Review: Claustrophobic story, great storytelling and writing
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2014
Charlie has a huge gambling debt, but fortunately he’s offered a chance to clear his debt. There’s a haunted ship lying ashore, and if he can stay in the ship durin the night, showing to the owner and potential crew, that the ship is neither haunted nor cursed, his debt will be cleared. Charlie thinks his luck is turning, but the ship has a long history of suicide, violence, murder, mutiny, and basically, every bad thing under the sun. If he’s to get out of there alive, he’ll need more than just luck.Deadlock is another excellent piece of dark fiction by one of my favorite publishers, DarkFuse. This isn’t my first time reading a book by Tim Curran, and I doubt it’ll be the last. Tim Curran always manages to paint a grim, groomy, atmospheric and claustrophobic story that focuses on one man, one haunted ship, and the man’s descent into madness during his night on board.It’s not as straightforward as the synopsis would want you to assume, and this novella shows that the true monster can be hidden well, and one should not always fear the ghouls crawling from one’s closet, when there are things out there more wicked than any ghoul. While atmospheric for the most part, there’s plenty of gore toward the end, with vivid descriptions that made me picture the scenes in detail (sometimes too much detail).An excellent read, highly recommended to all horror fans. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.