The Dead Man Vol 1: Face of Evil, Ring of Knives, Hell in Heaven [Kindle Edition]

Tales of horror are, apparently, very popular - but it can't be because of books like this, unless the genre has been re-defined so as to exclude tension, anticipation and cogent thought. The three novellas - though these barely qualify -seem to be a pile of ingredients assembled by amateur cooks. Assorted blood and violence with pointless sex scenes and coarse language just about sums these up. The first, introductory, story, is just over 100 pages long, at least 50 of which could be discarded. Here we meet our living corpse - potentially an interesting creation, but in practice a 'with one bound he was free' run of the mill action hero whom we would like to admire, but who is not allowed to develop more than a single dimension. The second tale is better written, but over-indulgent - and hence dull; a routine gorefest puts an end to the interesting initial plotline. In the third tale, our hero arrives in Oz/Brigadoon with predictable results (The best modern handling of this scenario is Vamp). Predictable results need not destroy a well-told tale, of course - many of Blackwood's stories derive their success from their unrolling predictability just because the climax is unavoidable. There's nothing here to rival Stoker's Judge's House or Jacobs's Monkeys Paw - and the attempts at humour have neither the dryness of James nor the elegant wit of Saki. Perhaps horror writing is now a dead art (no, I haven't forgotten King - who has yet to translate some truly excellent ideas into readable prose - not as far as I am concerned, anyway); authors seem to be already dreaming of which effects will look good on film (none of them do - bring back Lewton)instead of concentrating on the word picture. These stories are by no means the worst of their type; but that doesn't say much for the genre as a whole.

This is espresso strength pulp horror fiction at its finest. It has page-flipping story-telling, adventure, gore, badly written sex (a tradition in and of itself) and a high plains drifter hero compelled to hit the road through a supernatural curse.
This is a compilation of three novels. In the first, "Face of Evil," the `pilot' episode, Matthew Cahill is buried alive in an avalanche / skiing accident. He is discovered three months later as a corpse, but inexplicably revives. But, he has the curse to see a physical manifestation of evil as a flesh rotting disease, spread by the touch of the macabre "Mr Dark," who has revived Matt for his own sinister purposes. Matt finds that the curse both draws evil with him and gives him the power to also prevent it, through new powers of strength, resilience and super-fast healing. It is this curse and mission, both to unravel the curse, defeat Mr Dark, and fight his evil that pits Matt on the road.
The first story is a tragic origins one, where Matt is forced to confront a man who he has always rescued, an abuse scarred buddy who becomes the first to be infected by Mr Dark's leprous touch.
In the second instalment, "Ring of Knives," Matt finds himself in an evil plagued psychiatric institution (the only tale to be penned by James Daniels, the others by series creators Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin) where both lunatics and devils have taken over the asylum. This is the strongest in terms of storytelling and I thought the strongest writing style. It's a blast, pacey, scary and insanely enjoyable.
And in the final instalment, a variant on the familiar Deliverance / `Our town' themes, Matt finds himself in the role of a lawgiver in a time froze community locked in a blood feud, after he kills the demon dictator holding them in a pattern of ceasefire.
With his trademark woodman's axe, Matt Cahill is a new iconic hero of pulp horror. I'm looking forward to seeing the axe swing again in V2.

Boring and repetitive every single story was the same I doubt if I will be reading anything else from this author