Sam by Iain Rob Wright at Amazon.com
Sam is a 10-year-old boy and he has a secret. It’s a terrible secret, and if it’s know, the entire world will shake at its revelation.
Iain Rob Wright is a horror novelist from Great Britain and his new novel “Sam” is now available via SalGad Publishing (yes, I also happen to have a publishing deal with them). It’s an remarkable novel.
Sam manages to fill each page with dread, creating a kind of gothic horror that actually involves a large house in the English countryside that may, or may not, be possessed by a demon. Well, to be fair, the one possessed may be little 10-year-old Samuel Raymeady. Samuel recently lost his father and may inherit the vast fortune of the Black Remedy Corporation – a company so vast it can almost control the world.
There’s a problem, though. Little Sam has been acting very disturbing as of late. He draws all the time, and the things he draws show he knows things that he shouldn’t know.
Sam’s mom brings in former priest Angela and ghost-debunker Tim. Perhaps they can help? Both of them, however, have very horrific secrets buried in their pasts. And Sam, well, he likes to take advantage of secrets like that.
It’s a complete page-turner of a novel. It manages to take the “possessed child” story and add enough original twists and turns that you’ll be flipping pages or hitting the “next page” button on your reader with dazzling speed to see what happens next.
Oh, and one more thing. Wright also manages to remember that horror, as a genre, should be fun as well as scary. And he imbues the tale of Sam with a heaping helping of wry humor, and a heaping helping of British slang (“What’s your tipple?” being a favorite as one character goes to pour drinks for the others). The character of Tim, in particular, has a very sarcastic sense of humor throughout and it gets more intense as things get more frightening.
If you are looking for a great Halloween story to read by the fire, this is one you need to add to your list.