fade to black
Review of ‘Fade to Black’
Jeff Grobnagger is a 27-year-old slacker who wants nothing more than to be left alone. His problem, though, is that he keeps blacking out at the most inopportune times and having the same dream; he’s strung upside down in an alley and a hooded man keeps killing him—many times in fact.
Jeff meets mustachioed Glenn whose daughter, who was involved with some arcane cult, is missing, and Louise, a PI who is investigating the various cults interested in astral projection among other things. To further complicate matters, Jeff learns that someone is interested in him because of his dreams, and they just might be trying to kill him for real.
Fade to Black is book one in the Awake in the Dark series by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus. This is a book that defies genre categorization. It has elements of the paranormal—actually, more the para-abnormal—mystery, and macabre humor. The characters are captivating, and the plot doesn’t unfold; rather it folds and refolds in a most byzantine way, leaving you wondering just what the heck is going on. You reach the end, and you’re still not sure what just happened, only that you thoroughly enjoyed it.
I give it four stars.
Review: “Fade to Black” by Jeffrey Wilson
Fade to Black by Jeffrey Wilson is a hard book to categorize. Realistic, gritty combat action opens the story with Marine sergeant Casey Stillman and his men penned down by militants in Fallujah, fighting against impossible odds in their effort to just stay alive. We’re then quickly zipped into the mind of Jack, a school teacher who deeply loves his wife and daughter, but who is troubled by uber-realistic dreams of himself in combat.
Fast-paced action and no-holds-barred dialogue whip the reader the along as Jack tries to determine whether or not he’s going crazy. Wilson puts you there, whether it’s the dusty villages where radicals are trying to blow you away, or a middle class school campus whose occupants have no understanding of the stark reality of life or death combat.
The ending will blow you away, and that’s all I’ll say about it, other than you just have to read this book.
Charles Ray's Ramblings 