Leo Axler

Vyrmin started out well but once the story jumped forward in time to the present day it lost me a little. It started to feel hectic - especially the sections with police running here, there and everywhere. For a large part of the book, I felt like it wasn't going anywhere and was beginning to feel repetitive. At times it felt like two completely different stories thrown together, sort of like throwing scenes from an action movie into a dark atmospheric gothic movie.

I also had trouble getting the characters of Cooper and Conway straight in my head. For the first third of the book I kept losing track of who was who. Cooper and Conway were getting jumbled together and their names being similar didn't help. The writing style wasn't consistent. Some characters, scenes, and events were described vividly and were easily pictured in the minds eye, but other characters and scenes felt flat and distant - the characters were just names on the page. I found myself being drawn out of the story when it switched.

Vyrmin kind of held my attention, but I wasn't being drawn in as much as I wanted to be, and wasn't being drawn to pick it back up when I put it down. It just didn't work for me at all.

Not one I would recommend.… (mere)

Review copy

Before I get to the review, just a quick comment about the publisher, Bloodshot Books. I really admire the effort being made to find books that either had a limited print run or have gone out of print over the years and giving them new life in the digital age by releasing them in paperback and e-book formats. Earlier this year, they gave this treatment to The Awakening by Brett McBride, a wonderful coming of age story and one of the best books I've read in 2016.

All that being said, Vyrmin missed the mark for me. Originally released nearly twenty years ago, Vyrmin is a somewhat fresh take on the werewolf trope. Steeped in legend. the story spends much of it's 360 pages going nowhere.

The book starts with a chilling children's rhyme circa 1800...

There's wolves in the woods,
my girl, my girl,
There's wolves in the woods,
my dear.

But come the full moon,
see the blue moon,
And there's wolves in the house,
and the mirror.

The back story about Mr. Norris' five-year-old son who has something in his brain, that makes him see things...makes things happen, is compelling. The father has taken his boy to numerous Doctors, but no one seems to be able to help. Finally they find a Doctor who reveals the truth to the lad, but not to the father.

So far, so good.

However, when we get to modern times in Harpersville, Ohio the story seems to get bogged down, becomes repetitive, and just doesn't seem to go anywhere until the very end.

When I commit to reading a book, I always see it through to the last page, but I will admit, this time, there were moments I wanted to put it down and not pick it up again.

Don't get me wrong there are some bright spots to keep me reading...

"Everybody's got some o' the evil; and everybody's got some o' the good. Only the saints are all one way; and only the Vyrmin are all the other."

The good news is Vyrmin is available from Bloodshot Books through the Kindle Unlimited program, so if you are a subscriber you can check it out for yourself for no additional charge. Also, if you're an Amazon Prime member you can read the book for FREE through the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

I can't recommend this one, but as I like to say, your mileage may vary.

From the author's bio - Gene Lazuta was introduced to dark stories of fear and the supernatural by his grandmother. He's the author of ten books, (six horror and four murder mysteries. Gene lives in Berea, Ohio with his wife of over thirty years.… (mere)

"Bill Hawley joined the family business right out of college. He doesn't mind dealing with corpses, caskets, and grieving relatives. But he's ready for something more exciting - like moonlighting as an amateur sleuth. Because sometimes the death certificate doesn't tell the whole story...
Alexander Kane's fatal crash seemed accidental enough - yet he left a bizarre suicide tape for his son. Now Edward Kane has come to the sleuthing undertaker for help. He thinks that the tape is a fake and his father's death was no accident. Hawley reluctantly takes the case - and soon discovers that Alex Kane's life was as fake as his death..." - jacket notes from the Berkley paperback edition.
This is the second Bill Hawley mystery, after "Final Viewing". It's an average mystery with some black humour, not very memorable, okay for a light read on a plane trip. I haven't read any more of this series.… (mere)