Long Past Midnight by Jonathan Maberry is the last Pine Deep book I have gotten to read. It is the last one period unless Maberry writes up some more and since he did write Ink recently, here’s to hoping. Yeah, I know, it is after X-mess and here I am reviewing a Halloween book. More bad Boneman, but I moved recently and Blah… here it is. Besides I should be reading horror over all the holidays. Really gets me in the mood for what is to come.
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Kensington Fiction
Released: 2023
Stars: 4.5 Stars
Reviewer: Michael D. Griffiths
Long Past Midnight is a collection of Horror short stories which all take place in Pine Deep. I strongly suggest you read the first three books first, but you do not have to. I read Ink before the original trilogy, and it did not really slow me down. The compilation contains 12 new stories many of them featuring Pine Deep favorites such as Crow, Iron Mike, and Val. I was also stoked to see Joe Ledger, Top, and Bunny make some appearances. Having Joe need to be saved by Crow is priceless.
Another great thing about this anthology is it wraps up some of the loose ends from the earlier books and makes me wonder if Maberry left them open on purpose just to have some short stories with real investment grit.
The stories themselves range from Crow and Val as kids to introducing Monk, the character from Ink. These are more action/horror, and it is good to see Crow done playing around. In gaming terms, he Mike and Val are some seriously high level characters now. This does not keep the horror from being real and profound.
After reviewing books for so long I tend to steer clear of anthologies. I feel like I have read so… many short stories and really require full books to be happy these days. This book was an exception for me and I’m glad it helped me fill the morning hours as the nights grew longer.
If horror is your thing, not much to poke at here. Again, if you read this without knowing about Crow and Joe it might not have the same impact and some of the comic moments might fall a little flatter.
Love it. If you are a fan of Pine Deep, Joe Ledger, or horror short stories this is a must grab. I spoke to Maberry briefly online and he suggested this book for me, and I am glad he did. And hell, I will just say it, I think he might be my favorite living horror author and his actions novels are damn good too.
.
.
.
.
.
Categorized i
Southwest Book Reviews 