Doug Lamoreux

When The Tik-Tik Sings by Doug Lamoreux starts off with the sound of tik, tik, tik, tik., and then the horror begins.

The author sets up the first scene perfectly. It caught my attention and had me hooked. But somewhere along the line the author lost me. The fact that the main character, Erin Vanderjagt, is not the kind of character that I envision when I envision a female cop. With all the witnesses, her 'boyfriend,' and others telling her what's going on, she still has no clue. I felt as though her character was a bit of a bitch, and a bitch does not a strong woman make.… (mer)

Doug Lamoreux is becoming one of my favorite authors, so when I saw he had a new book released for Halloween, I just had to buy it. I was not disappointed. I’m not a fan of anthologies as it’s hard to rate the book. What if some of the short stories are great, but the rest aren’t? I need not fear in this case. Doug took seven short stories and interlaced them within a whole.

The main plot is the discovery of a dead couple, long overripe, their stink permeating the neighborhood, and a late night call to Herb Flay from his boss to bring the van for the reclamation of the decomposing bodies. Just as we become immersed In the main story, who are the dead people?, how did they die?, Doug jerks us into one of the spooky stories the First Responders are telling each other as they await the arrival of Herb and the van. Between each short story, we’re feed a little more about Herb, and the two people lying dead in their home. Just enough to peak our interest, then back into another short story we go. I thought the whole lay out of this book was beautifully done. It kept me reading, wanting to know more.

Doug is a master story-teller, and I felt I was right there with the First Responders, in that cold, damp garage, wanting to see what lay In the house, but also afraid of what they would find. I enjoyed this book very much, and I will NEVER, EVER let someone sit next to me on the city bus again. EVER!

If you are a fan of the unusual, and things that go bump in the night, you will love this book. I highly recommend it and give it 5 ghouls.… (mer)

I’ve been a fan of Doug Lamareux’s writing since I read The Devil’s Bed. I had a blast reading that book, so I was looking forward to this one. As I got into the first chapter I stopped and went, Oh, one of those. I’m not a fan of literary writing like Moby Dick, Grapes of Wrath, etc. To me, it’s like reading technical manuals. But I was intrigued by the story matter and I knew if Doug wrote it, it had to be an awesome tale. I was not disappointed. There are no surprise endings here, as we know what happened after Dracula arrived in England. This is Doug’s version of what happened to the sailing ship Demeter and her unlucky crew. Better known as Fanfiction.

Fanfiction has gotten a bad rap as a lot of it is badly written garage. But not this book. If you love Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, you will not be disappointed. I was impressed by how well-written the story was, the research involved, and the professional editing and proofreading. Rare commodities in Indie books or small presses. I did feel there was a tad bit too much background and detail. I found myself nodding off a few times with all the nautical terms.

As for the characters, there was a wide range of them, from different backgrounds, that happened to be on that ill-fated trip. It was confusing at first about who was who. Especially when being referred to by their positrons on the crew, such as first or second. But as one by one, they met their horrific fates, I felt for each one of them. And horrific they were. Yes, he threw in spiders. ECK! You can’t help but fell sorry for Harrington, Swales, and Ekaterina. They were just pawns in Dracula’s game. Speaking of pawns, Jonathan Harker, Lucy, Mina, and Renshaw were woven seamlessly into the storyline, anchoring this tale firmly into the legend of Dracula.

If you love reading literary masterpieces written in the vein of true Gothic horror, you really need to buy this book. I give it 4 fangs.… (mer)

This one was my fault. It didn't come from the author or a publishing group/company. I saw the cover on Amazon.com and thought, "Hmm... this may be good, Alyssa." Boy was I wrong. Guess what guys! I didn't even finish the book.

As with many authors today, The Melting Dead by Doug Lamoreux is a new take on a old idea. These aren't so much zombies as they're alive yet dying, simply mutated by something I won't tell you about because what? I don't give SPOILERS! So with that, I snatched the book and added it to my Kindle for a read.

TMD is very slow. When I last read the book, I was about 36% into the tale and there'd only been one bout of serious action. The rest was jibber-jabber to me. The author introduced character after character and NONE of them held my interest! They were one dimensional...

One character, Angela- a theater directer, was the most annoying! She constantly rattled off movie titles, and references (which shoulda been pretty cool) for either no apparent reason or when she felt the situation deserved... a title? A definition to what was happening? I don't know, but I always knew when the next chapter would be...

For the rest of this review: http://bit.ly/1OsiOAS
**This book is from my personal ebook library.… (mer)