Blood Lanes

by Brian G. Berry

Charles Warner, convicted mass killer in what has come to be known as the Venice Beach Massacre, is being transported upstate to Hollow Falls Sanitarium when an accident sets him free.

Now loose on the dark streets, lurking in the shadows, Warner has one thing on his insane mind: finishing what he started.

And for the crew of Silverside Lanes, forced into working overtime, their night quickly becomes a nightmare when Warner smells blood.

Inspired by the gritty slashers of the 70s and 80s, Blood Lanes is the second release in the Slasherback Book Series.

Genres: Horror

161 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 8, 2021

About the author

a.k.a Brian Berry

Brian G Berry is new to the world of writing. He writes everything from 1980s inspired horror, SCIFI/Action-horror, to the strange. His biggest influences are the writers of the weird including Lovecraft, Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, to the pulp horror authors of the golden age 70s/80s- and a splattering of others. Author of The Pail, A Bloody Christmas, Splatter Fiend Series, Slasherback Series, Campfire Tales Beneath a Pallid Moon, Accursed Ground, Blood Lanes, The Night Mutilator, Thanksgiving Day Massacre, and his newest: SNOW SHARK.

Reviews

[Mort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you remember the good old days, when you could still rip someone’s head off if you didn’t have a bowling ball and the mood struck you? Where you could shave the head, pop out the eyes to have a place to put your fingers and cut off the nose, to get it as round as possible? Where you could bowl a 300 game with the right skill and dental structure of the head?

But, noooo, these days everything must be soooo politically correct. That was a person, he or she had feelings, they served some kind of purpose, they whine and moan, until the game isn’t as fun anymore. I say, yeah, like a perfect game wasn’t their purpose in life…how do YOU know?

Anyway, this book is not about a deranged bowler, but a madman who is being transported to a mental facility and…yeah, things don’t go as planned.
Then you have these bowling alley employees who is being forced to work overtime by their dick of a boss and…yeah, things don’t go as planned for them, either.

Which leaves us with only one question:
Is it really possible to bowl a perfect game with a human head?

Don’t know, I wasn’t allowed to finish the game. And it was a really tough crowd, they didn’t even get it when I told them not to lose their heads about it, or to keeps their heads in the game.

But enough about me, you want to know about the story.
I will give it five stars for entertainment value, but also because there was enough character development to keep them from being one dimensional people whose death doesn’t really effect the reader on any level.
It was lots of fun, as a slasher story, but you shouldn’t underestimate the depravity Mr. Berry is willing to go to. I think fans of this genre will enjoy this one a lot.

Now, I have a bald guy to follow, just makes it easier…

[Misty Marie Harms · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Warner, convicted mass murderer, has escaped his prison transfer van and finds refuge inside a local bowling alley, Silverside Lanes. Silverside Lanes employees are hard at work trying to deep clean the place for an inspection. In true slasher form Charles makes quick work piling the body count upwards. Blood is dripping from the walls, brains are splattered on the floor, and the bartender has had enough of the supervisor's crap. As the police make their final stand outside the busted doors will they be able to capture Charles? Or will everyone meet their bloody end?

🐱🐱🐱

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Very good. I have one question for all you fellow horror junkies…how many damn times…do these patient/convict transports go so terribly wrong? We need to create a fictional organization dedicated to safety and quality control for the sake of these made up people. How about the Transport Safety Commission? Who’s with me?! So here we have a crazed killer satisfying his bloodlust on a surly group of bowling alley employees, all forced to work a late night by their scumbag boss, Swallecki. Now that particular character is someone with no redeeming qualities and you are eager to see die a terrible death. From his womanizing towards the female staff to his ugly words towards Pauley, and even just the awful treatment of everyone. You hate him so deeply. Now Brian Berry gave some great depth to the interpersonal conflicts and dynamics between each employee, keeping the story constantly interesting. Everyone got their time to shine. Warner is a standard Michael Myers type that serves his purpose well, with a never say die attitude and just a general gusto for death. Definitely a good dude for any lady to bring home to meet mom and dad. But everything was well done here, with my only critical tidbit being that I felt the bowling alley environment wasn’t used as much as it could’ve been, especially with Warner’s killing. It had some good stuff in this regard, but I felt like there were tons more fun things that were missed, ie bumpers, grease traps, the disco lights that go on for special events, the disinfectant spray they use for the shoes, the ball shiner machine, etc. But aside from that one little critique, Brian Berry continues his streak here, keeping me a dedicated fan.

[Horror Bookworm Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horror Bookworm Reviews…
https://horrorbookwormreviews.com/

As Silverside Lanes bowling alley closes its doors for the evening, the employees receive unpleasant news of having to pull an all nighter in order to prepare for ownership arriving in the morning. Nearby, a prison vehicle transporting the nefarious Charles Warner is involved in a freak accident freeing the brutal captive. The worse nightmares of the bowling staff will soon become a violent reality as something born out of darkness descends upon them with disturbing malice.

