Month: March 2022

Dead Silence by S. A. Barnes, Narrated by Lauren Ezzo

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Dead Silence proves to be a perfect combination of psychological, supernatural, and science-fiction horror. In cinematic terms, this novel could be best described as equal parts Event Horizon and Ghost Ship, with just a touch of Session 9 thrown in for flavor. Barnes leaves the reader guessing at what’s going on until the final quarter of the story, and when the revelation comes, it’s both shocking and cynically easy to swallow.
Claire Kovalik has experienced things no human being should endure, but she’s managed to come out the other side relatively sane and healthy, albeit damaged and permanently psychologically scarred. When she and her crew discover a decades-lost space-liner floating near the edge of the solar system, the obsolescence of her career is the least of her concerns as the potential salvage value is quickly offset by the horrors they discover aboard.
What is real?
What happened to the crew and passengers of this luxury space vessel?
Will the same thing happen to Kovalik and her crew?
If she can manage to get help out to the distant location of the ship, will there be anyone left to save?
Barnes spins a captivating, high-stakes narrative that’s as intimate and claustrophobic as it is a tale of far-reaching consequences and an examination of the nature of reality and the afterlife.
Lauren Ezzo’s narration is spectacular in the expert way she captures the nervous tension, high-strung nature, and abject terror Kovalik experiences throughout the story. The emotional states of the protagonist are writ large in the quality of the narration Ezzo provides, forcing the listener to engage to an extent few audiobooks do.

Dead End Job by Christopher Ridge

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Beggars can’t be choosers. But there are more than a few red flags when the homeless man accompanies the ridiculously wealthy man to his palatial home for a million-dollar payday. When one bears a sign indicating they will work for food, there’s typically an implicit limitation to what sort of work they’re signing up for, and the room filled with tools and evidence of horrific undertakings is almost enough to terminate the agreement…almost.
The wealthy man offers his repeated assurances that everything will be fine, despite all appearances to the contrary, and the homeless man agrees to perform the tasks required of him.
Everything is most certainly not fine, not by the loosest definition of the word, but a million buck is a million bucks, and I don’t know that I’d turn down that offer for the gruesome and peculiar requests of the employer.
Christopher Ridge provides readers with a surprisingly strange and entertaining tale with Dead End Job, subverting our expectations every step of the way and leaving us wondering what the hell we just experienced as we reach the conclusion.

You can read this story for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Dead End Job by Christopher Ridge

Roadkill King by Dan B. Fierce

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Tatum Johnson was never an animal lover, but it wasn’t until his ex-girlfriend left him after he’d accidentally killed a dog by hitting it with his car that he came to hate animals with a cruel, driving passion. Emphasis on driving.
After investing thousands of dollars into customizing a vehicle into a killing machine reminiscent of something one might see in The Road Warrior, Tatum is on a mission when he ventures out at night. He prowls the backroads like a steel-encased predator, seeking out any creature unwary enough to cross his path.
When the giant buck steps onto the gravel road, Tatum thinks he might have hit the jackpot, but he’s on the road to judgment and pain that he could never comprehend.
If Roadkill King is representative of the rest of what Dan B. Fierce has in store for readers with the Cabin 187 collection, people should be chomping at the bit in anticipation. Satisfying, cathartic, and captivating, I must insist that readers give Roadkill King a chance. There is some cruelty to animals in the story. But it’s the unforgiving cruelty of animals that makes everything feel better in the end, as the irredeemably reprehensible Tatum gets what he deserves. Except for the dog, of course, because as every dog lover knows, that species is nothing if not willing to forgive and defend even the most indefensible.

You can obtain this story by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Roadkill King (A Cabin 187 Satellite Story) by Dan B. Fierce

Fucked-Up Bedtime Stories #1: Pussy Galore by Peter Caffrey

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Peter Caffrey has delivered a bedtime story that I might have read to my children as they’d gotten older. Keep in mind that the first book I purchased for my eldest daughter when she was a toddler was a chapbook of The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey. It’s also worth noting that I received a text message when said daughter was in middle school, asking me what necrophilia was. As you might expect, I provided an accurate and uncensored definition. I provide these anecdotes to suggest that I might not be the best judge of what makes for a good bedtime story.
Arnold seems like a sweet child, sheltered by a loving mother and berated by a less-than-stellar father. The important relationship in Arnold’s life isn’t with either of his parents. It’s the one he has with Jimmy the Chimp, a stuffed toy who is far more than appearances might indicate. This ape is no harmless imaginary friend.
A neighborhood experiencing a plague of missing kittens, a fateful can of tuna, and an oedipal connection between mother and son make for one hell of a twisted story…and this is only the beginning.

You can obtain Caffrey’s bedtime stories by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

Pussy Galore (Fucked Up Bedtime Stories #1) by Peter Caffrey

Bluebeard by The Professor

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The folktale of Bluebeard is a particularly awful and gruesome one–as many such tales happen to be–but in The Professor’s capable hands, the story gets molded into something of exceptional and sublime perversity. Gone is the greed and duplicity of the new wife, replaced with lust and a single-minded desire for the titular husband.
Knowing that this is a retelling by The Professor should be sufficient to warn you that this does not arrive at the expected conclusion for those familiar with earlier iterations of the Bluebeard story. There are no antiquated morals associated with woman’s obedience to men in this adaptation. At the same time, there’s none of the Pandoran punishment for a woman’s curiosity at the root of this story. Instead, The Professor deftly casts aside that old world, parochial mentality and empowers the woman by allowing her to embrace the cruel sensuality of her discovery and subsequent abuse.
Naturally, you would benefit from listening to the narration of this title as provided by your purchase on Godless. The soothing, hypnotic cadence of The Professor’s relation of Bluebeard perhaps provides us some insight into why the new wife experienced such a sudden change of heart in her abrupt dedication to Bluebeard as a courter and husband.
Was she caught in some spell?
Are we tangled up in a similar sort of magic when listening to The Professor’s voice?
Do we care?

