Trading Bullets with the Devil by Kirsten Cross and Mark Steensland

 

(oversized pb; 2024)

 

From the back cover

“Former Marine Rebecca ‘Beck’ Tibbet needs help.

“Her ex-husband has taken their daughter to live with The Lightbringers.

“But what seems like a harmless bunch of Jesus Freaks is actually a devil-worshipping doomsday cult bent on igniting Armageddon.

“And with less than 36 hours to go, Beck must reassemble her squad and lead them on one mission, deep into the cult’s hideout in an abandoned gold mine where she will soon be trading bullets with the devil.”

 

Review

Trading is a fast-paced, tightly edited novel, a fun, genre-true read, with its 1970s cinematic devil cult-meets-Don Pendleton’s Mack Bolan action books** (I’m a fan of both genres and Pendleton in particular). I hadn’t read Trading co-author Cross before, but I have read Steensland’s other, excellent works, and I’m looking forward to reading further works from them. Trading is a good read, worth purchasing.

(** = Pendleton created the Mack Bolan/ “Executioner” character, writing the first thirty-eight novels detailing Bolan’s initial “Mafia War,” starting with The Executioner #1: War Against the Mafia, 1969; ghost writers penned the rest of the 600+ novels, put out by HarperCollins’ Gold Eagle imprint, to whom Pendleton sold his Bolan/character rights in 1980, according to Wikipedia.)

The Nested Man by Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2024)

From the back cover

“Frank Hastane is an anthropology professor attempting to decode a notorious grimoire known as the Atrum Res. Frank’s uprooted this family and responsibilities at Rawlson University, an institution with a checkered past. Soon he begins to discover the terrifying truth about the grimoire, his supervisor at Rawlson, and his own identity and past connection with the book.”

 

Review

The tone and details of Steensland’s latest book, Nested, brings to mind the steady-build paranoia of a 1970s/80s conspiracy thriller crossed with a 1980s/90s supernatural mystery, with a suburban/collegiate cypher of a protagonist whose hazy past comes into nightmarish relief when he gets an enigmatic phone call from a mysterious woman. This ringing of Hastane leads him down a dark, possibly fatal path of self-discovery, one that threatens his family and the world as well.

Nested is an excellent read, one worth owning—it’s tight prose, attention to details (which usually matter in a larger way later in the book), and waste-no-words, steady-build pacing is one of the better conspiracy-fiction books I’ve read in a long while, given to us by the co-screenwriter of Jakob’s Wife (2021; director/co-screenwriter: Travis Stevens) and other worthwhile works.

In the Scrape by James Newman and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2019)

From the back cover

“Most kids dream about a new bike, a pair of top-dollar sneakers endorsed by their favorite athlete, or that totally awesome videogame everyone’s raving about. But thirteen-year-old Jake and his little brother Matthew want nothing more than to escape from their abusive father. As soon as possible, they plan to run away to California, where they will reunite with their mother and live happily ever after.

“It won’t be easy, though. After a scuffle with a local bully puts Jake’s arch-nemesis in the hospital, Sheriff Theresa McLelland starts poling her nose into their feud. During a trip to the family cabin for opening weekend of deer-hunting season, Jake and Matthew kick their plan into action, leaving Dad tied to a chair as they flee into the night. Meanwhile, the bully and his father have their own plans for revenge, and the events to follow will forever change the lives of everyone involved.”

 

Review

This 94-page novella, told from the vivid perspective of thirteen-year-old Jake Bradersen, is a straightforward tale of abuse, violence and redemption, with a few effective twists in the mix—a solid read by excellent writers, it’s a dark, wrong-side-of-the-woods coming-of-age work.

Where the Devil Waits by Wesley Southard and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2021)

From the back cover

“What would you do for all the money in the world? Or to get with the girl of your dreams? What if you could make other people do anything you told them? What if all this and more could be yours just for winning a race. . . against the devil?

“A long-abandoned church on top of a mountain in the Pennsylvania backwoods is where the devil waits for anyone brave enough to challenge him. The course runs from the gate, through the cemetery, to the church doors.

“If you win, the prize is yours.

“If you lose. . . you die at sunrise.

“Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

“For four college students looking for a good time, nothing could be further from the truth.”

