Zombie Kong reviewed: James Roy Daley does it again

Zombie Kong by James Roy Daley

I have to admit, I was a little worried when I started reading the novella  Zombie Kong by James Roy Daley. I knew it would be well written, because it was James Roy Daley, but I was worried the premise would play itself out too quickly. I'm sure you're thinking what I was: a zombie version of King Kong smashing cars, tanks, buildings, then climbing a skyscraper with a damsel, etc. Big Deal.

Nope.

The story opens with a page-long scientific rumination on how large a giant gorilla's intestines would be. Then the next chapter is a guy being swallowed by Zombie Kong. The thing is, because it's a zombified gorilla, the stomach acid doesn't kill him. The guy SURVIVES. Now he has to get out of Zombie Kong.

GENIUS!!

To make it even better, so it's not just some guy trapped in the belly of the beast, he calls his wife on his cell phone. The wife and their son now get involved. This gives the story some much needed variety to what would have been a one-note escape yarn.

Can I say that I absolutely LOVED how Daley handled the tale? Why yes I can. I'm really impressed with James Roy Daley's consistently inventive horror stories. If you like horror that is well written, start with Zombie Kong. Then move onto Daley's other works: The Dead Parade and Terror Town, both of which I've also enjoyed and reviewed. If you like mayhem and murder, go with  The Dead Parade. If you like monsters, go with Terror Town.

But whatever you do, buy Zombie Kong NOW! You will love it.

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.

The Dead Parade gets a facelift, without anesthesia

New cover for The Dead Parade

James Roy Daley is a fellow horror author deeply involved in the self-publishing boom. He runs a horror blog called Books of the Dead Press. If you love horror books it's a great blog and you should check it out.

You may recall that I posted a review of his horror thriller The Dead Parade last year. You can find my review here. The Dead Parade is a great read. Non-stop thriller action and horror. James recently did a re-cover for The Dead Parade, which I really like. It screams Thriller. As in the genre, not the Michael Jackson song. Wink.

As my blog readers may know, I followed suit, and did a re-cover of my novel Night Walk, which James was kind enough to feature on the Books of the Dead Press blog here.

But this post is about James Roy Daley's awesome novel The Dead Parade. If you're a fan of the classic George A. Romero style set-up of throwing characters into a disastrous situation while madness unfolds around them in the form of bone-breaking action, you will love his book. I did. If you are a fan of horror, The Dead Parade will treat you right.

You can buy it on Amazon Kindle right now for only 99 cents here.

James Roy Daley's "The Dead Parade" reviewed

James Roy Daley first thing in the morning

I just finished reading The Dead Parade by horror novelist and all-around good guy James Roy Daley.

How can I describe his book?

In a word: grim.

Or:

Like being chained to the back of a pickup truck and dragged 40 miles down a gravel road.

This is a bleak book. It's an amazingly well written, fast-paced, page turner of a book. Reading this book is like witnessing a massive 18-car pile-up with multiple fatalities on the freeway first hand, narrowly avoiding death yourself, all while watching it through a microscope. The excruciating detail of human misery is presented with raw and scintillating depravity.

I loved this book.

First off, on a technical level, it's superbly well written. James Roy Daley has crafted The Dead Parade in a classically elegant pulp/noir "spare" style. There are no wasted words. Each sentence is about moving the plot violently forward. The metaphors are razor-sharp and inventive, reminiscent of some of Raymond Chandler's classic turns of phrase. The dialogue is fresh, authentic and reveals familiar and believable characters efficiently and with minimal description. A reminder to aspiring writers how much can be done with so little, Daley's style is akin to the masterly works of the late great Jim Thompson and equally skillful mid-career one-offs penned by John D. MacDonald (MacDonald is the avowed all-time favorite author of Dean Koontz). James Roy Daley has put a lot of words under his belt, and knows how to write.

He also knows how to captivate.

Secondly, let's talk story. Violence and tragedy erupt like an Independence day cannonade on page one. The story pauses to take a deep breath for but a few pages to establish character and setting, and then disaster bellows out for the remainder of the book. Like the train wreck that it is, how can you not keep reading? One terrible thing after another happens "seemingly" randomly to the innocents within. Does it seem gratuitous? Of course it does, that's why we read such books. Does it seemed depraved? Why yes, I'm glad you asked. Can people really do such terrible things to each other? They could, if given the proper motivation. But what sort of terrible impossible thing could motivate people to such lunacy? Read the book and you will find out. But how, you ask in shocked disbelief, could people THINK such things and DO such things to one another? I don't know, but when Daley takes us inside the heads of the characters in The Dead Parade, it all makes perfect sense. Their actions seem so perfectly suitable and sensible, as if we would all do the exact same thing in their shoes. Daley has such a deft hand when it comes to evoking the inner-minds of madmen, I have to wonder: did he write the manuscript with a two-inch pencil nub while straight-jacketed and chained to a wall? I'm going to guess yes.

If you like terror and horror, buy this book. Now.

If not, recommend it to your friends who do.

As an aside, I couldn't help but notice a similarity between the beast depicted on the two different covers of The Dead Parade and the infamous Zuni Fetish Warrior from Karen Black's magnum acting opus Trilogy of Terror. I have a life-sized statue of the Zuni doll from said film sitting in my office behind me right now, staring at my back. It glares at me malevolently, and when I'm not looking at it, I hear it creeping closer. I'm pretty sure that my copy of The Dead Parade has brought the previously inanimate doll to life. If you read James Roy Daley's The Dead Parade you will understand exactly why. I wonder if this was a conscious nod by Daley to "The" Trilogy? I hope so. He certainly earned a place on the podium directly adjacent.

BUY IT NOW:

James Roy Daley's

The Dead Parade

Available on Amazon.com