A paranormal conference at the most haunted hotel in the Southern Appalachian mountains . . .
A man’s promise to his late wife that he’d summon her spirit . . .
A daughter whose imagination goes to dark places . . .
And demonic evil lurking in the remote hotel’s basement, just waiting to be awoken.
When Digger Wilson brings his paranormal team Spirit Seekers International to the White Horse Inn, he is skeptical that his dead wife will keep her half of the bargain. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. But when one of the conference guests channels a mysterious presence and an Ouija board spells out a pet phrase known only to Digger and his wife, his convictions are challenged.
And when guests start to disappear, Digger and his daughter Kendra must face the circle of demons that view the hotel as their personal playground. Because soon the inn will be closing for good, angels can’t be trusted, and demons don’t like to play alone . . .
Speed Dating with the Dead by Scott Nicholson is the first ebook I have ever been sent a free copy of specifically to review. That’s kind of cool. Makes me feel like a real book blogger.
I’ve mentioned before that I’m a speculative fiction reader, mostly fantasy, some science fiction and I also enjoy a good supernatural horror. Sadly for me the horror shelves these days are full of paranormal romance and gross out mundane serial killer type horrors – neither of which float my boat.
The author described his novels as paranormal thrillers in his pitch email. That on its own was enough to pique my interest. A paranormal thriller in my mind is one of two things, a supernatural horror or a more standard thriller with paranormal elements (often only a stone’s throw from horror) and I like them both as long as they don’t go past my personal squick barrier.
Once I’d read the blurbs on his work I was sure I was dealing with horror and selected Speed Dating to review because the blurb and cover enticed me most.
So now on with the review proper.
Speed Dating with the Dead is a solid and enjoyable piece of writing, yet I find myself in two minds about it. I enjoyed it, yet at the same time I felt that it could have been more than it is.
The premise is a good one. Demons versus Paranormal Investigators in a remote hotel. It’s a classic. Some people might call it cliche, but things become cliches for because they work and it’s handled well enough to not just be a rerun of the same old plot even when it is.
The two main characters (Digger and Kendra) are interesting. So rarely are Paranormal Investigators in Horror sceptics, so it’s nice to see one who is totally skeptical. The other characters are less well developed but not direly so. The Demons are pretty much the faceless monstrous evil type – very little depth here. They may have motives beyond having very nasty fun but they aren’t entirely clear to me. This type of horror is one of the few places I don’t mind such a thing.
Whenever the demons turn up any scene they are in gets tense and exciting very quickly. However some of the other scenes, especially in the early part of the book were less interesting, especially when the info-dumping started. Info-dumps can be an unfortunate necessity in any form of Speculative Fiction but I found them a little intrusive on the reading experience here.
Another thing was that while each of the subplots was individually good with a few being brilliant they didn’t have enough points of intersection for my taste. Even though several of them did intesect in the excellent climax it felt almost like a series of short stories following different characters in the same place and time rather than subplots of a novel. This isn’t a major problem but it did make the story a little disjointed at time.
Verdict: I’m very aware that in trying to articulate why I felt Speed Dating with the Dead could be better I might have given the impression that I disliked it. To be clear I did like it and I think other readers of supernatural horror would quite possibly like it as well. I like it well enough that I’m going to buy a copy from Smashwords because I feel having enjoyed it for free Scott Nicholson deserves to be paid for his stuff (well that and the fact I can’t seem to work out how to view pdfs in my phone).
Speed Dating with the Dead is available for the Kindle or at Smashwords for $2.99.
Scott Nicholson can be found online at Haunted Computer Books.
