the supernatural variety, but I'd still say it falls more into the horror than science fiction category. The story concerns a family's struggle for survival when all of the infrastructure of civilization has broken down. They enter a bomb shelter without finding out exactly what has happened, and they never learn much more after emerging. All of the animals have become crazed killing machines, and most of the surviving humans have as well. The brutality becomes quite intense at times, and readers who abhor violence against animals should avoid this one. The focus is on the family's struggle to survive, and there's no resolution offered to the cause or to their ultimate destiny. It's a realistic portrayal, but ultimately unfulfilling. It's an engaging page-turner, but their should have been to their story.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book, like any post apoc, i would love to keep reading for a few books. This one is scary in the carnage and the believability of happening. Plus when you are finally safe, man is the most dangerous creature of all...

[Catherine Cavendish · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Hunter Shea’s books. His characters leap off the page. You suffer with them, fight in their corner, feel their fear – the whole package. The premise of this story centres on a post-apocalyptic, world where some cataclysmic episode has wiped out most of humanity and turned other living creatures into raving, rampaging killing machines. In this world, the lucky ones were those who were killed instantly. Those who survived, but were contaminated by the chemical cloud, become fatally sick – but death comes hard. Most of the main characters in the story were unscathed, because they took refuge in a fallout shelter. For them, the torture of fighting for survival with the odds stacked skyscraper-high against them, certainly earns them the title of this book, for they truly are the damned.

Suspense, terror and a plot that screams out to be filmed. Tortures of the Damned had me hooked from the first page and never let go until the end. And the ending was, for my money, well worthy of the story. Excellent.

[Angela Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this novel from Oh, for the Hook of a Book as part of a blog tour run by the amazing Erin Al-Mehairi. This is in no way reflected in my opinion of this book.


What a fantastic book! Tortures Of The Damned is easily my favorite book by Hunter Shea so far. I sat down to start this novel and the next time I looked up several hours and all 439 pages had passed by in what felt like a few minutes. It's not often that a story will grab my attention the way that this one did. The story line is fast paced and exciting. I was totally absorbed by the story of the Padilla family and their neighbors Buck and Alexiana. I was rooting for these characters as if they were friends. My heart was in my throat several times as they fought their way through the attacking animals and gangs to try to reach a safe place. My only complaint was the way the story ended. What the hell Hunter Shea!?! Give me more of this totally entrancing 5 star read!!

[Robert Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun.

Let it be said I love end of the world what are we going to do now stories. I love them more with lots of mayhem and interesting troubles that aren't only the bad people we all expect to meet on those quiet streets.

Hunter Shea has imagined an end that is both huge and personal. At the same time he has made it all the more terrifying by not telling you exactly how or by whom. There are so many questions unanswered but that's how things would be I imagine. Nothing is ever easy or clear cut. The story is in the family that fights to survive. I like this book a lot. I like Hunter's books and writing in general. I won't spoil but that ending- That ending! Arggggg. Say it ain't so. People are the worst part of any apocalypse.

BTW I've turned more than one friend onto this book with two words--rat horde.

[Tim Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great read from Hunter Shea!

[Rich D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review copy provided as part of the Tortures of the Damned blog tour

It is no secret to those of you who have been following the blog since the beginning that I am a huge fan of Hunter Shea’s work. I first got into his work through The Montauk Monster which was a hell of a read and worked my way through his catalog from there. One thing I have discovered through reading all of Hunter's works is that he is a truly gifted storyteller. His novels are always action packed and you can tell they are written by someone with a great love and appreciation of the genre. Hunter has already released one fantastic novel this year, Island of the Forbidden, so I was eagerly awaiting the release of this one. Hunter has tackled a variety of cryptids and ghosts in his past work, so when I heard he was writing an apocalyptic novel, it quickly shot to the top of the list of my most anticipated horror novels of the year.

