I'm A Voracious Reader : Red Adept Tour ~ Life After Dane

Title ~ Life After Dane
Author ~ Edward Lorn
Publisher ~ Red Adept Publishing
Published ~ 15 July 2013
Genre ~ Horror/Paranormal

*Book source ~ Many thanks to Red Adept for providing a review copy. Please see disclaimer page.

My Rating ~ 5 bites out of 5

Dane Peters was a serial killer known as the Rest Stop Dentist. Having killed 42 people he was finally caught, tried and sentenced to death. His mother, Ella, watched the execution of her only child then went back to her house in Colorado and attempted to move on. Life after Dane wasn’t easy for the mother of a serial killer, but it got even harder when Ella started seeing and hearing her baby boy. Was she hallucinating? Going insane? Or was Dane truly haunting her and if so, why? Ella loved her son even after the things he did, so what is the reason behind his harassment of her from beyond the grave? And will she survive it?

I can sum up this story in two words…Ho-ly shit! The blurb piqued my interest. The first sentence yanked me into a seat, strapped me down and took off down the highway careening at breakneck speeds in a race to the end. The final flourish of brakes after crossing the finish line left me slumped in my seat, dazed, eyes wide and mouth dropped open. There might have been some drool. I know my hair was standing on end. And I truly said, ‘Ho-ly shit!’ Ask my cats, who jumped then started licking themselves or my dogs who started barking at my hoarse shout, looking for the threat to their Mistress. This book gave me the heebie jeebies. I hope animals can sense ghosts.

This is not a whodunit. We know who. We know what, where, when and how. What we don’t know is why. As the story unfolds the picture slowly comes into focus and we get the why. The terrible why. The people in this book are despicable and the person who ends up with the majority of my sympathy is Dane. Hard to admit about a serial killer, but there it is. Condone what he did? Oh, hell no. But understand what made him into one? Yes.

If you want a nail biting, stomach churning, ho-ly shit book to read then this is the one for you. The words flow smoothly across the page as Ella attempts to live a life where she’s now known as the mother of a serial killer. The flashbacks Dane makes her remember are integrated smoothly into the narrative and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what would happen next. Dane's appearances are goosebump inducing. And the finale? Sweet Baby Jane, the finale. *shudders*