Mira / March 2007
Reviewed by: Vince A. Liaguno

With The Dollmaker, author Amanda Stevens conjures up James Patterson and Anne Rice in this creepy gothic chiller of a novel. Making the leap from the romantic suspense yarns for which she’s known to psychological suspense thriller, Stevens steers clear of the throwaway potboiler and crafts a well-constructed, multi-layered plot ripe with police corruption, child abduction, and enough creepy dolls to make one shudder at the next mention of Madame Alexander. It’s John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil meets House of Wax – minus Paris Hilton with just a hint of John Grisham’s Southern sensibilities.

Artist Claire Doucett and ex-husband Dave Creasy have never fully recovered from their heartbreak following the disappearance of their 7-year-old daughter Ruby. Seven years after the child’s vanishing and presumed abduction, both are battling demons – one a loveless marriage and visions of their missing child around every corner, the other alcoholism and a failed law enforcement career. When Claire spots a portrait doll bearing an uncanny likeness to Ruby in the window of a Garden District collectibles shop, she becomes convinced that if she can trace the origins of the doll, she will finally learn the fate of their daughter. The ex-spouses wade through the baggage carousel of their past to join forces and soon embark upon a harrowing journey toward the closure they so desperately seek on many levels. Complicating matters are an unsolved murder with police cover-up implications and the titular psychopath who cuts a deadly path through the Louisiana landscape with his doll making tools.

Elements of The Dollmaker are reminiscent of cinematic horrors, and savvy genre fans will glimpse snippets of Tourist Trap, Happy Birthday to Me, Dressed to Kill, and Psycho. And while Stevens offers up intersexualism as a plot device that readers may initially bemoan as clichéd, she integrates the twist so well into a genuinely chilling back story that it ultimately works here. Her secondary characters are also fleshed out well enough to be integral to the story – whether on the periphery of the action or smack dab in the middle of it.

Stevens boasts a gift for rich, sensory-infused description that she is able to balance with page-turning action to precision. In The Dollmaker, she has an acute awareness of the sights, smells, sounds, and textures of post-Katrina Louisiana – from the recovering French Quarter to the outlying bayous. Not since Anne Rice has a writer captured New Orleans in words with such skill. Stevens’ knack for description extends beyond the geographical locales of the novel as she proves by imbuing the narrative with strong doses of realism. Whether depicting alcoholism or the mounting hopelessness in the days and months following the abduction of a child or the art of glass blowing, the reader is invited to step into the narrative and walk alongside the characters, making the reading experience more active than passive.

That the resolution (albeit ultimately satisfying) comes fast in relation to the buildup is but a minor criticism in what is otherwise a thrilling story. With The Dollmaker, Amanda Stevens has fashioned a well-paced, spine-chilling tale of suspense in which the reader will find his or her chest tightening in anticipation and dread with each successive turn of the page.

Purchase Amanda Stevens' The Dollmaker

Annihilation Press / August 2006
Reviewed by: Martel Sardina

Fiends By Torchlight is the first offering from start-up publisher Roger Dale Trexler of Annihilation Press. This fledgling publishing venture's goal is to reacquaint horror and dark fantasy fans with authors whose stars may have faded in the wake of the publishing downturn that occurred in the mid-1990’s. Wayne Allen Sallee was the first author that Trexler felt deserved to be thrust back into the limelight.

The result is a collection of twenty-two short fiction pieces, featuring a mix of classic reprints in addition to a handful of new stories. The introduction was written by fellow horror author Charles Gramlich. There is also one non-fiction piece entitled “Send In The Clowns: The Execution of John Wayne Gacy,” where Sallee recounts his three-year written correspondence with one of the country’s most notorious serial killers.

Sallee’s writing is bold and honest. His characters are nasty people who you would never want to know in real life, but somehow you can’t deny yourself the pleasure of knowing them in this fictional world. Many of his stories are set in Chicago, and Sallee’s descriptions of the various backdrops often make the city an actual character itself.

The overall theme of the collection is coping with loss. Many of the stories are about serious topics such as loss due to cancer, drunk driving, terrorism, and domestic abuse. Sallee also gives us a handful of classic horror tales featuring werewolves, vampires, and serial killers for good measure. And then, he pushes readers to the edge with deeply disturbing tales such as “Elviscera” and “What Would Mamaw Say?”

There were a few stories that I felt could have been resolved differently. Some of the stories appear to stop rather than end. “The Ramp On Trumbull St.” comes to mind as a piece that, in my opinion, could have been taken further to give the reader a more satisfying ending. But other fans of Sallee’s work that I’ve talked to chalk this up to a “style” versus “substance” issue.

As far as the production quality of the book itself is concerned, astute readers will notice some typos in the text, but these should not detract from the overall enjoyment of the collection.  Fiends By Torchlight ends up a great sampler that gives new readers a chance to see why Sallee is a five-time Bram Stoker Award nominee while thrilling the author's long-time fans with previously unpublished works.

Purchase Wayne Allen Sallee's Fiends By Torchlight