Smells Like Evil Spirits

“Dave Zeltserman’s work is usually classic noir,” writes James R. Winter in his January Magazine review of Zeltserman’s new novel, Bad Thoughts. “Like James M. Cain, Jim Thompson and, more recently, Jason Starr, he favors enraged protagonists who paint themselves with a veneer of civility that hides their homicidal fires within.”

Just such a character is at the heart of Bad Thoughts: Boston Police Detective Bill Shannon, whose annually recurring nightmares are driving his wife away, worrying his cop partner, and bringing forth a serial killer, Herbert Winters, from his childhood to taunt him--and, it would seem, take the lives of more women. “This is definitely a horror story,” critic Winter explains, “but the element of Winters, supposedly dead, leaves the reader questioning whether there are elements of the supernatural involved. Through Shannon’s memory, we see Winters killed in such a way that leaves no question as to his fate. Yet here he is, years later, tormenting Shannon, threatening his wife and his partner, and giving detailed information to Shannon about the grisly murders leading up to the detective’s annual blackout.”

You can read the full review of Bad Thoughts here.