Stephen Mark Rainey, Blue Devil Island

Blue Devil Island

Stephen Mark Rainey

Five Star, January 2007, $25.95, 300 pp.

ISBN 1594144427

The year is 1943 and Lieutenant commander Drew McLachlan, along with his pilots who are flying in their new F6F-3 Hellcat land on their new base of operations on Conquest Island in the Solomon Island chain in the South Pacific. Their mission is to push the Japanese off Bougainville, and the patriotic Navy pilots run many necessary and down many enemy aircraft.

They should feel joyous because they are not losing too many men or planes, but conditions on Conquest are slowly deteriorating. The men hear noises in the jungle, yet flyover shows no tribe has ever lived there. In the cave where the aviation fuel is stored, a rumbling is heard. Beast men attack the marines and pilots and a monster is seen on top of the mountain. It is getting into the military men's thoughts and Drew believes it is intelligent and evil, just like the beast men with their clawed hands, unusual jaw formation and other abnormalities, but are intelligent and in league with the monster. Between the Japanese attacking the island and the native monsters on it, Drew wonders if any of the men will make it out alive.

This is a horror novel reminiscent of the black and white terror novels of the 1950's. Stephen Mark Raines pays homage to Lovecraft in BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, an action packed thriller that slowly reveals the truth about the beast-men and the monster. The patriotism and courage of the military stationed on the island enables readers to understand why the Greatest Generation enlisted and were willing to die for the ideals their country stands for; the audience hopes they can defeat the enemy from within and without.