I had to do a Sudoku puzzle before I went to bed to make sure I didn’t go to sleep thinking about this book. (I have vivid dreams!) Unfortunately, e-mail cannot convey the enthusiasm or excitement that I feel for the book. It was amazing! I would describe it as Stephen King meets Patricia Cornwell meets James Patterson. It would be a terrific movie.
I suspected who the killer was before the book was half over, but this is only because I love to watch shows such as Criminal Minds and Bones and movies of this nature. Even though I had my suspicions, the author kept me wondering up until almost the very end as to who the killer really was. Her writing was outstanding, although sometimes, extremely intense. I’d catch myself with my eyes popping out of my head. I was “dying” to see what happened next and who the killer was.
I was so impressed with how the author brought things together and everything she thought of. Her style of descriptive writing put me right in every scene…and I loved her dialogue, especially between the two detectives.
To sum up, I am raving about this book and its author. For me, though, there is another problem. The author lives near me, and I know that White Chapel is actually Long Grove, which is right next to where I live. Autumn and Halloween will be different for me this year!
This book has bestseller all over it!
Susan Andres
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"Once Upon a Nightmare" is a chilling tale of murder, mystery and violence. In a well-explored genre, it stands out for a number of reasons, blending the tranquility of a suburb with an unidentifiable (till the very end) evil, bathing the entire narrative in the strange and threatening light of a waning autumn, sending the reader's suspicions here and there (truly a page-turner!), exploring a mystical bond between a brutally murdered woman and her threatened friend, and driving the entire story forward with a lean, spare prose that paints with equally fine detail the inner thoughts of the characters and (the writer must have studied forensics) the killer's insane deeds of mayhem. This one belongs on the shelf with Stephen King and Dean Koontz. If you enjoy nightmares -- and a murder scene so ghastly and graphic that it is worthy of Edgar Allen Poe -- then you will find yourself captivated by Lee Moylan's outstanding first (and by no means, I hope, last) novel of the dread to which our imaginations lead -- and the awful truth contained in them.
Alan Perlman, PhD.
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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 inkling 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, Masterson, King, Koontz and Rickman.
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