 

Review

Where, a 141-page novella, is an excellent, sharp-and-short, distinctive, horror image- and sensory-potent satanic spookshow work, with character-focused action and spiraling-beyond-them consequences and fast pacing. Appropriately, given its cemetery setting, undead uprising and other creepy elements, Where is dedicated to movie director Lucio Fulci, the genre-hopping filmmaker who’s best known for his horror films, e.g., ZOMBIE (1979), THE BEYOND (1981) and THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981), though Where's ending is more comforting than anything in Fulci’s oeuvre.

Where's stark writing style lends itself to an equally stark screenplay for an excellent hour, hour-and-fifteen-minute short film. Not only that, Where is my favorite Steensland book thus far, and my one of my favorite 2022 reading choices. (I haven’t read Southard’s other writing.)  Worth owning, of course!

Coffin Shadows by Glenn Krisch and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2020: novella)

From the back cover

“12 YEARS AGO.

“Janet Martlee’s infant son died under mysterious circumstances. Consumed with grief and anger, she ran away to start again. . .

“YESTERDAY

“A 12-year old body with dead eyes appeared in her classroom, begging for help. But Janet doesn’t’ believe in ghosts.

“TODAY

“Her psychiatrist tells her she must return home to confront her past and uncover the mystery of what happened.

“Only some questions don’t want to be answered.

“And some answers hide in the shadows. . .”

 

Review

Coffin is an entertaining, fast-moving, and tightly written mainstream thriller whose 117-page storyline and characters ring true within their B-movie set-up─a young woman returns to her long-abandoned hometown and discovers that tragedies and fortunes that seem like random luck are anything but. To say anymore might spoil the genre-familiar-but-immersive-and-tidily-presented elements that make up Coffin. Worth owning, this.

The Special by James Newman and Mark Steensland

 

(pb; 2018: novella)

Review

When Jerry Harford, a man with self-esteem issues, finds out his wife (Lisa) has been cheating on him, his best friend and co-worker (Mike) takes him a strange, Russian whore house where Jerry gets his ashes hauled. Unfortunately, Jerry has an addict’s personality, and nobody (not even the commanding Madame Zhora or her bouncer, Ivan) can stop him from getting what he wants.

Special is a fun, compelling, sometimes hilarious, and relatively restrained (considering its ickalicious elements) eighty-four-page novella that wastes no words in telling its character-sketched tale, a quick-escalation work with the feel of an Eighties B movie (I could imagine Frank Henenlotter or Stuart Gordon directing a film version of this). Despite its inherently pervy McGuffin, Special is surprisingly mainstream in its language, violence and delivery, nowhere near as sleazy as it could be. Chalk that up to Newman and Steensland’s excellent, cut-to-it, character-focused writing. This is a book worth owning if you love ‘80s B flick book horror, aren’t a prude, and like your pleasures short, sharp and fast.

#

The resulting film was released stateside on October 13, 2020. B. Harrison Smith directed it, from a screenplay by source-book authors James Newman and Mark Steensland.

Davy Raphaely played Jerry. Dave Sheridan played Mike. Sarah French played Lisa.

Doug Henderson played Ivan. Susan Moses played Madame Zhora. Paul Cottman played Det. Barnes.

Behind the Bookcase by Mark Steensland

(hb; 2012. Illustrated by Kelly Murphy.)

From the inside flap

“Spending the summer at her grandmother’s house is the last hign Sarah wants to do─especially now that Grandma Winnie has died─but she has no choice. Her parents have to fix the place up before they can sell it, and Sarah and her brother, Billy, have to help. But the tediuous work turns into a thrilling mystery when Sarah discovers an unfinished letter her grandmother wrote: Strange things are happening behind the bookcase. . .

“Sarah’s mother dismisses the letter as one of Grandma Winnie’s crazy stories, but Sarah does some investigating and makes a remarkable discovery: behind the bookcase is a doorway into Scotopia, the land where shadows come from. With a talking cat named Balthazat as her guide, Sarah begins an unforgettable adventure into a world filled with countless dangers. Who can she trust? And can she face her fears, not only in Scotopia, but also back at Grandma Winnie’s house, where more secrets and strange goings-on await her?”

Review

Bookcase is a fun, fast-paced and character-interesting read, with well-placed twists, great descriptive writing. In spirit and execution, it reminded me of some of the books I regularly re-read as a boy─it is an excellent children’s read, with its children-appropriate mix of fantasy, horror and whimsy, one that I, as a boy, would have re-read several times in a short period of time. Worth owning, this.