review of It Lives in the Basement by Sahara Foley

Overview.

I found this book to be unputdownable (Is that a word?) I finished it in two sessions.

Blurb

A missing couples report and a mutilated body.
Two years apart, same house.
Coincidence or something more sinister?

When Lt. Flynn lands a missing couples case, he finds no evidence of anything amiss. There are no signs of a struggle or foul play. The only clue lies in a dog-eared notebook, but is it true?

Two years later, a mutilated body is found in the same residence. Lt. Carter is assigned the case, and now, he’s faced with a life-altering decision. Can he afford to ignore the evidence that Sgt Alvarez reveals to him – the same evidence that led to his partner’s disappearance?

How many people will die before Carter brings the truth to light? Who will believe in the existence of a genetically manipulated monster?

Story

The story grips you from the beginning. How can a couple and their three cats disappear from a house locked from the inside? Where did the policeman investigating the case go to?

Ms Foley takes us on a roller-coaster ride. There is plenty of action, and we hardly have time to breath before the next action starts. An exciting story that I think would make an excellent film.

Characters

This is more of an action story than one of charavcter, although we get a clear picture of the character of John Carter and his brother-in-law, Mark, as well as Seargeant Pete Alvarez. But character development is not what this book is about.

Writing

Sadly, Ms Foley is not clear on the difference between ‘lie’ and ‘lay’. In most cases, she uses it wrongly.

Having said that, the rest of the writing is good, keeping us on the edge of our seats. Except for a few typos that have escaped the editing net, there is little to comlain about.

Her descriptions of the creature gives us a picture of this beast and its amazing strength. We feel the fear of Carter, Mark and Alvarez when confronted with it.

Conclusion

An excellent read. I give it 4 stars ****. I dropped one star, mainly because of the grammatical errors and typos.

Do you enjoy horror stories? Let me know in the comments box.

If you would like to find out more about me and my writing, sign up for my quarterly newsletter by clicking the JOIN button in the sidebar.

The Revenge of Excalibur by Sahara Foley. My Review.

Today I’m reviewing a book I recently read, It’s the second book in the Excalibur series and it fuly lives up to the first one.

Blurb

After Pamela’s father vanished twenty-seven years ago, her life has been content. That is, until she is visited by disturbing dreams, telling that her father is in danger.

She also receives a mysterious message, telling her that Arthur has been imprisoned on a distant planet, and only she can rescue him. To do so, she must release the evil entity trapped within the famous sword, Excalibur. If she trusts this strange messenger and releases the terrifying Shalit from its confinement, Pamela could be endangering Earth and all the other planets in the universe.

Will she be strong enough to control the Shalit, save her father, and protect everyone she loves? And can she risk destroying all life if she’s not?

 

My Review
This book is the second in the Excalibur series and I enjoyed it as much as I did the first one. This time, instead of following Arthur and Daisy on their adventures out in the Universe, we concentrate on Arthur’s daughter, Pamela. Arthur does not know of the birth of his daughter, nor that she has inherited his gifts.

Pamela feels something of a misfit on Earth as she has to hide her powers from others. If they know what she is capable of, they would fear her. One day she is whisked off to space by mysterious forces that turn out to be intelligences contained in a living spaceship. These two women, granddaughter and grandmother, tell her that her father is in danger and that he and his wife, the alien Daisy, whom he met in The Secret of Excalibur, are imprisoned.

The rescue of Arthur and Daisy involves the releasing of the Shalit from Excalibur, one of the entities known as Planet Eaters.

Pamela has to use her powers and faces great danger. She finds her true love in a most unusal person, and the twist at the end caught me by surprise.

Ms Foley has built complex worlds with strange alien creatures and a politics we can all recognise. Pamela’s change from a timid, self-conscious girl to a confident woman is believable, after what she goes through.

The writing is excellent and I have no hesitation in giving this book 4 stars.

The book is available as both an ebook and in paperback from Amazon.

If you have any comments on this post, or any others, please add them to the comments box. I’d love to hear from you.