Blood Lanes by author Brian G. Berry is part of his ongoing Slasherback Series. The author replaces terminology associated with one of America’s greatest pastime such as Split, Strike and Head Pin with Chopped, Hacked and Stringer Of Heads. The only way survival can be guaranteed in this piece of splatter fiction is if the monstrous menace causing the carnage is wiped from the face of the earth.

It is evident that Berry is a fan of those great late 70’s and 80’s slasher films. From the eye catching cover to the controlled chaos written with the sharpness of a knife, hatchet and gaff hook; the author has ensured the gutter lanes flow with plenty of blood. If you are into an unknown force of nature stalking and slaughtering with bladed tools, then this book will be right up your bowling alley.

Brian G. Berry has unlawfully, willfully and with malice of forethought created a novel of revolting images of the macabre. Ripe for the harvest, readers of the genre will relish this psychopathic horror show of bloody balls, lanes and pins. A perfect score ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from the Horror Bookworm.

[Hail Hydra! ~Dave Anderson~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

His lips curled in an evil sneer as the plunger squeezed out the liquid. He moved over to M, stroked her sweaty black hair. In a sonorous voice, he said "Rest my child. Warner is waiting." Anna ran from the room, followed by the doctors incessant cackling.

[Nicholas Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heads will roll in this intense slasher story!

Yes, you heard me right, heads will roll, darn it!!!

This story by Brian G. Berry was an incredible ride. Warner was an intimidating force that couldn't be reckoned with and I enjoyed the kills this book had in store for me.

This book is about the employees of Silverside Lanes. The employees are forced by their boss, Mr. Swallecki, to tidy the place up before the owner of the lanes came in the next day. What they don't know is that an escaped murder is continuing his killing spree, and his eyes are set on the bowling alley they work at.

A thrilling slasher story with creative kills; what more could you ask for?

I had a blast with this book. I was trying to guess who was going to survive while turning the pages, and I was so freaking close at getting it right!

This book has a few editorial issues, but nothing I couldn't look past.

I truly enjoyed this story and I think any fan of 80's Slasher Flicks will like this one too.

So, remember your lane curtesy as you step up to take your shot with this book! If you're anything like me, you'll also give this book a roaring five stars! Fantastic read and I cannot wait to read more by this author!

[Corrina Morse · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading The Sleepover Massacre and loving it, I had to get the next, and latest, book in the series by Brian G. Berry!
Blood Lanes did not disappoint, plenty of blood, gore, horror and some great 80s nostalgia thrown in.
It was brutally fun, and once again had me hooked and quickly turning the pages!
Bring on the next one Brian!!
5 bloody bowling pins from me 🎳🎳🎳🎳🎳

(I had to compromise a bit on this one as I don't own, and couldn't find any bowling pins, or an adult head....but you get the gist...right? 😉🤣)

[Damien Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Berry’s books are batshit crazy in the best possible way. Take an 80’s slasher and throw it in a blender with a Troma movie and you’d have the level of fun his books bring. For Blood Lanes? Throw that smoothy into an empty basketball, fill it until it’s rollable(is that a word?) and give it a toss down the middle of a freeway. This is my third read from Berry and I plan to ride the waves of video store nostalgia and gore all the way through his entire catalog. SURFS UP 🏄‍♂️

[Tara Losacano · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can you turn down a brutal, bloody, murderous night at the Bowling Alley? You can't, and that's why you need to read this! The kills were awesome, the murderer was savage, and I loved this book! 4/5 decapitated skulls 💀

[Coy Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book series is becoming a favorite of mine because it's like looking forward to the next entry in a slasher franchise.

Berry puts tremendous energy into this one. It's the type of verve you find when a writer is firing on all cylinders. The dialogue pops off the page, the characters emerge as people, and the descriptions are colorful, full of energy and excitement. The reader has fun because Berry is having fun.

What a great opening scene, too! Read that far and you won't stop. Especially when you get to the bowling alley. Funny, tense, violent, suspenseful, atmospheric -- this novel has it all.

[DA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now this is a slasher! I felt like I was watching an 80's horror movie. The description of one of the victims "flappy face" was both horrifying and hilarious. This book drips blood from the pages. And the ending, that ending was fantastic!

[Sharon Leung · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a massacre

This has to be one of the best multi killing reads I've read in a very long time. Every page just enough, has blood gore and some shocking brutal violence.
This kept you gripped and so drawn in on how and what was going to happen next all the way through. The characters were great, learning about their personalities and how they reacted in each situation. It really was captivating. I loved all the planning of the whole situation, the entrapment and how the characters minds were so much in shock that they each did their own thing. An exciting read that is Definitely recommended.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood Lanes has to over throw Ogre as my new favorite Brian Berry novel! If you like slashers, this will be a hit for you!

