October

(Flame Tree Press — October 8, 2024)

Readers of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes and All Hallows by Christopher Golden will love this one!

In 1970, four boys on the cusp of becoming teenagers notice strange events occurring in Maplewood, NH, timed with the late-night arrival of an old magician who has taken up residence in a boarding house in their neighborhood where one of the tenants is a reclusive pulp horror writer.

The writer’s fears have kept him from venturing outside in over forty years, fears linked to the magician’s previous visit. As children go missing in town, the four boys try to piece together seemingly unrelated phenomena and realize dark forces are at work, but no one will believe them.

Flame Tree Press is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. You can learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress ...

Shadow Flicker

(Flame Tree Press — March 29, 2022)

Investigator Oscar Basaran travels to Kidney Island off the coast of Maine to document the negative effects of shadow flicker from wind turbines on residents living near the windmills, but is unprepared for what he encounters from the islanders. Oscar’s research shows that sleep deprivation, light deficiency and ringing headaches brought on by the noise and constant strobe-like effect of the sun filtered through the spinning blades of the turbines brings on hallucinatory episodes for the closest neighbors to the machines.

Melody Larson’s elderly father nearly chokes to death after stuffing dandelion heads into his mouth. The Granberrys’ pregnant cow repeatedly runs headlong into a fence post. Tatum Gallagher mourns her young son who vanished more than a year ago, presumed swept out to sea by a wave while fishing on the rocky shore, but several people claim to see him appear only in the glimmer of the shadow flicker.

Aerosource, the energy corporation that owns the turbines, hired Oscar to investigate the neighbors’ claims, but the insurance agent shows no allegiance to the conglomerate, especially after learning a previous employee sent to the island a year before has disappeared without a trace. When Oscar meets former island school science teacher Norris Squires, fired for teaching his students about the harmful effects of shadow flicker, he learns a theory regarding Aerosource that sounds too preposterous to believe.

While it seems the shadow flicker effect has driven some of the island’s animals crazy, is it possible it’s caused an even worse mental breakdown among the human inhabitants? Or is something more nefarious at work on the island? As Oscar’s investigation deepens, he discovers the turbines create an unexpected phenomena kept secret by a select group of people on Kidney Island who have made a scientific breakthrough and attempt to harness its dark power.

Flame Tree Press is the imprint of long-standing independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. You can learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress ...

Snowball

(Flame Tree Press — 2020)

A group of motorists become stranded on a lonely stretch of highway during a Christmas Eve blizzard and fight for survival against an unnatural force in the storm. The gathered survivors realize a tenuous connection among them means it may not be a coincidence that they all ended up on this highway.

An attempt to seek help leads a few of the travelers to a house in the woods where a twisted toymaker with a mystical snow globe is hell bent on playing deadly games with a group of people just trying to get home for the holidays.

Loonies

(JournalStone — 2015)

Smokey Hollow is a quiet town, but all that changes when Brian Keays moves in and discovers a locked steamer trunk in the attic of his home.

A suspicious fire destroys a mental asylum, but there is no sign of any of its inhabitants. Victims are found dead with a pillowcase over their heads, the same method used in an unsolved series of murders, committed over fifty years ago.

Brian tries to piece together the connection to the trunk and its grisly contents, his investigation aided by anonymous notes. He follows the trail from a ventriloquist firefighter whose dummy knows more than its puppeteer, to a Somnambulist whose pockets contain clues, and to a Knackerman who disposes of animal carcasses but keeps a container with its own mysterious contents.

Death is everywhere, but answers are hard to come by ...

Jokers Club

(JournalStone — 2011)

Diagnosed with a brain tumor, Geoffrey returns to his hometown for a reunion of the Jokers Club (his childhood gang) with the hopes of unearthing the imagination he held in his youth. Upon arriving, he discovers the creative juices that drove his writing many years ago surround him: the tombstone salesman who chisels out names of the dead, the far-sighted barber with the bloodstained smock and the reclusive Tin Man, just to name a few.

