From author Nicholas James Wagner (Razor Country) comes Bedlam Trances, nine unsettling meditations on crime and horror. In “Crown of Switchblades,” Irish gangsters involved in a turf war run afoul of a cult. “The Tragic Events Befalling Lizaveta” follows a 15th century inquisitor as he researches the disappearance of monks from a German monastery. And in “Ceremony,” a private detective tracks a missing acquaintance to a mysterious art commune. This collection of menacing tales examines morally gray characters as they navigate cruel, unforgiving scenarios.
Dark bleatings, my beautiful tribe. Today’s review is going to be a little odd for you all, because I didn’t like the book very much, but it doesn’t deserve a negative review and I’m not going to give it one. This isn’t just me being too nice (just trust me, I’m a right d***head sometimes) to write a bad review, and I ask you to please hear me out.
This book was a review request and it was stated to me that it’s a collection of crime and horror stories (or more specifically, crime/horror, since the author mostly blends the two every time). What I should have done was to reply, letting the author know that I’d be willing to review it but I absolutely hate crime stories 99% of the time, and it’s a genre I tend to actively avoid so for me, it would be a hard sell. It would have been more fair to let him know this upfront and give him the opportunity to withdraw the request, but…ah, hindsight.
Simply put, this collection just isn’t my cup of tea, through no fault of the author. For my specific tastes, I would have liked much more horror and much less crime, though there was a balance that I think people who don’t have my irrational, inexplicable hatred for crime would really enjoy. The one criticism that I have that I think is fair to mention is that I noticed there was a bit of a void when it came to internal viewpoints. We’re often in the heads of characters, and everything is being explained perfectly well, but there isn’t much in the way of the character analysing or judging anything that was happening, if that makes sense. I think the stories would have been elevated for me quite a bit if I knew what the characters thought of what was happening, rather than just what was happening.
However, in terms of the concepts and plots and all that good stuff, the author did a great job. The plots were executed very well, I thought, and in the stories where there was a lot going on (like the first one, for example), the author does a great job of threading things together.
Another thing that I thought was great was the variety from story to story, in terms of locations and the time things are set in. The central theme might be crime, but the author certainly knows how to explore this in a way that makes every story different from the last. He takes us through different historical periods, social standards, social classes, and the lens through which some crimes are considered. The consequences of what’s happening in each story all take on their own routes too, which was great, because I never knew how anything was going to wrap up.
In terms of the horror, as I said, I would have liked much more (but once again, not really fair). However, I did find it effective. Firstly, the horror aspect of each story is, like the crime aspect, completely different from one tale to the next. Not only that, but the general feeling I had as I made my way through the collection was that I didn’t know if anything was ever going to be alright again, and this tense underpinning was pretty delicious, I must say.
For my own subjective tastes, this lands on a 2.5/3 stars out of 5 for me, but – and I’m really not just saying this – hand on heart, I think fans of both genres would really get a kick out of it, so please take my criticisms with a pinch of salt in this case. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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