Hunter Shea's Tortures of the Damned focuses on the Padilla family and their neighbors Buck and Alexiana DeCarlo following a stunning attack on Yonkers. Explosions and fires rip through the city and an EMP blast fries all the electronics in the area plunging the city into chaos. Daniel Padilla is trapped in the city desperately trying to make it home to his wife and four kids when the events start to take place and witnesses the pandemonium first hand. People are running through the streets, trampling each other with no regard for anyone's safety but their own. At a nearby racetrack where the oldest Padilla sibling - Rey - works, animals go insane as a strange noxious smoke slowly creeps throughout the grounds that points to a possible chemical attack. The smoke seems to whip the race horses into a frenzy and they go from being relatively docile creatures to bloodthirsty war machines that rip everything in their paths to shreds. Rey rescues his crush Dakota from the carnage at the racetrack and they battle their way through the rapidly spreading smoke to arrive at the Padilla household.

Once everyone makes it back to the house, their neighbor Buck Clark leads them to safety. Buck is a bit of a survivalist who built and stocked an emergency bomb shelter below his home for himself, his girlfriend Alexiana, and the Padilla family following the first terrorist attacks in New York City. The shelter has all the supplies they could ever need - jugs of water, canned goods and weapons. Though they are comfortable down there for a long period of time, they begin to grow restless when days go by without any information that may tell them if it is safe to go out or not. Buck and Daniel finally make the difficult choice to leave the shelter in search of medicine for Rey and Dakota, who are severely ill due to their exposure to the chemical clouds that surrounded them at the racetrack.

While Buck and Dan are exploring what is left of the neighborhood, rats begin pouring out of the sewers to attack them and chase them back to the shelter. The rats try to break down doors even if it means their death and this forces the group out of the safety of their shelter. Forced to abandon almost all of their supplies and with nowhere to go, the group decides to scour the city in search of help and possibly answers. Along the way they must fight a gauntlet of crazed animals and vicious survivors that will test the limits of what they can endure.

Tortures of the Damned is a great read if you are a horror fan and looking for something a bit different in your apocalyptic fiction. I am used to zombies, vampires or some other mythical creature causing the downfall of mankind and hunting the survivors that are left, but Hunter offers up some unique adversaries for the Padilla's and their friends to face. The group goes head to head with bloodthirsty race horses that tear people to shreds, hawks that are not afraid to carry people off into the sky and a host of other creatures. Even lovable family pets that are normally seen as cute and harmless morph into feral killers and the savagery they display is unreal!

I also loved the isolated feel Hunter was able to cultivate throughout the course of the novel. Although Yonkers was once a thriving urban area, the group is shocked to find everything is like a ghost town when they emerge from their bunker. The survivors are few and far between and there is just a sense of despair that hangs over the landscape. This shift in the portrayal of the city and the approach of having the animals be a large threat were awesome. Granted the time frame is not nearly long enough, but the way the setting was described made me think of a hardcore horror version of that National Geographic special "Life After People".

The characters of the book were well done as well. I like that Hunter chose to keep the focus fairly small. While there is a host of minor characters that pop up throughout the course of the novel, most of the focus stays on the Padilla's and their neighbors. A lot of times an apocalyptic novel can lose its emotional impact by introducing too many characters that prevent the reader from establishing a connection with them, but that doesn't happen here. The group of the Padilla's, Buck, Alexiana and Dakota start off innocent but throughout the course of the novel we see them start to lose that innocence and revert to a more primitive mindset hell-bent on survival even if it costs them their lives. Even as they develop rougher personalities, you still can't help but root for them to survive.

All of the characters bring something to the group and it is hard to choose a favorite, but if there was a character that surprised me the most, it would have to be Max. At the time of the apocalypse, 14-year-old Max is at a critical point in his young life. He is beginning to enter a rebellious phase and you would think the devastation would get the best of him, but he is remarkably well suited for this new world and shows very little fear. He is constantly coming to the rescue of the adults in the group and seems to thrive off the adrenaline he gets from fighting back against the animals.