Unfortunately Geoffrey's tumor quickly worsens, bringing on blackouts and hallucinations where he encounters the spectral figure of a court jester who had been his muse as a child. The jester inspires Geoffrey's work on his manuscript, fueling his writing at a ferocious pace. The dead and the living co-exist in the pages of Geoffrey's story, in a town where time seems to be frozen in a past that still haunts the present.

When one of the gang is found dead it rattles not only his group of friends, but everyone begins to look at each other as possible suspects. Will the pounding growth in Geoffrey's head be held at bay long enough for him to discover who is targeting his friends, or will the pages in his unfinished novel rewrite history?

By David Pitt

(For Booklist)

March 3, 2022

Something strange is going on in Kidney Island, Maine. People (and even some livestock) are behaving erratically, experiencing brain-splitting headaches, seeing visions. Is it all due, as some of the residents claim, to “shadow flicker”, the disruptive effect of the shadows cast by the enormous blades on the nearby wind turbines? Or is there something darker at work?

Insurance investigator Oscar Basaran is given the assignment of determining what’s happening at Kidney Island, but is he prepared for what he might find?

Bastianelli (Snowball, 2020) taps into a much discussed issue, the effects of wind farms on residents in the area: some say “shadow flicker” is a myth, others that it’s a real phenomenon and quite harmful. The author, of course, comes up with another explanation, and it’s a scary and surprisingly believable one.

This is a gripping horror story from an author who deserves a wider audience.

By Bob Pastorella

(for This Is Horror.com)

February 24, 2022

“With his latest novel, Bastianelli taps into the real phenomenon of ‘shadow flicker’, spinning a frightening story of madness and paranoia ...”

Reviewed by Publishers Weekly

February 17, 2022

Strange phenomena and dark mysteries hide within the flickering shadows cast by the windmills at the center of this chilling horror novel from Bastianelli (Snowball).

Bastianelli creates a spooky, claustrophobic small-town atmosphere but leaves the exact nature of the strangeness unexplained, a lack of resolution that will frustrate some but for others will only enhance the horror.

It’s a dark, disturbing treat.

By Matthew Johns

(for the British Fantasy Society)

August 2021

It’s Christmas Eve, and everyone is rushing to get home to their families. As the song goes, snow is falling all around, and an unlucky bunch of travellers are (unlike the song) simply not going to have a wonderful Christmas time.

I enjoyed the action in the book and the way that he builds the tension as the travellers gradually start to realise that they are in danger. All in all, an enjoyable read from an author to watch in the horror genre.

By Toni V. Sweeney

(for New York Journal of Books)

Like the butterfly’s wings causing a storm thousands of miles away, SNOWBALL reveals how one small act can affect so many people’s lives. It also points out that no matter how cruel an individual may be, there could always be one person who loves them.

As gently as falling snow, it’s a story piling layer upon layer of horror, until the reader is weighed down by all that’s happened but continues hoping for a Happy Ending, that everything will turn out all right. After all, it’s Christmas Eve, isn’t it? Bad things can’t happen on Christmas Eve.

Can they?

By Shawn Macomber

(for Rue Morgue.com)

August 2020

New Hampshire author Bastianelli follows up a pair of clever, underappreciated shockers, LOONIES (2015) and JOKERS CLUB (2011), with this delightfully deranged tale that reads like a Greatest Hits of Yuletide horror: Modern-day Donner-Party-esque stranding in a blizzard? Check. Ghosts in the squalls? Check. Mystical snow globe? Check. A gang of characters on the Naughty List? Check. "Twisted toymaker"? Check. Murderous supernatural creatures stalking? Check.

SNOWBALL isn't going to be optioned as a Hallmark holiday movie of the week anytime soon, but if you want a Halloween-infused Christmas terror tale to help get you through this long, hot quarantine summer, Bastianelli has got you covered ... with several feet of bloodsoaked snow.

