Jason Dark Supernatural Mystery Collection 1 by Guido Henkel #Review

Are you afraid of the dark?

Join Jason Dark, a fearless and resourceful ghost hunter in Victorian England, as faces off against creatures from other dimensions and the forces of evil that feed on our fears. This collection features the occult detective's first three supernatural thrillers Demon’s Night, Theater of Vampires and Ghosts Templar, plus the bonus short story Food for the Dead, which was originally published in Fangoria™ Magazine.

♦The Books in This Collection♦

Demon's Night
♦♦
A series of bizarre deaths in Victorian London leaves the victims unnaturally desiccated and decaying, sending occult detective Jason Dark into the dangerous world of the London dockyards in search of a supernatural murderer. But is the paranormal investigator prepared to duel a full-fledged demon on a Hell-bent mission to create chaos and catastrophe throughout the earth, a fiend determined to wreak more death and destruction than his even more ominous Father?

Theater of Vampires
♦♦♦
When stage magic isn’t what it seems, Jason Dark turns to an old friend for help. Explore the shadows of the Duke’s Theater with London’s most famous Geisterjäger as he confronts a horror beyond anything yet confronted. “Theater of Vampires” is a story of betrayal, discovery, and horror in the tradition of the Grand Guignol. The only admission price needed is your courage.

Ghosts Templar
♦♦♦

A well-known police acquaintance asks Jason Dark to discreetly look into the case of a missing Chief Constable, which is out of Scotland Yard’s jurisdiction. When Dark and Siu Lin arrive in Swanage, however, they find that the quaint English seaside village hides more than its share of horrible secrets. “Ghosts Templar” is filled with ruined castles, ghostly hoof beats in the night, and a series of macabre murders, which swirl amidst rumors that undead knights have awakened to exact a bloody revenge. Investigate if you dare.

♦The Cafe Review♦

First, I have to tell you that I received this collection of books as a free download from Book Bub. I was not requested to review these books by the author.

Okay, so I love, Love, LOVE the covers of these books. Obviously, Mr. Henkel is an extremely talented graphic artist! That being said, the books themselves could use a lot of additional editing. One of my pet peeves (and I don't have manyJ) is an author using a word repeatedly in the same paragraph - That happened numerous times during these books. Also, the descriptive voice was jarring in that words were transposed in a very awkward way, which pulled me out of the story several times. 

On the plus side, the books progressively became more interesting in their storyline. I liked Jason Dark and his "Watson," the delicate Oriental beauty, Siu Lin. There was enough backstory in each book, so you got the general idea of how Jason because a Ghost Hunter, but I would have liked more information about the different members of Jason's family and his history. I also found the stories more or less predictable.

My review is that the books were just okay - Nothing noteworthy, so I'm giving the Jason Dark Supernatural Mystery Collection 1 a total 3 Diamond Review.

♦♦♦

♦About Guido Henkel♦
      

Well, my work has been varied. I have been working for over 25 years in the computer games industry and have been part of the development a number of award-winning games, including the “Realms of Arkania” series, “Fallout 2” and“Planescape: Torment” to name just a few.

Then, of course, there are the mobile games I programmed and released. In fact, we are currently preparing the launch of a new mobile game to hit Verizon soon, so keep your eyes peeled. I’ll report more on this here on the blog as things develop.

I am also an accomplished musician and composer. I am a guitarist at heart and have played in heavy metal bands for many years during the 80s. Unfortunately technology wasn’t nearly as advanced in those days as it is today so sadly there is little material available to document this era or the work.

Later I branched out from the guitar and took an interest in orchestral scoring and I have recorded and released two audio CDs featuring the soundtracks for the computer games “Star Trail” and “Shadows Over Riva.” I loved working on these orchestral scores because they really forced me to expand my musical horizon and gave me the chance to work with different textures and musical themes.

In addition, my wife Thu-Lieu and I have been operating the website dvdreview.com since the first inception of DVD in 1998. So, for the past 16 years I’ve been covering the entertainment industry and have been writing reviews for DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs for hundreds of movies.

For the past years my main focus has been my writing. As you are certainly aware, I am the creator and writer of the “Jason Dark: Ghost Hunter” dime novel series that I also publish through my own publishing company, G3 Studios. The series has been a wonderful outlet for me as I have been wanting to write for many, many years. While writing non-linear fiction for computer games like the text adventures and role-playing games I’ve been doing over the years is fun, I had always wanted to write something resembling a novel. The “Jason Dark: Ghost Hunter” series is that. A fast-paced supernatural action-mystery series that allows me to explore various horror-based themes and pack them into occult detective mysteries and salt it with a good dose of Steampunk. In essence, it contains everything I love—plus I based the series in Victorian England, which to me is the epitome of all things gothic horror.