The pacing and structure of the novel are absolutely perfect in my opinion. I tore through this novel in about two sittings because Hunter utilizes short, punchy chapters that grabbed my attention. I frequently found myself saying "Okay, I think I can squeeze in another chapter..." and having that turn into about 20. I also liked that the cause of the apocalypse is left ambiguous, with he reader gleaning bits and pieces of information through the eyes of the scarce other survivors and their assumptions.

I will warn you that this book is pretty bleak. There were quite a few moments where I was really pulling for this group of survivors and breathing a sigh of relief when they had small triumphs, only to get sucker punched right in the gut not long after. The group goes through some pretty heavy situations that will have you on the edge of your seat, but that is what helps make Tortures of the Damned such a great read.

Tortures of the Damned definitely stands out as one of the best novels I have read this year and one I would definitely recommend to anyone who has an interest in horror and apocalyptic stories. It is out now through Kensington/Pinnacle, so be sure to grab a copy from any of the links provided below or your local bookstore. Oh and if you happen to be reading this Hunter, PLEASE tell me there are more stories to tell in the Tortures of the Damned universe!

[Hal Bodner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hunter Shea's TORTURES OF THE DAMNED instantly captured my attention and kept me turning pages long past my bedtime several nights running. Shea's a fine writer. He keeps his prose tight and his action is non-stop. The forward momentum of the novel makes it one of those "difficult to put down" books.

I went along on Shea's ride for 98% of the way. And then, within easy sight of the proverbial finish line, Shea screws the pooch so badly that I am now in the position of resenting every minute I spent reading this book as a terrible waste of time. I warn you now with a SPOILER ALERT for, if Shea doesn't have enough respect for his readership to finish the job properly, I certainly have no intention of paying this book one iota of respect in excess of what I think it deserves.

At 152 chapters and a 439 pages, the reader has to invest some time and effort into this book, trusting that the author will provide us with a payoff. Shea ignores this responsibility miserably turning what could have been one of the better End of the World novels of the year into an annoying work that, I felt, acts almost as an insult to the reader.

Put quite simply, Shea ends this lengthy novel smack dab in the middle of an intense action scene, by the simple and witless expedient of blowing up the major characters with a hand grenade. Three young children survive, one supposes -- as Shea neglects to be clear even about that. Were I generous, I suppose I could ascribe some variation of the theme "there is always hope" to this climax, and consider it an "ambiguous" ending. But, why bother? That's requires entirely too much input on the part of the reader after we've invested so much time in these characters, only to end the book mid-battle with an amateurish and not very clever version of Everybody Dies at the End.

Even were I willing to give Shea the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was a cliff hanger ending to set up a sequel, after 400-odd pages, I still think such an abrupt ending is a kind of cheat. Besides, the thing doesn't really read like a cliff hanger so, my guess is that I would be giving this author more credit than he's due. (And if you're going to use a tome of this size as a teaser enticement for your readership to buy the second volume, you'd damned well better be as adept an author as George R.R. Martin to do it -- and Shea, regrettably, is not.)

It's a shame really, because as I said, Shea got his literary fingers under my skin early on and, until the end, the author was relentless about not letting go. But a birthday cake, no matter how luscious and beautifully decorated, isn't worth the flour used to make it if the chef, due to laziness or just plain bad judgement, used spoiled eggs as the last ingredient of the batter.

Had I not been so terribly irritated, and hugely bent out of shape by the whimpy and badly done ending, I would have probably written a lengthier review which praised Shea more highly for his tight character work. Indeed, almost every character who makes an appearance in the novel seems to be three dimensional and fully fleshed out. I might also have griped a trifle about his "cheating" the forward movement of the novel a bit by the use of irritatingly short chapters, some scarcely longer than a page, and his dizzying habit of switching character point of view with the start of each new one.

But I wasted enough of my time with this novel and ended up feeling much as a john would feel when the prostitute yells "Time's up!" in the last seconds before climax. Needless to say, as good as the actual writing is, I cannot recommend this book.