By Seven Jane

(for The Nerd Daily)

January 2020

In "Snowball", an upcoming holiday horror/thriller from author Gregory Bastianelli, the ghosts of winters past come out to play when a group of weary travellers find themselves snowbound on Christmas Eve. The only problem is: the road they thought they were travelling has just taken them somewhere very different than they expected, and there are no gifts waiting on the other side of the blizzard for this unlucky caravan.

Bastianelli has assembled an ensemble cast of holiday commuters for his trip to holiday hell-including the quintessential executive, the freshly-engaged college couple, a single mother towing her kids, a trucker, an elderly couple in an RV and more. Giving unique voices and winter torments to each traveller is something of a speciality for Bastianelli, who manages to create holiday torments that ring true for each passenger ... and each reader.

The story's shtick is in its title, "Snowball", a process that starts from something small and builds upon itself, becoming graver through the inertia of its own momentum as it becomes disastrous. It's a clever pun for the tale's delicate if unrelenting tension-building arc, which not only connects all the seemingly unrelated travelers, but dooms them to share the same unfortunate fate as the weight of their past indiscretions bears down in an avalanche upon them all. Each of our travellers is on their way to the same frozen end, with some particularly chilling surprises in store for the naughtier on Bastianelli's list. A word of warning to the reader: don't get too cosy with any characters you meet on this journey home for the holidays ... some don't last, and most are not what they seem.

At times seeming to borrow heavily from recent holiday horror film "Krampus", "Snowball" brings together contemporary interpretations of some of the darker folktales of the Yuletide, along with modern-day horrors and a sprinkling of Jack the Ripper-esque brutality to tie the festivities together. Whether it's the Scrooge and Marley-like strained (or, I could say, more precisely, chained) business relationship between a twisted toymaker and his former business partner, carnivorous snowmen, a certain birch switch-swishing, children-snatching beasty of legend, or the Iceman, a murderous, ice tong wielding madman, Bastianelli serves up the perfect holiday monster for every reader (Frankly, there's a couple travellers that this reader found a mite creepy, too).

It's all in good spirit, though, because what would Christmas be without a little bit of fun to brighten revellers' appreciation of the season? For a holiday that comes only once a year, there's no time to waste; the game is already afoot.

If you're looking for something to keep you cosy on cold winter nights, then find something else to read because there are no warm holiday tidings to be found here. But, if you'd prefer to spend the darkest nights of the year shivering as you await the temps to rise and the sun to return, then this is the holiday horror you've been waiting for.

Reviewed by Publishers Weekly

November 2019

Dark memories return to haunt a group of strangers stranded in a deadly blizzard in this chilling Christmas-themed horror novel from Bastianelli (Loonies).

After a snowplow driver is murdered by something hiding in the vents of his plow on Christmas Eve, it leaves a pileup of strangers stuck in their cars on the highway in the middle of a terrible storm. They seek shelter in one couple's RV, passing the time sharing grisly stories of their worst winters. As the night progresses, figures from their stories begin appearing in the storm—among them ghosts, animated snowmen, and Krampus, the horned Christmas goat demon from European folklore—and the motorists realize that they have more to fear than just the blizzard as nightmares of Christmases past come back for revenge.

The vivid, terrifying imagery of each of the character's story makes up for a confusing resolution to the frame plot. Readers will be riveted by this genuinely scary holiday phantasmagoria.

By Frank Errington

2015

I love a good opening line and Loonies opens with this one, "Smokey Hollow had the appearance of a quiet and quaint New England town, until the trunk in the attic was opened." I was drawn in immediately. Part horror, part crime drama, and part mystery, Loonies kept me turning pages right to the very end.

Brian Keays and his wife Darci are new to town. Brian has taken the job of editor at the community's weekly paper while Darci spends her days at home preparing for the upcoming birth of their first child. It's a quiet life until the discovery of a trunk in the attic that when opened reveals a mystery that will envelope the entire town.

