Kasey Lansdale

Joe Lansdale always delivers and now we know that Kasey Lansdale does too!

In the foreword, the "Champion Mojo Storyteller" shares with us a little bit about his character Dana Roberts, and how she came about investigating what she calls the "supernormal." This being what most people call "supernatural," but what Dana believes are just events that science cannot yet explain. I enjoyed her tales a LOT, mostly because I loved the framework of Dana being asked to share her stories with a group of skeptical men, (and sometimes women), in a smoky club. In the last two tales, Dana hires Jana, (Kasey Lansdale's creation), and they investigate a few cases together. While Dana is the skeptical, professional and beautiful lead "investigator," Jana is the irreverent, less polished, but also beautiful, sidekick. Having these last tales be from her POV was brilliant, giving us a different look at Dana's work while also highlighting the fact that Dana is kind of hoity-toity and not as willing to get her hands dirty as this reader first thought.

My favorites of the bunch were:

THE CASE OF THE LIGHTHOUSE SHAMBLER I'm a sucker for haunted lighthouse stories and this one was a doozy.

THE CASE OF THE FOUR ACRE HAUNT was the tale of a haunted house. What made it special for me were the descriptions of the shadows; some of them honestly gave me the heebie-jeebies, and that doesn't happen often. Well done!

THE CASE OF THE ANGRY TRAVELER featured one of my favorite tropes-the whole city discovered beneath today's city type-thing. Now you know that Dana and friends found something down there, but what was it, exactly? You'll have to read this book to find out!

Of the two Jana and Dana stories, THE CASE OF THE RAGMAN'S ANGUISH stood out the most for me. This was more of a novella than a short story, but there were different aspects to it than in the other tales, (I won't say what those aspects were), which made it unique and my favorite story of the bunch.

TERROR IS OUR BUSINESS was just plain fun and reminded me of the flat-out horror tales Joe Lansdale wrote back in the day. Joe's famous sense of humor may not be the prominent one in this collection, but Kasey's, (or Jana's) humor is, and it turns out? She's funny too!

Highly recommended for fans of short, scary stories that have a healthy side of humor and skepticism!

*Thanks to the authors and to the publicist at Cutting Block Books for the chance to read this book free, in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*… (more)

This was a fun collection of spooky short stories.

In the introduction, Joe Lansdale recommends spreading out your reading of the stories and I agree with that. Like he mentions in the intro, the stories follow a similar structure so reading them over time is definitely the better option. Otherwise, it is easy to tire of them.

Personally, I really loved Jana as a character. I felt more of a connection with her than I did with Dana. Jana was more relatable and added a nice dash of humor to the stories. My favorite story from the whole collection was the Jana solo story, “Blind Love.” That story felt very modern and fresh. That being said, aside from “Blind Love” my favorite stories were the Dana solo stories. Jana was great in the other stories, but I didn’t find the plots of them to be as interesting as the earlier Dana stories.

I also was happy that this book centered on female leads since you don’t always see that in the horror genre.

As for the horror level of this book, it is pretty mild. So if you are a scaredy cat, you’ll still be able to enjoy this collection.

Overall, this is a great collection of stories if you are in the mood for some paranormal mysteries.… (more)

This is a collection of occult detective stories. The first four stories in the collection are written by Joe Lasdale alone, and despite using the unnecessary framing story where Dana Roberts narrates her adventures at a club, these are the best stories in the collection.

The rest of the stories are co-written by Joe and his daughter Kasey. while I didn't care for these as much, I don't think it's because of Kasey's presence so much as because of the addition of a new character. The three final stories feature a character called Jana, who becomes Dana's assistant, and who I found to be incredibly annoying. Even so, she wasn't annoying enough to make the stories bad, just enough to make them less good. It's still a fun book for fans of the occult detective genre.… (more)

*** "Blue Amber"--David J. Schow
A pretty good take on the alien-pod-people theme, set on a rural ranch. A couple of cops come to investigate, and get far more than they bargained for. Firmly in the horror genre, with a 'zombie' feel to it...

*****"Click-Clack the Rattlebag"--Neil Gaiman
Super-creepy short tale, with the feel of the stories kids tell each other at sleepover parties... Reminded me just a little bit of Kelly Link's 'The Specialist's Hat.' (Another super-creepy tale.)

*** "Cavity Creeps"--Cody Goodfellow
Evil, nasty creatures - a metaphor for despair - plague the down-and-out inhabitants of a storage facility used as a flophouse. A lighter touch with the 'message' would've improved the story, but it's still a good horror genre piece.

*** "The Glitter of the Crowns"--Charlaine Harris
A light touch and some nice twists here. In a rural mountain neighborhood, one family's kids are overshadowed by the two young beauty pageant queens who live next door. But when werewolves are thrown into the mix, not all turns out as expected.

*** "Doll’s Eyes"--Tim Bryant
A man's desire to have a child becomes twisted into something supernaturally evil, after repeated miscarriages...

* "Bloaters"--Neal Barrett, Jr.
I really dislike the style of writing featured in this story. A down-homey, tall-tale absurdism, I guess one could call it? For some, it may be a feature. The kernel of the story itself wasn't bad (vampires and other supernatural creatures), but I felt like I was wading through unnecessary gunk to get to it.

** "Detritus"--Chet Williamson
A man staying in a hotel room starts to get obsessively grossed out by the idea of the biological remnants of previous occupants of the place. Good idea, developed well... but the totally random 'surprise' ending blew it for me. It wasn't necessary.

**** "Monster"--Anne Perry
Very nice tale in the classic horror vein. A bookstore owner's new partner offers to host him on a luxury cruise while they discuss the business. As a favor, the businessman also asks the bookseller to be a friendly companion to his young daughter, who's grieving over the recent, tragic loss of her mother. But not all is as it seems, as a macabre thread weaves itself into events.

*** "Orange Lake"--Al Sarrantonio
Classic B-movie fare. A group of young people seek a week's rental at a lake house, to party and have a good time. When they find a deal that seems too good to be true - it is.

*** "Nathan"--Selina Rosen
A boy's 'imaginary friend' is a murderous psychopath.

*** "Blood Moccasins"--Bradley Denton
A rare genetic disorder causes the blood of the men of a certain family to morph into snakes when spilled. This isn't really a healthy situation, but it can be turned to use...

*** "The Case of the Angry Traveler" (A Dana Roberts Adventure)"--Joe R. Lansdale
Mole people! Paranormal investigators! Aliens! A fun tale, felt like it would make a great TV episode.

3 star average, exactly.… (more)