Review: Ron Malfi Is A Genre Leader
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 2, 2013
Ronald Malfi may be my favorite horror author. I adored my first taste of Malfi's horror fiction with "Snow" and then later the Bram Stoker nominated "Floating Staircase". I purchased his excellent novella "Skullbelly" last year and I just had the pleasure of reading another of his novella's in "The Mourning House". I got this one for 2.99 through Amazon for my Kindle app. Money well spent on 90 pages. The book is about a guy named Sam Hatch, a doctor, husband and new father. On New Year's Day he falls asleep at the wheel and kills his wife and baby. Fast forward two years and Sam is a drifter, town to town and place to place searching for his role in the universe. He stumbles on a small coastal town in Maryland and a summoning of sorts to a run down house on the edge of town. Once there we see him experience odd moments...the cries of a baby, a non-existent dog barking and pieces of lives that have been in the house over the years. Is Sam developing psychotic behavior or is the house presenting him a message from beyond? Malfi delivers the goods through this short and effective read. The longing for a different life, the tragedy of what has befallen Sam and the descriptive details of the house and town are perfectly administered by the talented Malfi. This one is highly recommended.