TERROR TOWN by James Roy Daley REVIEWED

Terror Town by James Roy Daley

Terror Town is the second novel by horror novelist James Roy Daley that I've read. My review for his novel The Dead Parade is here.

James Roy Daley knows how to write horror. He's really good at what he does. Terror Town delivered the goods in a blood-soaked wrapper. Daley went to film school, and he's a huge lover of Stephen King. (I don't mean to imply that Daley and King are having some sort of illicit affair, but rather Daley knows the works of King well, and incorporates many of King's tactics in his own stories). You can see the influence of both great horror movie film-making and the writings of Stephen King in Daley's Terror Town.

After an initial setup that establishes the small town of Cloven Rock, and many of it's denizens, the book accelerates at a cinematic pacing. We meet Nicholas Nehalem, who is one of the most diabolical characters I've ever met between the covers of a book. I won't give any spoilers. But I will warn Hannibal Lecter that he's a pansy boy.

Then we meet Daniel McGee. Dan finds a tunnel in the floor of his basement that leads deep down into darkness. This scene alone was like reading an exquisitely crafted tale by Edgar Allen Poe. It had me shivering in fear, and nothing bad even happened. It was the expectation of terror that got me.

But have no fear. Daley delivers terror with both fists and a shotgun blast. This book explodes into action. It's equal parts monster-movie madness and serial killer death flick. But more than that, there's an amazing twist that happens about half way through the book. Syd Field's classic Reversal, anyone? I will only say that I was NOT expecting it, and that not only was it freakin' awesome and super original, it gives me hope that the tired old roads trod by many writers still hold buried treasures further down the trail. Or should I say, off the trail, where the bodies are buried. Because that's where James Roy Daley takes you in Terror Town.

If you like hard-hitting, intense horror, the scary kind that makes you triple-check you locked and dead-bolted the front door before going to bed, buy Terror Town. It will scare the crap and vomit out of you.

Buy Terror Town by James Roy Daley on Amazon here.