[Tim Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hunter Shea proves again why he is one of the sharpest and most versatile authors of horror fiction today with Tortures of the Damned. The novel is one of the post-apocalypse, or more accurate the unfolding apocalypse, that deals with life on a more street-level basis, or more potentially realistic. The main problems are that of keeping family together, finding food and shelter and opportunistic criminals. The only element of the fantastic is the way animals have reacted to the fall of society, becoming more predatory, cunning and aggressive.

Daniel and Elizabeth Padilla live in suburbia, an average family in an average neighborhood. Their neighbors are Buck, their retired neighbor and his girlfriend. The characters compliment each other well, especially the parents to their children. The Padillas watch, throughout the duration of the story, the maturation and development of their children, Rey, Miguel, Max, Gabby, into strong people forced into adulthood too soon. There are some smaller characters who only pop up in short roles and don’t add much to the story, though they never detract from it. A street gang using the fall of society’s structure, the Nine Judges, is written well, treating the gang as one character with individuals as personality traits of the whole.

The novel jumps into action very quickly as mysterious explosions rock the outskirts the city. No one has any idea of what could have happened or why. Daniel, a darker-skinned American of Latin origins finds himself hoping that the event isn’t terror related, mainly due to the fact that he was a target of anti-Middle Eastern harassment after 9/11, his actual heritage be damned. The Padilla’s neighbor Buck springs to action with a plan for survival, at least in the short term. Buck has a strongly outfitted bomb shelter under his house that he’s told nobody but his live-in girlfriend about, and, he has stocked it with enough resources for he and his partner and the Padilla family.

The first act of the novel is set almost entirely in the bunker below Buck’s house, and while the limited setting could become a drag on the story it never does. The story is driven entirely by the characters and the situations they face locked in a room together for weeks. The story does work it’s way out of the shelter into the city streets and concerns the remainder of its content with the survivors’ interactions with the newly forged threats. First up is finding food and shelter, second is combatting the mysteriously aggressive animals and third is the human element. The Nine Judges gans provides the greatest threat of all in this story of societal downfall, making a commentary on how humans will probably always be their own worst enemy.

The lack of zombies, vampires, aliens or other fantastical beings is really what makes this novel such a stand-out in a crowded subgenre. Shea gets down to the business of people being people, no matter what the situation, and does not shy away from social commentary, especially through a climactic battle that would fit nicely in the world of filmmaker George A. Romero.

[Pamela Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to Yonkers, NY. Kill or be killed.

What was once an easy walk or drive across town has turned into a nightmare for the Padilla family and their forward thinking neighbors, Buck and Elizabeth Clarke. Yonkers has a problem, a big, big problem. New York City as a whole is in trouble. The entire state, it seems, may have fallen under the same fate. So, too, America. Maybe the whole world! Thanks to Buck they have all survived, but after two weeks in his underground bunker, they are all getting antsy. With tempers starting to run high and supplies running low, they want out. All communications and electrical devices are down. They have no way of knowing what’s out there, but it’s better to die free than locked up in what is looking to become one very large mausoleum.

Welcome to the Apocalypse as envisioned by author Hunter Shea. It isn’t pretty, but it’s a real page turner. I started reading this 400+ page novel on Monday. I finished the following Saturday afternoon. I haven’t read a book that fast in years.

From the moment we emerge from the protection of the bomb shelter until the very end, Shea bombards us with one danger, one decomposed body, one feral, crazed animal and the occasional psycho human at a time or en masse, after another. It quickly becomes clear there is no law. The police and military are blatantly missing. It’s every man, woman and child for themselves. Kill or be killed is the new order of the day.

After reading Shea’s “Island of the Forbidden”, I knew I’d found an amazing story teller. And for as much as I enjoyed my time ghost hunting on Ormsby Island, the time I spent in Yonkers avoiding being killed while reading “Tortures of the Damned” was even more intense and satisfying. He has definitely improved on his craft from one book to the next. He offers just enough description to give you a feel for what’s going on while also allowing your own imagination to fill in the more gory details. That isn’t to say Shea doesn’t provide a healthy dose of the graphic. He does.