Every element that made a good slasher was in this book. Fantastic writing and pacing! Definitely recommend.

[Thomas Or Felicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good slasher novel

Really enjoyed reading Blood Lanes. Berry does something different by having the employees trapped in the bowling alley turn on each other instead of banding together to fight the killer. There is lots of graphic violence and nostalgia to satiate hungry slasher fans.

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The storm isn't the only thing shaking things up in Silverside. Blood Lanes has all the ingredients that every horror film strives to get right. Who will catch Charles Warner? Who will survive? I can't stress enough how much I love this book. I'm probably going to hell for laughing so much because I love the way Brian describes everything.

[Charlotte Taylforth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian G Berry has done it again! He has created a slasher masterpiece of gore and terror. I'll never look at a bowling ally the same way again! Loved it!

[Jacob B · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite slashers. The tension was so high the entire book and I never knew what would come next. Also, the title and cover art deliver on their promise. I hope Brian Berry keeps writing these and only stops to write a sequel to Death Commando.

[Jeremy Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending of this book is one of the most screwed up things I've ever read I think! But also I love Brian Berry's gore soaked pages!

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blood Lanes has a lot of good qualities. A cool and super fun setting, a lot of crazy and probably unrealistic gore, a good premise as a whole, and cool cover art. Honestly, the cover art on Berry's books is what drags me in every time. The writing is just ok. There's some holes in this (and every Berry book I've read) and some clunky writing at times. I'm also starting to find patterns. This author mentions certain things in every book I've read. Cops eating donuts, saying someone has a pencil D, fat shaming, etc. The ending also really didn't make sense, and wasn't cohesive to the rest of the story in my opinion. The epilogue seems like it was just tacked on just because, and it really seems unrealistic given everything that already happened.

[Zacks Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

had a lot of fun with this one being that I love bowling but, the ending really didn't work for me. It was still enjoyable for what it was though

[Jason Nickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome slasher story. Fast paced, good kills, and an interesting cast of characters. Definitely a fun read.

[Julien Ouellette · Rating 3 out of 5]

slightly better than slumber party massacre, but not by much. these characters had more depth and motivation than the last crew, which i enjoyed. this reminded me a lot of the movie intruder, except they're not in a grocery store...which i again, definitely enjoyed.

maxine being a lesbian and having a crush on her coworker, joanne, was pretty fun. i wish that would've been explored more before or even during the initial massacre—could've made for even better character arcs and depth.

literally everyone but maxine and i guess pauly, were just a tad boring. i liked pauly's twist, though. what a bastard!

the main villian was predictable. the kills were gnarly, but it seemed similar to last novel. i do like his usage of the bowling pins and balls from the alley. very grotesque...

even though this book had an editor, i STILL noticed a singular spelling error, lol. classic brake vs break. threw me off, but i brushed it off and went on with the novel.

another 80's slasher novel, off to another...i'm actually excited for THANKSGIVING DAY MASSACRE!

[Pico C4t · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much everything that I wanted from The Sleepover Massacre. This isn't without its own share of issues, but overall I'd have to say that this was a vast improvement and that I enjoyed this much more.

One of my main issues with the previous book was with the characters. Don't get me wrong, I don't need super well fleshed out characters in an extreme slasher book, but the least I want is for them to be clearly distinguishable from one another and have at least an ounce of depth. Nothing major, but more than what may as well have been nameless meat bags in The Sleepover Massacre. Blood Lanes basically gave me exactly what I wanted in that regard. At least for the most part. The characters in this aren't amazingly developed or anything, but like I said I'm not looking for that. But they are fun, sometimes despicable, and distinct. Their dynamics were entertaining and I found myself rooting for a few of them and wanting others to just die. While this has a police plotline similar to the one in the previous book, much more focus is given on the main group throughout the book, and I'm so thankful for that because I really don't enjoy those subplots. It definitely brings up some issues in the story, but I'll get to that later. At the center of it is another officer character, though, but unlike the previous book he isn't given much character at all. He mainly serves as a way to build up to an eventual confrontation. Not necessarily complaining about that because police characters usually bore me, but as I said, more on that later.

There also seemed to be fewer typos/grammatical issues in this. I usually don't pay attention to writing style in these types of books, but it was good here. Some good passages, good descriptions, and some tense moments were especially well-written. Also, the characters were described in better detail than the last book in my opinion. While this still has some...interesting parts about the girls' boobs, I found it slightly less egregious and didn't make up the entirety of their appearances. This book also had some issues with the whole layout of the setting, albeit to a lesser extent as I felt like there was at least some semblance of an actual layout. Sometimes it didn't make sense to me but it could be worse.

