Blood & Dirt

By: Corey Niles

Narrated by: Nicholas Kennedy

Vincent depended on his boyfriend, James, to stand up for him—until a violent hate crime results in James’s murder.

Weeks after his funeral, James reappears, perfectly healthy, but changed in ways that neither of them can quite understand. Now, Vincent must uncover what truly happened on the night they were attacked.

In the face of an apathetic police force and a growing number of missing gay men, Vincent and James work to identify the criminals who attacked them.

With James scarred from what happened to him in the weeks between his death and rediscovery, Vincent must learn to stand up for himself and face his real monsters, or lose James—and himself.

©2022 NineStar Press (P)2023 Corey Niles

Definitely a page turner!

I have not read a really good suspenseful horror novel in awhile. I loved the details and the characters were relateable. I really enjoyed the Pittsburgh background of the book. This book was well researched and well written. Definitely a "can't put the book down" read. I look forward to the next book from Corey Niles!!!

I Really Wanted to Like This

Per the title, I really wanted to like this.

The narration is perfectly nice, though nothing special. My issue was, well, the story and the writing. It's meant to be a "real world" horror (e.g. everything is normal except when it isn't), and in overall structure it achieves this. It fails in its execution.

My first issue is that the way the story unfolds is completely predicated on the characters doing some basic irrational, illogical things. Right from the get-go, I'm skeptical. These illogical actions continue, almost ramming plot points down your throat.

(MILD) SPOILER ALERT: I'll give a couple of examples. First is the relationship with the main character and his professor, which continues throughout to challenge anything related to a normal interaction between two such characters. The second is the homophobia, which seems... contrived... and doesn't really promote the story and comes to an illogical conclusion between the police and our main characters. Ditto the relationship between the main character and the boyfriend's best friend. Finally.... HOW can we be expected to believe that neither the main character nor boyfriend's best friend think to tell someone "hey my dead boyfriend is actually alive". Their various rationales for not doing so just plain don't make sense. Maybe I could suspend disbelief for one of them going along with that, but not both... and even one is a stretch. These aren't even all examples, just the most illustrative.

The suspenseful buildup promised doesn't exist. The final act is super-contrived, making the earlier part of the book almost believable by comparison. I was really hoping for some suspense, some dread, and a good ol' fashioned horror novel with some gay overtones. The whole thing seemed forced. I honestly finished it out of spite. It is thankfully fairly short.