Review: The Nightmare Man by J.H. Markert

The Nightmare Man

by J.H. Markert

Release Date: January 10, 2023

2023 Crooked Lane Books

Kindle Edition; 336 Pages

ISBN: 978-1639101702

ASIN: B09XMSF1L1

Audiobook: B0BQRV7FD7

Genre: Fiction / Horror / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of New Haven. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

 

My Thoughts

The Nightmare Man had a really good premise, and reminded me of some of the older school horror novels from my earlier days. With a fairly intriguing story line that got off to a strong start, fairly strong character development for the first half of the book, and some campy dialogue that I rather enjoyed, what could go wrong? Unfortunately, while the book started off rather strong, it didn't finish that way, and I found myself struggling to push through to the end.  

 

While I expected the story to be focused more on Ben Bookman (even the names are cheesy, something I loved), the actual main characters were Detective Mills and his daughter Detective Blue who had something of a complicated relationship due to Mills struggles with alcoholism and insomnia throughout the years.  And while the character development of these characters was very well done, I don't think the author took the opportunity to address the issues as well as he could.  I did like how the author showed how complicated a relationship can be, and how there are always more than one side to an issue.  I did feel like Ben's character wasn't as developed as the others which made him come across as unlikable and troubled, suffering from trauma due to his brother's disappearance all those years ago.  I am not saying that that does not define one's life, I am saying that it is more complicated than it appears in this book, and I felt like it did a disservice to Ben's character.  To me, it felt like the author was using Ben as a red herring, something that didn't quite work.  

 

The first half of the book was quite intriguing, and I found myself flying through the pages.  There was a lot going on and I found myself constantly flipping from one character to another as the guilty party, trying to figure out who could have done such a thing.  While there were definitely some paranormal elements, they were superseded by the mystery and the horrible deaths and I enjoyed the investigation as that is something I like.  I devour police procedural novels as fast as I devour horror novels so to have both of these in this novel was a treat.  Unfortunately, when the book took on more of a paranormal element and focused on the nightmares, which was interesting, the whole plot went sideways for me and I started to lose interest.  It's not that there weren't intriguing elements, it's just that the story became bogged down with too many plot lines and became muddled which made the great tension and overall spookiness of the first half disappear.  And honestly, I just didn't see the point of some of the plot lines, such as the Jennifer/Julia one as I don't think all of them were necessary to the story. 

 

Verdict

The Nightmare Man is well-written and has an intriguing story line, but too many plot lines in the second half of the book muddled up the story to the point where I started to lose interest and had to push through to the end.  I did like the character development and enjoyed the idea behind this novel as I know I would not want my nightmares coming alive, but felt the author didn't use the ideas as well as he could have.  However, there was so much potential in this book that I am definitely looking forward to his next book in this genre, and hopes he writes more.