Even with all the craziness in this story, the plausibility factor remains very high. There are many unforgettable characters in Smokey Hollow, some of my favorites being the assistant fire chief, Simon Runck and his ventriloquist's dummy Marshall, and the town Somnambulist, Sherman Thurk. I can't help but think this story was a lot of fun to write, but at the same time, a lot of work. Loonies is a bit like a giant jigsaw puzzle with so many pieces, yet very satisfying when you put them all together.

I found Loonies to be wickedly imaginative and a fun read. It's available both in paperback and a variety of ebook formats from Journalstone.

By JG Faherty

2015

Loonies—the latest novel by Greg Bastianelli—is definitely a fun, fast, exciting read with equal amounts mystery and humor. The author does an excellent job of amping up the thrill factor as the book moves along while not sacrificing plot or characterization. The mix of chills, oddball characters, and surprising twists will keep you reading right to the very end. If you're looking for a fresh, slightly twisted suspense novel with a dash of horror thrown in, this is your summer book.

By P. Zomb

(for Pissed Off Geek)

January 2012

Stories about writers returning to the towns in which they grew up are quite a well-trod path in not only fiction but also television and even movie games nowadays. The memories of childhood are quite a catalyst for stories that the writer wants to get out, not only in the actual story but from the actual author that is writing the novel itself.

Jokers Club is one of these types of stories. Geoffrey is a writer who is dying of a brain tumor, crushing headaches were not only the first sign of this but are now his constant friend as he waits for the inevitable death that is on its way. This is when he gets an invitation from old friends to come to a reunion of the Jokers Club. These men, who were once boys who shared a dark secret in their past have come together to think of old times and to rekindle friendships that were destroyed in the past by what they had done. Each have their own little thing, there is the over achiever, the drunk, the quiet one and the writer; Geoffrey is the writer. Little love is lost between the group and when they start to be killed off one by one paranoia sets in and Geoffrey fears he will be next, even wonders if he could be the killer, has his tumor started to effect his sanity? This is when his muse returns, the Joker himself. The jester like figure helps him to work out just what is going on in the small town and who is to blame for the deaths of the Jokers Club and what part Geoffrey has to play in it.

As I stated this type of story is a well-worn path and has been used many times, this is not a bad thing really though because if done well this type of story can provide interest and a strong story. Jokers Club keeps you guessing up till the end, as the main narrator Geoffrey leads you by the hand through his home town and tells you the stories from his past. You learn of such characters as the Tin Man, and Carrot Head, about how the Jokers Club were well known as being the practical jokers of the town and often got in troubles. Looking back into the past like this provides the reader with an interesting insight not only into the characters of the story but also what took place between the members of the club and the outcomes of their actions.

The inclusion of the "Joker" himself as Geoffrey's muse is an interesting plot device and adds an edge to what is going on. The character is often maniacal and shows a psychotic nature that often has you wondering about Geoffrey's sanity and just how the tumor has taken hold of his actions, being that it is a brain tumour that can affect people like that. Or even is the Joker a manifestation of the tumour in his sub conscience pushing his actions into the world of the insane. I did feel though that the jester itself was a bit of a simplistic character who needed more of an edge, this does improve as the story goes on but of all the people in Geoffrey's life the jester was the more two dimensional of them, he needed a little fleshing out more.

Even though the story of the Jokers Club is not as original as it can be Gregory Bastianelli creates an engrossing tale of a childhood that is forever changed and a mystery that does actually keep you guessing. He writes in a style that pulls you into the story and keeps you turning the page out of interest where it will go next. The book is short and for myself personally I would have loved some of the characters to be fleshed out a little more but other than that Jokers Club is a good read that will keep you guessing, even to the very last pages.

