The Spookshow (Book One) by Tim McGregor

This was a surprisingly enjoyable horror novel.  I was not anticipating enjoying it as much as I did so that is always a bonus for any book.  That said I am on the fence about purchasing further installments in the series as the characters were fine in isolation in one, rather slim volume; I feel that they could become tedious very, very quickly.

There is an attempt at romantic tension between our psychic heroine Billie and the police office Ray Mockler.  They clearly have a history and this left me wondering if I had inadvertently ended up a few tales in but this is labelled as Book One so I guess not.  Sadly the romance angle really doesn't work as it feels a little stalkerish on Billie's part and that made my skin prickle.

The horror, or occult as Mr McGregor, section is very well written.  With the discovery of a satanic "temple" in the basement of an abandoned house complete with corpse the tension really begins to ratchet up. This is especially true when the house's inhabitants start crowding in on Billie knowing that she can see and hear them.  The plot is fast paced but didn't feel rushed and I was actually rather glad that the author stuck to his guns and kept it the length it needed to be rather than trying to extrapolate another hundred pages from it.  Although it ends of a cliffhanger I don't feel compelled to read on, which is probably bad news for the author, as the tale felt complete enough for me to be happy to leave the characters at this juncture.

Enjoyable romp that has quasi-believable characters and enough scares to keep you interested.