This title is available through http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

Bluebeard by The Professor

The Fires of Garbagehead by Tim O’Neal

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Homeland is a small town in the center of America, or the middle of nowhere, depending on how one chooses to look at it. Either way, it’s a bad place for one’s car to break down, but that’s precisely what happens to Daniel on his journey to distance himself from the scandal and ignominy on the campus where his lascivious behavior got him into trouble.
What initially seems like a quaint dose of old-fashioned Americana grows increasingly offputting, and Daniel is eager to be on his way, but the residents of Homeland and the mysterious, filth-shrouded figure known only as Garbagehead have other plans.
There is evil simmering beneath the surface, but there’s no need to worry because all sins are purified in the fires of Garbagehead.
Tim O’Neal captures the often eerie sensation of rural small-town dynamics as experienced through those who are only passing through in truly spectacular fashion. He manages to develop such a viscerally tainted and claustrophobic atmosphere within the first few pages that the arrival of Garbagehead and the revelation of the town’s awful secret feels natural when it comes. I would greedily consume more tales of Homeland and those who reside there, under the watchful eyes of Garbagehead.

This title was released as the second Emerging Authors volume brought to us by the partnership of Godless and D&T Publishing. You can obtain this for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device of choice. The link is below:

The Fires of Garbagehead

Platinum Blondes: Love Removal Machine by Todd Love

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Todd Love continues raising the stakes with the third installment of the Platinum Blondes series. Love Removal Machine picks up where INXS left off, treating readers to deliciously deserved punishment and violence enacted against Troy. But something more is going on, faint glimpses of unnatural activity from the chair upon which Troy is bound are blurred with the frantic vengeance unleashed by the women of the Platinum Blondes Agency.
Dark secrets have been kept from most of the women Gwen’s recruited, sinister mysteries that originate in her youth and the hubris of her father. Todd drags us through this sordid history, unveiling surprise after shocking surprise along the way, hitting the reader over and over again with the brutal pacing of a professional fighter. In the world of the Platinum Blondes, no one and nothing is as it seems.
Todd Love adds new questions as quickly as he answers the ones we already had, but there’s no need to worry…the story isn’t over yet.

You can obtain the Platinum Blondes series for yourself by going to http://www.godless.com or by downloading the Godless app to your mobile device. The link is below:

Love Removal Machine (Platinum Blondes – Volume 3) by Todd Love

Road of Bones by Christopher Golden, Narrated by Robert Fass

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Christopher Golden has crafted a haunting tale about a treacherous stretch of Siberian roadway haunted by a gruesome and tragic past and perhaps haunted by altogether too present entities as well. It’s precisely this history of cruelty and careless disregard for human life, and the potential for something more, that inspired documentary filmmaker, Felix Teigland to drag his reluctant cameraman, John Prentiss, to this desolate arctic wasteland in the middle of winter.
Ostensibly hoping to tell the story of the people who live along the titular Road of Bones, Teig and Prentiss intend to follow the Kolyma Highway to its frigid terminus with the assistance of a local guide. Myth and superstition soon become more than passing curiosities, as the group’s survival depends on understanding the strange and terrifying forces that stalk them through the dark Siberian night. With temperatures that would kill them in mere minutes, a treacherous road of unforgiving ice and snow, and inconceivable shadowy beasts hunting them, the odds are high that none of them will make it through this journey alive.
Road of Bones is a chilling title that creeps into the bones of the reader/listener as effectively as the cold Siberian night. Golden challenges the reader to further investigate the Kolyma Highway. He dares the reader to delve into the horrific history of its manufacture with the tantalizing glimpses provided through the proxy of Teig and the other characters. The true story only serves to reinforce the unsettling sense of wrongness already building in the back of the reader’s mind.
Robert Fass provides spectacular narration that fully captures the accents and attitudes of the characters he brings to life within the narrative.

Hank Flynn by Candace Nola, Narrated by Jamison Walker

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When Hank Flynn stumbles onto the site of what will soon become Protection, Kansas, it’s immediately apparent to Wallace Bixby and his daughter, Josie, that there’s something special about this grievously injured man. Nursed back to health, Hank settles in and becomes a member of the growing community as long as God will allow it.
Protection is aptly named, with Hank Flynn around, because there’s no threat that Hank won’t combat to keep the people of his home safe, whether marauder, drought, or worse. It soon becomes clear that “worse” is going to be the case more often than not, as strange and evil forces align to seek out Hank where he’s found peace. But Hank is a man of many skills and a haunted past that propels him forward as he does God’s will wherever he’s called to do so. The malevolent beings that hunt him down would be wise to avoid Protection, Kansas because Hank is no stranger to raising Cain when the situation merits it.
Candace Nola has written a spiritual horror stand-in for Little House On the Prairie, punctuating the prosaic struggles of frontier life with body and soul battles against the denizens of Hell. It’s a little bit Kung Fu (the 1970s television series) and a little bit Supernatural all rolled into one captivating package.
The narration provided by Jamison Walker is dramatic, and the voices of the assorted characters are distinctly their own. I’d never encountered his narration with previous audiobook titles, so I’m not sure if this title is representative of his other work, but it was suitable for this book.