Pain Eaters by William Tooker

Pain Eaters is perhaps best described as a cross between X-Men and Hellraiser. In other words an action horror tale with more emphasis on the action aspect.  We are plunged straight into the action as Jack Fugazi is caught bang to rights surrounded by bodies. However, all is not as it seems and Jack gets the chance to tell his story from an interrogation room. It is clear that Tooker knows how to spin an excellent story.

The only very minor negative I have to offer is that for me it seemed perhaps a tad too short. I felt that we could have had a little more of the back story behind Jack and the villain known simply as the German. However, take this as a complimentary statement it shows that the author had engaged me completely in his world. I wanted to explore more of this strange world where good and evil sorcerers with strange incredible powers contest for supremacy.

Tooker had me hooked with his strong descriptive writing and I'm hoping that he takes the hint from this reviewer and sets a few more stories in this fascinating world that I'd love to see more of. If you like an interesting blend of action, magic, horror and superheroes then you'll enjoy Pain Eaters as much as I did. A very enjoyable read that I would recommend. A five star read for me as I felt it was original, very engaging and compellingly told.

Genre:  Action/Horror
Publisher:  Trestle Press
Format:  E-Book Novella
Price:  Amazon UK - £2.17, Amazon US - $3,35, Barnes & Nobles - $2.99
Rating:  5/5

Black Betty by William Tooker

Wade and Eliza were through. The love was gone and the fighting was non-stop. Desperate as they were to get away from each other neither of them was ready for how they would finally part. The death with a thousand faces had reached up from the Downs to harvest yet another victim. Heart broken and driven by revenge one of them would come face to face with the otherworldly terrors lurking in the Downs and eye to eye with the remorseless Black Betty.

A dark horror tale by William Tooker.  The sinister town of Veil mentioned in his previous story Bad Angels features in this dark tale. It’s difficult to discuss the start without giving anything away. However, I’ll say that a young couple has an argument and a car journey from which one of them will not return.

Tooker’s dialogue between Wade and Eliza is very believable and the interplay between these two characters impressed me a lot. I found the way he described Wade’s thought processes smacked of realism.  The author has a true story tellers flair and I very quickly raced through this one as he built up the tension I found the descriptive writing to be of a high standard throughout. Here are a couple of examples of great stand out lines:

Gnats swarmed in clouds everywhere humming a chorus that sounded like distant whispers.

A fallen crystal chandelier looked like the mummified remains of an ancient crystal snowflake beneath the dust on the floor.

All in all a great story well told. The tension is excellently build up and just when you think it can’t get any darker you are plunged head first into the abyss. Great stuff from Mr. Tooker.

Download Black Betty HERE.