However, I do have some issues with the story. First off, although I much preferred the pacing in this as opposed to the last book, and even though this aspect isn't nearly as awful as it was in that other book, the police subplot really just grinds the story to a halt at times. I get ending a chapter abruptly for suspense, but there really wasn't anything in the police plot that kept my attention. It wasn't great in the last book, but at least there was something to follow that built up to the merging storylines and a decent character at the center of it. In Blood Lanes, it felt very disconnected and didn't add much at all to the story aside from laying the foundation for some future deaths. Which is fine I guess but I really just had no reason to not skim through them after a certain point. Also, this falls into the slasher trap of an act 3 bloodbath. Not necessarily a bad thing in principle, but it felt like so many people were introduced at once or others were killed in such rapid succession that none of the deaths felt particularly impactful. I feel like the book could have been a slight bit longer to put more emphasis on the main deaths then go through the massacre at around the same pace (or elaborate on it a little more). It definitely felt like the book was having to rush through some important character deaths to get to that big scene without making the book as a whole "too long," which is honestly a bit jarring considering how that whole scene is basically just thrown in. Don't get me wrong, the deaths themselves were brutal and well described, but at that point the ones that should have felt particularly impactful kinda just lacked that. I wouldn't mind some of the main cast dying off in such rapid succession if it weren't for that extra bit that took away from some of the impact. Maybe that's just me though. And lastly, the ending was hilariously bad. I'm gonna just pretend it ended a few pages prior because that was already a decent ending enough. I guess you could argue that it was foreshadowed in some parts earlier in the book, but I feel like even that claim is a stretch considering how outlandish it is. I don't mind a mean ending at all, but the least I can ask for is for it to feel like it fits or is at least given some sort of buildup. Like I said, there may have been some bits of foreshadowing but that's not enough to justify the complete shift.

I mentioned the kills earlier, and as an extreme slasher, I definitely think this did pretty well in that regard. I'd have to say that most of the deaths felt less outlandish or crazy as those in the previous book, but they generally felt more effective through good descriptions and characters that you actually somewhat cared about. Some of them felt rather glossed-over, especially near the end, but overall the kills were good. The killer himself was intimidating and brutal. Not much too him, but he was satisfactory, even if I have to question how he got around so easily and quickly.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Had some great moments of tension and it kept me wanting to read more. I had my issues with the ending, the pacing, and some other minor aspects, but generally this was really fun. You can tell that he based this book off Intruder, but I also found it similar to Gutterballs, and not just because of the setting.

[Meg Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Blood Lanes” is the second book in the Slasherback Series. I read the first book in the series earlier this year.

“Blood Lanes” proved to be a nice continuation in the Slasherback series. It followed a lot of the same elements I enjoyed in the first books: vivid imagery; likeable characters, and a plot reminiscent of 1980’s horror! Specifically, this book reminded me of the movies “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th”.

One particular aspect of this book I enjoyed was the diving into the backgrounds of all the characters. Knowing the character backgrounds and then seeing them be killed in the story made their deaths even more impactful.

I am excited to read the last book in this series!

[Katie (DeathByPaperbacks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book did not disappoint! From the cover art to the final pages, it was just * chefs kiss* 😚🤌🏼 there was a great cast of characters consisting of a brutal killer, a crew of employees dealing with the worlds creepiest manager, and a seasoned police officer dead set on saving the day. The story moved along quickly and felt like watching an 80’s slasher film.

I highly recommend grabbing some popcorn and tucking in for this one. And I will be over here trying to decide which of Brian Berry’s books to read next.

[Thomas Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

An adrenaline rush, a full on bloody massacre. Lots of extreme violence and gory deaths.

[Todd Condit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chalk full of blood, gore, and relentless violence. I do think this could have been longer, though. I would have enjoyed the latter part being drawn out a bit more.

[MORTICA B · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down wanted more what a great book

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/5.
I absolutely adored every second of this book. Which played out much like the classic slasher movies of the 80s that we love so dearly.
We follow a group of employees working over time at an old bowling alley, and to their dismay, that same night Mr Warner. A psychotic murder who had escaped from confinement in a travel van. Only to find his way to the exact bowling ally they were working in. A trail of warm, fresh blood following each one of his steps. Who will Survive?
Over all I loved this book, it was written incredibly well, and kept me engaged all the way through. And the kills were beautifully twisted, and vivid. The way I like it😂 To say the least, this book has made me want to read more of Brain. G Berry’s work. Which I will waste no time in doing so.
And to the people reading this review, If you love slasher movies and extreme horror, this book is more than perfect for you. Just do yourself a favour, and start reading it tonight… if you dare.