By Brett Talley

(Author of “That Which Should Not Be”)

2012

Dark secrets are like dead bodies—sometimes, they refuse to stay buried. It isn't often I read a book that I have trouble putting down, but the Jokers Club grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go.

Gregory Bastianelli is a master at creating rich and fully-developed worlds and then inviting us to explore them with him. In Jokers Club, Bastianelli weaves what is seemingly a straightforward tale—years ago a group of friends were involved in a horrible accident, one that they have kept secret for all their lives. But now, at their first reunion in a decade, they begin to die, killed one by one at the hands of a mysterious assailant. Is one of their members the killer?

Even on its own terms, the tale that Bastianelli presents is rich and detailed enough to make a fine story, but he is not content to let us off so easily. Instead, he gives us a narrator in Geoff who is haunted by both the past and a tumor that is slowly consuming his brain. The story that he tells us—both in the form of his contemporary thoughts as well as his writings about the things that happened when he and his friends were boys is often uncertain. The pictures Bastianelli expresses through Geoff only adds to the other worldliness of the book's style, creating a setting where even a stroll down the town boardwalk is a mysterious mystical adventure.

I recommend Jokers Club without reservation. My only wish is that Bastianelli had written more, for when we take the last turn and absorb the final twist, you are left wanting the story to continue.

5-Stars ...

By Publishers Weekly

Link to "Jokers Club" Review

January 2012

The novel "Jokers Club" was reviewed by Publishers Weekly, a leading news website of book publishing and bookselling.

By Dave Gammon

(for Horror News)

December 2011

Jokers Club has made me proud to be a horror fan again. No longer is there a need to endure sneers, snickering and low brow comments at social gatherings. Granted an interest in the macabre comes along quickly in tow with the stereotype of being unabashedly disturbed. Make no mistake about it even the disturbed do have integrity.

In an era where we're force fed contrived remakes such as Piranha, Friday the 13th and The Step Father is it any wonder why our love for the dark side is balked at? I cannot count how many red faced episodes I'd sustained in recent years to an unexpected early return of my wife at home. Scrambling for the remote or television off button with trembling hands, one could only pray to be caught in the act of something more sophisticated or dignified like watching porn.

Instead guilty pleasures are exposed in watching yet another sequel to Saw, some different spin or another on the Exorcist, trumped up 'reality but not really reality' fan fare of the paranormal and for the love of god yet another rehashed, refurbished teen vampire rip off. The true humiliation is being asked by others, why do you watch this garbage?

My common elected response is simply I don't know. At times it would be more practical and productive to continuously grind a rusty file into my eye while repeatedly watching infomercials on Slap Chop or Sham-wow.

I realize these films are not literature. In certain realms our once chilly and harrowing authors have been deduced to mediocrity as well. Anyone else tired of reading about the sarcastic characters with their token trusty dog in some sort of government conspiracy or cover up exposed? Anyone else bored to tears being trapped in perpetual Bangor or Castlerock, Maine? Certainly last but not least some masterpieces are far behind them having frolicked in bliss once out of the closet or been (with all due respect) born once again in the eyes of God. I cannot help but ponder would the greats Bradbury, Lovecraft, Serling or Hitchcock settle for second best?

Praise the Lord of Darkness we need not ponder further. Bastianelli's tale is brilliantly crafted beginning with aspiring author Geoffrey Thorn returning to his New England town upon invitation to be reunited with his boy hood chums. The six some has a male adolescent clan of sorts aptly called Jokers Club. They'd assemble regularly in their custom tree house to read comics, chew that fat and scheme about what mischief they could concoct. One devilishly sinister prank included digging up folklore legend the Colonel out of the town's mausoleum. Egging one another on, peer pressure prevails as they transport the body to the rural town police chief's house. The door bell is rang, running and hilarity ensues. Harmless good fun right?

Paul "Woody", Dale, Lonny, Martin, Geoff and their self appointed leader Oliver make up the pack. A new pledge is presented in the form of Jason Nightingale, recently moved into town with his folks. Oliver dislikes the 'newbie' from the get go but decides not to force the issue against majority rules.

