Upstream Reviews Presents…!

Something prowls around in the dark. Do you hear it howling? Do you hear it scratching at your door? Is that a low laugh in the background…?

Halloween approaches! Spooks and horrors prowl – wait, did you hear that? It… I could have sworn that was a twig cracking….

No. No, it must have been my imagination. The season is getting to me, that’s all. After all, I’ve set this to go up after the witching hour. There’s no harm in the dark itself. Just in…what hides there….

Oh…no…..

……

Artwork by Caroline Furlong

BOO!!!!

Got you! Now. Ready for some Halloween fun? Then read on, Macduff!

Horror

Want some spine-tingling horror for the season? Then these books should have just what you’re looking for!

Diary of a Bomoh by Kai Wai Cheah

In a quiet neighbourhood in Singapore, a body is found inside a locked apartment.

Tasked with identifying the deceased, Inspector Ibrahim has his work cut out for him. With no identity documents at the scene, and no neighbours who remember the resident, his only clue is a set of diaries written in English, Malay and Arabic.

Partnering with Station Inspector Jafri, Ibrahim translates the diaries. They discover the story of a bomoh, a traditional Malay shaman. It is a story of sorcery and occultism, vice and sin, madness and damnation.

But the diaries won't give up their secrets so easily. A terrible evil lurks within their pages.

And now, it is awake.

The St. Tommy, NYPD Series by Declan Finn:

My name is Officer Thomas Nolan, and I am a saint.

I can smell evil. I show mercy to the lesser criminals - the desperate. Even those I've put behind bars seem to like me. But now there's a serial killer bringing darkness beyond imagination to my city. I can smell his stench a mile away. But how can I prove it?

How do you do forensics on a killer possessed by a demon?

Thrillers

Would you prefer thrills to chills? If that is the case, then consider these novels for your All Hallows Eve reading pleasure:

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

A military space probe, sent to collect extraterrestrial organisms from the upper atmosphere, is knocked out of orbit and falls to Earth. Twelve miles from the crash site, an inexplicable and deadly phenomenon terrorizes the residents of a sleepy desert town in Arizona, leaving only two survivors: an elderly addict and a newborn infant.

The United States government is forced to mobilize Project Wildfire, a top-secret emergency response protocol. Four of the nation’s most elite biophysicists are summoned to a clandestine underground laboratory located five stories beneath the desert and fitted with an automated atomic self-destruction mechanism for cases of irremediable contamination. Under conditions of total news blackout and the utmost urgency, the scientists race to understand and contain the crisis. But the Andromeda Strain proves different from anything they’ve ever seen—and what they don’t know could not only hurt them, but lead to unprecedented worldwide catastrophe.

Relentless: A Novel by Dean Koontz

Literary critic Shearman Waxx can kill a good book with just a few acidly worded bon mots. And as one unlucky author is about to discover, that’s not all he’s prepared to kill. . . .

From #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense Dean Koontz comes a mesmerizing thriller about the battle of wills that ensues when a successful author and likable family man confronts a reclusive sociopath who wields an all-too-deadly poison pen. Respect Shearman Waxx’s opinion and you might escape with your career intact. Cross him and he’ll destroy you, your family, and everything you hold dear. For the title “America’s most feared critic” isn’t one Waxx takes lightly. He takes it literally. And now Cubby Greenwich, his wife, Penny, their brilliant six-year-old Milo, and their uniquely talented non-collie, Lassie, are all about to learn the true meaning of “culture war.”

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Dean Koontz's The City.

Classics

Nothing says “BOO!” quite like the classics. Take a look at these novels and see which one calls your name from the grave of the past!

Absolute Evil and A Goth From Boston by Julian Hawthorne

Absolute Evil

“Thomas Aquinas says that angels, white and black, can change men into beasts permanently; enchanters could do it, too, but not for long. Seventeenth century witchcraft affirmed that certain natural objects and rites could produce strange effects without aid of God or devil. But the operator must renounce God and Christ, be re-baptised, trample on the cross, and be marked in a certain way—a symbolic transaction. The person could then do only evil—good was forbidden to him, or her!”

Absolute Evil is, in many ways, Julian Hawthorne’s coda on his father’s works pertaining to the theme of Calvinist “doom.” Many of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s villains and tragic figures hearken back to Marlowe’s Faustus, with the worldview that destiny and damnation are unalterable though it was the choices they made through free-will that set them on the road to hell.