At the end I was left with some lingering questions. I’m hoping this all means there will be a follow up to “Tortures of the Damned”, because I really, really want to know more. If, however, there is no more, then I am woefully disappointed on a few key points.

I look forward to reading other Hunter Shea novels.

[Matthew Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hunter Shea is one of those horror authors who just keeps getting it right. By ‘it’, I mean the formula for terrifying reads. The tales he weaves will force your heart to race and your breath to catch in your throat. His bibliography is growing at a rapid rate, and, thankfully, his talent level is keeping pace. And if you’re not scared by his prose now, give him a bit…I’ll bet he will find a way to chill your blood soon enough.

TORTURES OF THE DAMNED, a recent book from Pinnacle, is just such a story. A post-apocalyptic tale like no other, this book will force you to reconsider your own humanity and make you wonder just how far you would go to survive.

I’ve read several of Shea’s books, and I have to admit that this one is a bit different than his usual fare. This one is way more graphic and way more brutal. These are not negative aspects at all, either…in fact, they help amp up the intensity.

TORTURES OF THE DAMNED is written well and flows at a nice clip. The mass market paperback book measures in at 439 pages, but there’s not much fluff within the pages to push it so. Instead, Shea focuses on a taut, well-knit story that entertains and thrills.

The characters are believable, broken people who are pushed almost beyond their limits for survival. I found it interesting to see the transformations they have to undergo in order to make it through their ordeal. By the end, most of the characters are completely different people than when the book starts.

The story in TORTURES OF THE DAMNED is engrossing and tense, a flurry of conflicts and horrific encounters that will leave even the heartiest of horror readers cowering. I was surprised by the outcome of several engagements, and at certain points, I had to put the book down and walk away for a few moments. The tension is that palpable, a testament to the writing skills of a talented author.

TORTURES OF THE DAMNED is a major win for me, and it’s another fine addition to Shea’s library of titles. If he can keep delivering top-notch thrills like this, he is sure to go down in literary history as an icon of the horror genre. The book is available now in a variety of formats.

[Emily McInerney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book free as part of the "First Reads" program and here is my review:

This is my first time reading anything of Hunter Shea's and my first time reading a horror novel in quite a while. I didn't love the book, but I didn't hate it either. One thing I am certain of, though, is that it left me wanting more. I am the type of reader who likes everything in a book to be tied up in a nice, little package, no loose ends and no questions left unanswered. This is not that type of book. I've cheated and read other readers' reviews and some speculate that this is the first of a series. If that is true, I may like the book more, but if it is a standalone then I like it even less! I had a very difficult time connecting with any of the characters. They were likable enough, especially Buck, but when they started to die off I barely batted an eye. I just didn't care. And the other characters didn't seem to care either. As a mother, if one of my children died and there was chaos and the end of days was upon us I do not think I could go on as normally as Elizabeth does. I would be emotionally crippled, and probably a bit unstable. The fact that this mother just acknowledges her son's death and moves on is baffling to me.
What I did like about this book was the non-stop action short chapters that changed POV. It made for a very quick read. I also enjoyed the scene with the sick, pedophile. It was really unbelievable to think that in NYC only nice people and a gang of kids had survived. That scene was the most heart-pounding for me. I was a bit thrown off with the brutality of how he was killed- it seemed uncharacteristic of the otherwise calm Daniel, but perhaps this was his breaking point.
This wasn't the kind of horror novel that kept me awake at night or made the hairs on my neck stand up, but it was a fresh idea which I will give the author credit for. I am anxious to see if there will be a continuation of this book. His writing style also appealed to me enough that I will be checking out his other books.

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the adrenaline inducing action of this book but I am not a fan of cliffhanger endings and unanswered questions. As exciting as it was there were still some parts that dragged on.