The pivotal point of our exposition is when cigars are passed out in curious custom fashion in the tree house. Not long after the youths inadvertedly set the club house a blaze. Fearing the worst possible wraith from their parents, each flees the scene. Ultimately the new kid confesses the horrific episode to his folks, causing a rippling affect of epic proportion in each boy's household. Oliver is punished by means of a physical beating by his drunken, abusive father.

To extract revenge the Oliver instigates a game of hide and seek. Upon the ruins of a scrap yard they instruct Jason to hide in one of the obsolete, discarded freezers. Once inside Oliver aggressively demands each of the boys leave, promising he'd let out oblivious Jason later once he's learned his lesson.

Needless to state it takes not a respirologist to determine the exact cause of death. In sheer horror the boys swear on an unholy pact to never divulge the exact sequence of events in their friend's untimely demise.

Twenty years later the remainder of Jokers Club reunites in their alma mater. Each is confused as to who had dispatched the invitations and why each was assembled there once again to surface their repressed terror. One by one the adult club members are found brutally murdered. Our lead protagonist Geoffrey Thorn delves back into his writing in desperate attempt to find answers to the frightful questions being asked and acted out before them. He struggles with dementia and reality in this gripping tale of whodunit that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Jokers Club is an excellent read to rejuvenate the passion for all that goes bump in the night. Classic indication of an effective horror is one that keeps you thinking long after the fact. Images of a gnarled, decomposing Jason Nightingale will render you screaming in fits of cold sweats throughout the night.

Ladies and gentlemen there is a new messiah of macabre and his name is Gregory Bastianelli.

By Amy Eye

(for JournalStone Publishing)

September 2011

Ever do something you were not proud of as a child? Did you ever dream that one blunder would haunt you for the rest of your life? Ever think a mistake you made as a child could leave you paying the debt with your life years later? I made more of my share of mistakes growing up, I'm just happy I wasn't a part of the Jokers Club.

Once upon a time, there was a group of pleasant, young boys. They had meetings trying to decide how to better their community, how to help their fellow man, and how to lift the self-esteem of all those around them.

This is NOT their story.

The Jokers Club had a different agenda.

Instead of planting flowers, walking the old lady across the street, and smiling at the dork in class, the Jokers Club is smoking (oh no!), removing dead bodies from the grave (NO JOKE!!), and something much, much worse (DUN DUN DUN!!!).

The group of young men disband, as most do as they grow up (or until something tragic happens), and years later a reunion is underway. Each of the members has their own agenda when attending the get-together. One wants to rekindle old friendships, one wants to regain lost inspiration, one wants to borrow money, and yet another wants to show how powerful he has become.

The sleepy little town they come from is not too happy to see the return of these fellows, and when tragedy strikes the Jokers Club once again, the police are more than happy to keep an eye on these known troublemakers. But is it fair to judge these men based on their past?

Just in time for Halloween comes a brilliant horror novel that keeps you guessing the end until the very last page. When I started reading this, I was instantly drawn in by the rich detail and a clever introduction. I kept reading because of the characters, the plot, and the never ending twists and turns. The events that unfold in this book are truly horrifying, heartbreaking, and disturbing.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves horror. This horror is good for everyone, it leaves you knowing what happened but without the extreme gore and icky bits flying all over. You can add in as much or little detail in your own head as you want. The author gives you enough to paint any kind of picture you want. Like a bit of mystery with your horror? This provides 110%. I KNEW what was going to happen. I KNEW who did it, who the terrible nightmare was. This is one of the only times I will say I was perfectly okay with being DEAD WRONG.

This Halloween season, or anytime you want a good spine-chilling thrill, grab a copy of this and settle in. You will not want to get up until you have finished. (Keep a flashlight handy and maybe a favorite teddy?)