Unlike his father’s work on the subject, however, Absolute Evil is an action-packed thriller in which a Presbyterian minister turns himself into a werewolf and haunts the New England beaches.

A Goth From Boston

“Her father assured me with pride that she could—as he expressed it—lick any boy of her age on the Beach. And he said to her once, in my hearing, when she had come in rather late to cook dinner, with that grin of hers, in spite of a black eye and a bloody nose, and with a tale how she had ‘walloped’ her latest antagonist—‘Right-o, Polly, my lass,’ he said; ‘as long as ye lick ’em, ye’re excused; but the first one as licks you ye’ll marry him—mind that!—so be he’s not married already; and that’ll be a lesson to ye never to mix it up with married men, anyway!’ A plain reversion to the Stone Age, you see.”

While on an errand to gently turn down a proposal from Cabot Selwyn, a Professor of Biology, Martha Klemm meets a most intriguing and alluring beauty--working in the service of the good doctor as mere maid!

Fate and the forces of nature conspire to throw the trio together time and again: can the Doctor escape his ivory tower understanding of biology and embrace the human?

Hawthorne explores the dichotomy between the “Prospero” and the “Caliban” within the human spirit, in this adventure on the high seas featuring a delightful Tomboy, a hapless professor, a chad sailor, and of course, Martha Klemm!

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [Oh, wow, this copy is $0.99!]

At Baskerville Hall on the grim moors of Devonshire, a legendary curse has apparently claimed one more victim. Sir Charles Baskerville has been found dead. There are no signs of violence, but his face is hideously distorted with terror. Years earlier, a hound-like beast with blazing eyes and dripping jaws was reported to have torn out the throat of Hugo Baskerville. Has the spectral destroyer struck again? More important, is Sir Henry Baskerville, younger heir to the estate, now in danger?

Enter Sherlock Holmes, summoned to protect Sir Henry from the fate that has threatened the Baskerville family. As Holmes and Watson begin to investigate, a blood-chilling howl from the fog-shrouded edges of the great Grimpen Mire signals that the legendary hound of the Baskervilles is poised for yet another murderous attack.

The Hound of the Baskervilles first appeared as a serial in The Strand Magazine in 1901. By the time of its publication in book form eight months later, this brilliantly plotted, richly atmospheric detective story had already achieved the status of a classic. It has often been called the best detective story ever written. It remains a thrilling tale of suspense, must reading for every lover of detective fiction.

Edgar Allan Poe: The Ultimate Collection by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. Poe was the first well-known American writer to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Films

If you prefer visual horror – well, then. Allow me to introduce these fine specimens for your entertainment.

The Thing

Director John Carpenter (Halloween) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visual effects to create a chilling version of the classic The Thing. Set in the winter of 1982 at a research station in Antarctica, a twelve-man research team finds an alien being that has fallen from the sky and has remained buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon it is unfrozen and unleashed, creating havoc and terror as it changes forms and becomes one of them.

Alien

Experience the terror - from the beginning - with the first chilling chapter of the Alien saga, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver in her breakout performance as Ripley. When the crew of the space-tug Nostromo responds to a distress signal from a barren planet, they discover a mysterious life form that breeds within human hosts. The acid-blooded extraterrestrial proves to be the ultimate adversary as crew members battle to stay alive and prevent the deadly creature from reaching Earth.

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Two young boys encounter a man who foretells danger, and soon after the town is visited by a seductive stranger named Mr. Dark and his terrifying Pandemonium Carnival. Based on Ray Bradbury's novel.

Magic in the details

One of Ray Bradbury's most popular and intriguing novels of good and evil comes to life in this spine-tingling motion picture. On a grim and gusty October day, two young boys encounter a distressed man who foretells of danger blowing their way. Soon after, the town is visited by a seductive stanger named Mr. Dark and his Pandemonium Carnival.

Terrifying things begin to happen when the adventurous boys stumble onto the carnival's deadly and destructive secret!Beware: Something Wicked this Way Comes... and frightening surprises follow! Starring Jonathan Pryce, Jason Robards, Diane Ladd, James Stacy, Pam Grier, Directed by Jack Clayton.