Once Upon A Nightmare by Lee Moylan

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 330
Genre: Horror
Book Source: From author

On the night of October thirteenth, the Hunter's Moon descended upon the quiet town of White Chapel. As Sara Bishop drifted off to sleep under its soft illumination, the full moon seemed to have brought with it something far more sinister than a warm glow. At once, the nightmare started. But this wasn't any ordinary nightmare… This one seemed real - as if she could smell it, feel it, taste it. It was one of those dreams - one that awakened her witch-like sense - a harbinger of heartbreak and now, horror.

Together with Rebecca Parker, the only other person who understood her gift, someone who had experienced her own strange senses, Sara hoped to come to terms with this ominous nightmare. But her closest friend and next door neighbor was no where to be found - not since the night of October thirteenth. And so it begins. With little help from her skeptical husband or local police, Sara finds herself virtually alone as her grisly dreams crawl from the darkness to become a sick and twisted reality - a reality where she has become the ultimate desire of a sadistic serial killer. As images of death, phantoms and shadows surround Sara in this Halloween season, she needs to listen to the whispers in her mind, use her gift, to unmask those around her, for one of them is the man from her nightmare. And he sees her when she's sleeping… He knows when she's awake. www.leemoylan.com

Firstly, a big thank you to Lee for sending me Once Upon A Nightmare. I loved the personal message in the front of the book:

To Sheree,

Welcome to my nightmare!

Sweet Dreams ...

Lee Moylan

I jumped on this one as soon as it arrived in my mailbox and honest to goodness I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting, staying up into the wee hours with my heart in my mouth, my hair on end, and a sick feeling of dread in my stomache.

To become completely immersed in evil, caught up in the horror with the characters is a frightening experience & a testament to the talent of the author and the "poop your pants" quality of the story. Lee Moylan's characterisation is excellent, the mystical bond between Sara and her best friend Rebecca was both fascinating & terrifying and I found myself hoping for a miracle or a different outcome for one of my favourite characters while understanding the futility of such hope. While I had an inklng who the killer was part way through the book, my hunch was soon forgotten as the author's writing sent my suspicions off on different tangents. Apart from a minor hiccup with a scene that would have worked as narration rather than dialogue this book seriously blew me away.

Lee Moylan writes evil with such clarity, with a vividness that is too real for comfort. These were some of the best and most graphic and macabre murder scenes I have read in a long time. The author's passion for forensics is evident in her writing, she goes to great lengths to describe the physicality of what happens to the victims of this serial killer and believe me, it is not for the squeamish or faint hearted.

I love a disturbing, intense, chilling horror and Once Upon A Nightmare definitely fits that criteria, giving Lee Moylan entrance to the sacred sanctum of horror writers, joining the ranks of my favourites, Masterton, King, Koontz and Rickman

"Welcome to my nightmare" - check - your work here is done Lee!!
Bring on Fatal Charade.

About the Author:

Lee Moylan is a fiction writer with a BS degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She lives outside of Chicago in the Northwest suburbs with her three children. Besides a fascination with biology and chemistry, she has a passion for the art of forensics.

Her desire to comprehend the almost incomprehensible has driven her to create a frighteningly believable tale that explores the depths a deranged mind can go. The murderer of Once Upon a Nightmare combines elements of actual criminals. http://www.leemoylan.com/

Lee's inspiration for Once Upon A Nightmare came from a vivid nightmare she experienced and I hope to find out a little more about that in an up-coming interview.

You can purchase Once Upon A Nightmare from The Book Depository or Amazon.

This month on The Eclectic Reader you could win Fire by Kristen Cashore OR Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick OR Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. Check this blog post for details. International entrants welcome.