James A. Moore, Possessions

Possessions

James A. Moore

Leisure, June 2004, $6.99, 352 pp.

ISBN 0843951710

The last happy moment Chris Corin will experience in a long time is his eighteenth birthday celebration with his closest friends and family attending. When his mother leaves early to work she realizes the necklace she always wears is at home; moments later she dies in a traffic accident caused by a creature not of this world. Chris' best friend Jerry and his girlfriend Katie help him and his fourteen year old sister Brittany get through the days preceding the funeral. After the funeral, Chris sees that someone tore up his mother's room looking for something.

People that change into creatures seek the Golden Key, going so far as to dig up the grave of Chris's mother. They finally grab it off Brittany's neck but Chris is determined to get it back. He learns where the creatures are conducting a ceremony and accompanied by Katie and Brittany he goes there to stop them and rescue Jerry and Brittany's boyfriend who are encased in a gel like substance. Their doppelgangers are upstairs performing a ritual that if completed will let an untold evil into the world.

Add a pinch of Stephen King, a dash of Dean Koontz, a flowering of Peter Straub and one part Bentley Little and readers will have an idea what a horror novel by James A. Moore is like. He is a grand storyteller who can hold his own with these masters. The good guys are so well developed and realistic that readers will fear for their safety and hope that if they survive, more stories starring this fine young group will be forthcoming.

Harriet Klausner